PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH TO THE DRUG ADDICT

Abstract

Adlerian theory allows to approach substances abuse hardly, it overcomes abstractions and excessive simplifications. More specifically it underlines the importance of contribution of neurosciences and of social sciences and it includes them into a global vision of the problem. This brings the attention to the psychodynamics approach, which seems to have lost importance in the past years as a consequence of a loss of psychopathological understanding of substance dependence. It shows the different ways to assume substances (use, abuse, dependence, obsession), which brings out different clinical problems and fundamental elements of psychopathology of substance dependence: avidity, compulsive/impulsiveness, grieve for something lost, regret for cohesive mode/heroic dimension, discontinuity of the self.
Recognizing substances dependence as a specific pathology linked to a psychodynamics frame allows to find the basis for psychotherapy treatment, which is practically considered an essential element of the strategy of integrated treatment for drug addicts