Psychoanalysis and Addiction

Running head: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND ADDICTION
Psychoanalysis and Addiction
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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND ADDICTION
Introduction
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2019), addiction is a
complex condition. It is regarded as a disease of brain that is expressed through compulsive
substance use in spite of having harmful consequences. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy helps a
person to achieve deeper awareness about themselves along with awareness in their
unconscious desires, motivations and conflicts. Rik Loose (2011), the author of the “Modern
Symptoms and their Effects as Forms of Administration” stated that “It is my contention that
addicts are not addicted to drugs, but are addicted to an effect they get out of drugs, a
subject-specific effect” (pp: 4). The following paper aims to critically analyze the statement
from a psychoanalytic perspective. The paper will begin by providing a critical distinction
between the cultural focus of the addictive substance and psychoanalytic focus over the
subjective-specific effects. This will be followed by the discussion of how the subject-
specific effects are associated with the concept of mourning and melancholia, mania and
surplus energy. The position will be taken in favour of the lost object and the administration
of jouissance. At the end, the paper will highlight a significance of effective treatment for
addiction. The paper will also focus on the predominant models that are associated with the
drug-object and its relation to the behaviour expressed by an addicted person.
Discussion
Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapies have their roots present in the
clinical work of the Sigmund Freund, Donald Winnicott and Melanie Klein and others
(Verma & Vijayakrishnan, 2018).

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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND ADDICTION
Cultural focus on the addictive substance and psychoanalytic focus on subject specific
effects
Nearly all the cultures have employed the use psycho-active drugs in order to
facilitate the social interaction or to alter consciousness or to heal. The society’s expanded
chemical manipulation mainly represents a huge technical capacity, along with more wealth,
leisure and choice of individuals. It is also conversely related in a sudden reduction in
constraining social settings, peer pressure of the family standards and expectations along with
personal proscriptions regarding as to what is to be done or not. Addiction to drugs is like any
other behaviour of human (Yao & Zhong, 2014). Drug abuse behaviour in general conceived
of as a final outcome of the biochemical or general characteristics, past learning experiences,
psychological antecedents, motivational states and specific cultural context under which it
unfolds. All these considerations is assumed to be a significant domain in the drug abuse.
Among these, cultural and the social factors play a notable role in subsequent initiation,
maintenance and therapeutic interventions for the drug abuse (Yao & Zhong, 2014). Social
norms, the shared rules help in the specifications of the proper or inappropriate behaviour. A
person who resides in high socio-economic determinants of health, consumption of alcohol or
smoking of imported brands of cigarettes is considered as a symbol of class or superiority.
Such that people from the higher upper class society mainly considers smoking of the top
brand cigarettes or alcohol as a symbol of money or to display their pride possession of
money. Here the main subject matter of the selection of the intoxicated drugs is mainly driver
by the power of money. Moreover, people from the upper class society have a tradition to
smoke or drink in social gatherings. This continuous exposure to cigarette smoking and
drinking generates a sense of addiction leading to the generation of substance abuse. On the
people who belong to the lower middle class or lower class, smoking of tobacco or
consumption of alcohol is regarded as a way to fight against their feelings of failure or lack of

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PSYCHOANALYSIS AND ADDICTION
unemployment or financial crisis. Here the subject matter of effect is neglect or failure in life
(Sudhinaraset, Wigglesworth & Takeuchi, 2016). People who reside in the middle class take
up smoking of tobacco or consumption of alcohol to fight against their work-related stress or
stress of academic life. Thus there the subject matter of effect is fighting against the stress.
Parental influence also has an important role in the generation of the smoking patterns.
Parents have a significant influence on their wards in the process of development of smoking
habits. The disapproval from the parents in smoking makes the children or the young adults
to less likely to initiate the smoking habits (Sudhinaraset, Wigglesworth & Takeuchi, 2016).
Female young adults are more likely to smoke if both the parents are active users of tobacco
smoking. There is a strong relationship between smoking of the mother and the female youth
to develop the smoking patterns. Raised in a home where parents are exposed to smoking
gives the children an easy access to tobacco and thereby provoking them to develop smoking
habits (Yan, Li & Sui, 2014) (Sudhinaraset, Wigglesworth & Takeuchi, 2016). Thus it can be
said that people are not addicted to tobacco or alcohol, but the addiction mainly comes from
the subject matter effect as truly highlighted by Rik Loose (2011).
From the psychoanalytic focus on subject specific effects it can be said that
psychoanalysts have long viewed addictions as pure psychological condition (Dodes &
Dodes, 2017). The main advantage of the psychoanalytic approach is that it focus on the
numerous systematic observations of a single patients made over time. According to the APA
(2018), an addictive behaviour mainly generates from some sorts of emotional stress. It is
regarded as an issue that is strongly buried within the subconscious mind of a person. Such
that addressing it with the help of psychoanalytic theory is extremely overwhelming or is
regarded as unfathomable challenge. In order to decrease the stress, or to eradicate the sense
of depressive behaviour, A drunken state of mind or a night out with friends with alcohol and
smoking generate a sense of thrill that is found to reduce the stressful burden over the mind