Sammendrag
Based on an ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores how patients in a Norwegian heroin-addiction
treatment program negotiate their agency, navigating between policies, medical guidelines, and their own
lived experiences as they seek what they perceive as appropriate medication. Outlining these patients’
participation in treatment inside and outside the clinic, I illustrate that different types of agency are
involved across these domains. I argue that patient agency is not something one has or does not have,
but rather involves the institutional interpretations of these mobilised elements: What kind of agency is
appropriate to exert in the Norwegian healthcare system? The analysis highlights the social constructions
of the “addicted patient” and raises questions of the value of patient subjectivity and the politically tinged
ascriptions of agency manifested in patient rights and guidelines for clinical decision-making.
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