The four "Cs": street-jail-cemetery or conversion. Narratives of identity transformation of residents and former residents of religious therapeutic communities in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract: In this paper we analyze the narratives of identity transformation of people in treatment for drug abuse and people that finished a treatment. The empirical data comes from qualitative research and is composed of semi-structured interviews to residents and former residents of three religious therapeutic communities (one of them evangelical and two catholics) in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (Argentina). We present a chronology that reflects the way in which is configured the religious conversion, the main biographical transformation that these institutions seek, associated to norms obedience. Conversion is signified as a process through which the resident incorporates tools to learn how to “manage his/her life in the outside world” and how to “live clean”

Keywords:
catholics; drug use; evangelicals; religious conversion; therapeutic community.