Vivid and at times deeply personal, this book offers new insights into a wide variety of intoxicating experiences, from the intimate feeling of connection among concertgoers to the adrenaline-fueled rush of a fight, to the thrill of jumping off a balcony into a swimming pool.

Acknowledgements 1    Introduction 2    Ways to Effervescence 3    Unity     4    Intensity     5    Transgression           6    Symbolization     7    Revitalization             8    Afterword          Notes References     Index

"Intoxication is a remarkable and ambitious book. Rarely is ethnography connected to classical social theory with such productive results. Tutenges offers a significant extension of the concept of collective effervescence. We learn that Durkheim, Mauss, and Bataille are essential resources for understanding the self, the sacred, and the collectivity in modernity."— Philip Smith, Professor of Sociology, Yale University "Tutenges’s study of collective effervescence is commanding, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. Intoxication is a stunning example of ethnographically informed social theory."— Lois Presser, author of Why We Harm "From sports to religion to party venues, effervescence is as much a blind spot of research as it is a phenomenon fundamental to society’s very make-up. Intoxication introduces us to the party practices of today’s youth in vivid fashion and with a remarkable interpretative sensitivity. Far from being the wastelands of meaning they appear to be, these drunken landscapes are existential theaters for the abandonment of the self to social forces and the experience of other ways of being and feeling. A long-awaited book which could well become a campus classic."— François Gauthier, author of Religion, Modernity, Globalisation. Nation-State to Market "From sports to religion to party venues, effervescence is as much a blind spot of research as it is a phenomenon fundamental to society’s very make-up. Intoxication introduces us to the party practices of today’s youth in vivid fashion and with a remarkable interpretative sensitivity. Far from being the wastelands of meaning they appear to be, these drunken landscapes are existential theaters for the abandonment of the self to social forces and the experience of other ways of being and feeling. A long-awaited book which could well become a campus classic."— François Gauthier, author of Religion, Modernity, Globalisation. Nation-State to Market "Tutenges’s study of collective effervescence is commanding, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. Intoxication is a stunning example of ethnographically informed social theory."— Lois Presser, author of Why We Harm "Intoxication is a remarkable and ambitious book. Rarely is ethnography connected to classical social theory with such productive results. Tutenges offers a significant extension of the concept of collective effervescence. We learn that Durkheim, Mauss, and Bataille are essential resources for understanding the self, the sacred, and the collectivity in modernity."— Philip Smith, Professor of Sociology, Yale University