2023 Author: Jake Johnson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 23:11
The term Addiction; as opposed to Drug addiction,in which the focus is on the toxic; places the weight on the behavior, regardless of the object.
The addiction is a broader term that covers much more than the dependence on toxic substances and allows us deepen and investigate the psychic background of the subjectwho gets caught up in this type of consumption
Joyce McDougall was in favor of the use of this last term, emphasizing this character when approaching from psychological therapy.
According to Jean Paul Descombey, the addictive act implies in itself a short-circuit in the elaboration of affect . Affect understood as psychic energy.
Thus, the addictive behavior seeks the discharge of this energy that cannot be processed by any other means. For this reason, the compulsive character of its manifestation.
In addiction linked to substance use, the need for incorporation of real objects instead of implementing the psychic mechanism of Introjection is evident. This accounts for difficulties in elaborating certain processes on the psychological level, having to be taken to the more concrete level , linked to processes of a more primitive nature, typical of the first moments of autoeroticism.
Regarding the latter,Precisely what is observed is a pleasure of the organ, autoerotic and belonging to a stage prior to the narcissistic constitution, which implies the conformation of the Self. There is a need, in alcohol consumption, for example, for proper oral satisfaction.
It is interesting to emphasize the notion of Dependency in these cases. A primitive dependency on an object that is not of desire but of pure need.
Consumption produces a momentary nullification of the experience of lack. With this, the existence of the desire is then prevented. The feeling of completion is bestowed at a particular moment.
The joy without limits produces a consummation without limits. And consumption frequently appears before a threat of collapse.
Addiction is always related to dependency. The dependency implies that there is some external object and/or entity, which operates as a shutter on the subject. The subject Needs that other and cannot be-without-it.
This concept allows us to wonder about the background of this failed object relationship. There is something associated with autonomy, independence and the tolerance of lack par excellence, which cannot be sustained.
The subject requires that object to feel an illusory state of totality, absolutely momentary and of course never fully achieved.
This also brings up the difference betweenneed and desire. Here the subject needs that other, a state that in itself annuls the possibility of desire, which is only possible as long as the lack is tolerated at some point.
The compulsive state of these behaviors confronts us with what the subject cannot stop doing. Repetition and impulsiveness are characteristics, observing a great difficulty in waiting, claiming instant satisfaction.
Beyond the effects of many organically toxic substances, all this psychic baggage described allows us to account for intrinsic characteristics of addictive behavior. Behavior that, in itself, can take on various objects.
But not everyone is addicted to any object, this is determined based on constitutive psychic issues.
