This article uses a discourse analytic method to explore how a sample of ex-smokers with smoking-related illness position themselves, and are positioned by, the language they use in their accounts of quitting. The article suggests that discursive constructions (having ‘no choice’ and getting ‘another chance’) used by the respondents position them in a way that constrains behaviour by closing down the option of smoking and/or opening up the possibility of change. In each telling, the respondents' (non-smoking) identities are confirmed anew and this affirmation may assist in sustaining the change and provide protection against relapse. Moreover, the article suggests that the development and exchange of these stories may contribute to the growth of shared beliefs about the experience of quitting, opening up the option of quitting for current smokers. In so doing, accounts of quitting provided by ex-smokers undermine or resist dominant social understandings that even among those highly motivated to stop smoking, quitting is a difficult, if not impossible, endeavour.
Alasuutari, P. (1992). Desire and craving: a cultural theory of alcoholism. New York: State University of New York Press.
2.
Antaki, C. (1994). Explaining and arguing: The social organisation of accounts. London: Sage.
3.
Baumeister, R. F., & Newman, L. S. (1994). How stories make sense of personal experiences: Motives that shape autobiographical narratives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 674–690.
4.
Blaxter, M. (1997). Whose fault is it? People's own conceptions of the reasons for health inequalities. Social Science and Medicine, 44, 747–756.
5.
Bott, M. J., Cobb, A. K, Scheibmeir, M. S., & O'Connell, K. A. (1997). Quitting: Smokers relate their experiences. Qualitative Health Research, 7,255–269.
6.
Bynum, C. W. (1991). Fragmentation and redemption. New York: Zone Books.
7.
Chapman, S. (1995). Smokers: why do they start—and continue. World Health Forum, 16, 1–9.
8.
Chapman, S., & Lazarus, R. (1992). Macro-economic and social indicators of adult per capita cigarette consumption in 124 countries: Implications for tobacco control. 8th World Conference on Tobacco and Health, April, Buenos Aires.
9.
Clark, M. A., Rakowski, W., Kviz, F. J., & Hogan, J. W. (1997). Age and stage of readiness for smoking cessation. Journal of Gerontology, 52B(4), 5212–5221.
10.
Clark, M. A., Kviz, F. J., Crittenden, K. S., & Warnecke, R. B. (1998). Psychosocial factors and smoking cessation behaviours among smokers who have and have not ever tried to quit. Health Education Research, 13, 145–153.
11.
Crawford, R. (1977). You are dangerous to your health: The politics and ideology of victim blaming. International Journal of Health Services, 7(4), 663–680.
12.
Davison, C., & Davey Smith, G. (1995). The baby and the bath water: Examining socio-cultural and freemarket critiques of health promotion. In R. Bunton, S. Nettleton, & R. Burrows (Eds.), The sociology of health promotion (pp. 91–99). London: Routledge.
13.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). Introduction: Entering the field of qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative research: Theories and issues(pp. 1–34). London: Sage.
14.
Denzin, N. K. (1989). Interpretive biography. Beverly Hills: Sage.
15.
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (1992). Discursive psychology. London: Sage.
16.
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (1993). Language and causation: A discursive action model of description and attribution. Psychological Review, 100, 23–41.
17.
Fowkes, F. G. R. (1994). Smoking and peripheral arterial disease. Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh, 24,353–359.
18.
Fowkes, F. G. R. (1995). Arterial disease in the lower limbs: An epidemiological perspective. Journal of Vascular Investigation, 1, 176–182.
19.
Frank, A. W. (1998). Stories of illness as care of the self: A Foulcauldian dialogue. Health, 2, 329–348.
20.
Frank, A. W. (1993). The rhetoric of self-change: Illness experiences as narrative. Sociological Quarterly, 34, 39–52.
21.
Geertz, C. (1983). Local knowledge. New York: Basic Books.
22.
Gergen, M. (1988) Narrative structures in social explanation. In C. Antaki (Ed.), Analysing everyday explanation. A casebook of methods (pp. 94–112). London: Sage.
23.
Gergen, K. J., & Gergen, M. M. (1986). Narrative form and the construction of psychological science. In T. R. Sarbin (Ed.), Narrative psychology (pp. 22–44). New York: Praeger.
24.
Gillies, V. (1999). An analysis of the discursive positions of women smokers: implications for practical interventions. In C. Willig (Ed.), Applied discourse analysis; Social and psychological interventions(pp. 66–86). Buckingham: Open University Press.
25.
Gillies, V., & Willig, C. (1997). ‘You get the nicotine and that in your blood’ — Constructions of addiction and control in women's accounts of cigarette smoking. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 7, 285–301.
26.
Gori, G. B. (1996). Failings of the disease model of addiction. Human Psychopharmacology, 11, 33–38.
27.
Hanninen, V., & Koski-Jannes, A. (1999). Narratives of recovery from addictive behaviours. Addiction, 94, 1837–1848.
28.
Hyden, L. C. (1997). Illness and narrative. Sociology of Health and Illness, 19, 48–69.
29.
Jolly, K., Bradley, F., Sharp, S., & Smith, H. (1999). Randomised controlled trial of follow-up care in general practice of patients with myocardial infarction and angina: Final results of the Southampton Heart Integrated Care Project (SHIP).British Medical Journal, 318, 706–711.
30.
Kviz, F. J., Clark, M. A., Hope, H., & Davis, A. M. (1997). Patients’ perceptions of their physician's role in smoking cessation by age and readiness to stop smoking. Preventive Medicine, 26, 340–349.
31.
Laurier, E. (1999). Talking about cigarettes: Conversational narratives of health and illness. Health, 3,189–207.
32.
Law, M., & Hackshaw, K. (1996). Environmental tobacco smoke. British Medical Bulletin, 52, 22–34.
33.
Lock, S., Reynolds, L., Tansey, E. M. (Eds.) (1998). Ashes to ashes. Amsterdam: Welcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine.
34.
Maguire, C. P., Ryan, J., Kelly, A., O'Neill, D., Coakley, D., & Walsh, B. (2000). Do patient age and medical condition influence medical advice to stop smoking?Age and Ageing, 29, 264–266.
35.
Maines, D. (1993). Narrative's moment and sociology's phenomena: Towards a narrative sociology. Sociological Quarterly, 34, 17–38.
36.
Mannio, D. M., Siegel, M., Husten, D. R., & Etzel, R. (1996). Environmental tobacco smoke exposure and health effects in children: Results from the 1991 health interview survey, Tobacco Control, 5, 13–18.
37.
Marsh, A., & McKay, S. (1994). Poor smokers. London: Policy Studies Institute.
38.
McKenna, K., & Higgins, H. (1997). Factors influencing smoking cessation in patients with coronary artery disease. Patient Education and Counselling, 32, 197–205.
39.
Mischler, E. G. (1986). Research interviewing: Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
40.
Mullins, R., & Borland, R. (1996). Do smokers want to quit?Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 20, 426–427.
41.
Murray, M. (1997). A narrative approach to health psychology. Journal of Health Psychology, 2, 9–20.
42.
Ochs, E., Smith, R. C., & Taylor, C. E. (1996). Detective stories at dinnertime: Problem solving through co-narration. In C. L. Briggs (Ed.),Disorderly discourse: Narrative, conflict and inequality(pp. 73–85). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
43.
Orleans, C. T. (1997). Editorial: Reducing tobacco harms among older adults: A critical agenda for tobacco control. Tobacco Control, 6, 161–163.
44.
Parker, I. (1992). Discourse dynamics: Critical analysis for social and individual psychology. London: Routledge.
45.
Parry, O., Thompson, C., & Fowkes, F. G. R. (2001). Dependent behaviours and beliefs: A qualitative study of older long-term smokers with arterial disease. Addiction, in press.
46.
Parry, O., & Platt, S. (2000). Smokers at risk: Implications of an institutionally bordered risk-reduced environment. Health and Place, 6, 117–123.
47.
Parry, O., Thomson, C., & Fowkes, F. G. (1999). Life course data collection: Qualitative interviewing using the Life Grid. Sociological Research Online4(2), [http://www.socresonline.org.uk/socresonline/4/2/parry.html].
48.
Plummer, K. (1995). Telling sexual stories. London: Routledge.
49.
Polyani, L. (1989). Telling the American story: A structural and cultural analysis of conversational storytelling. London: MIT Press.
50.
Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology. London: Sage.
51.
Radley, A., & Billig, M. (1996). Accounts of health and illness: Dilemmas and representations. Sociology of Health and Illness, 18, 220–240.
52.
Reissman, C. K. (1993). Narrative analysis. London: Sage.
53.
Ricoeur, P. (1981). Hermeneutics and the human sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
54.
Ricoeur, P. (1991). Reflection and imagination: A Ricoeur reader. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
55.
Rogers, W. J., Coggin, C. J., Gersh, B. J., Fisher, L. D., Myers, W. O., Oberman, A., & Sheffield, L. T. (1990). Ten year follow-up of quality of life in patients randomized to receive medical therapy or coronary bypass graft surgery. Circulation, 82,1647–1658.
56.
Shotter, J. (1993). Conversational realities, constructing life through language. London: Sage.
57.
Somers, M. R. (1994). The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and net-work approach. Theory and Society, 23, 605–649.
58.
Steffen, V. (1997). Life stories and shared experience. Social Science and Medicine, 45, 99–111.
59.
Sutton, S. (1997). Are smokers unrealistically optimistic about the health risks?Risk and Human Behaviour Newsletter, 1, 3–5.
60.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self. The making of modern identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
61.
Willig, C. (2000). A discourse-dynamic approach to the study of subjectivity in health psychology. Theory and Psychology, 10, 547–570.
62.
Willig, C. (1999). Discourse analysis and sex education. In C. Willig (Ed.), Applied discourse analysis; Social and psychological interventions (pp. 140–124). Buckingham: Open University Press.
