Within its very etymology, addiction is tied to passion, an “incarnate” passion whose object would be not another subject, but rather an object that alienates the subject from his body and its needs: a drug or addictive behavior. After a review of the specifics of Freud’s vocabulary giving a glimpse of the links between passion and addiction, the author will describe how addictive conduct is triggered and maintained in adolescence.
Adolescence, 2015, 33, 1, 153-163.
The problematics ofaddiction is to be understood within its relationship to an object whose status of interiority or exteriority is constantly to be redefined. The clinical case of an adolescent enables one to illustrated the ego addiction to an externalized superego agency, both omnipotent and destuctive, split from its protective centre shielding narcissism. The use of drugs thus enable s one to respond to its contradictory ideals : the acquisition of an omnipotent position and the satisfaction of the chastizing demand without having to conflictualize them pschologically.
The most recent and various researches, whether clinical, theoretical or therapeutic all agree on a central theme : in each encourter, which is always singular, between a person, a substance (or an object) and an environment, one cannot identify any specific or characteristic type of either personality structure or organization. At the most, scholars and clinicians may sometimes stress that defence mechanisms, the type of anxiety and most of the time the economics of such subjects as drug addicts, or persons liable to be addicted, remind one of what we find with borderline states but surely not exclusively. Quite a few common psychopatological traits, all stamped with the seal of regression is, besides, to be found with these patients with quite a few consequences to have to be followed in the therapeutic approach : a regression from desire towards quest, and from quest towards need, a regression of the mental towards the behavioral, and from the behavioral towards the bodily, a drive regression from aggressiveness towards violence and from libido to selferoticism. Within such a conceptual context, the autor wishes to stress the functions at work within this kind of psychopatological posture (or vulnerability) : namely, mainly two, i. e. the addictive function and the function of ordeal which will be both defined, described, analyzed and, if possible, linked with the several kinds of structures.
The elaboration and organization of health educational programms with youths should meet precise criteria. Here, the author discusses prevention in terms of HIV and drug addiction. Only a credible information, adapted to the public aimed at, may exercize some positive influence : it should be given mainly to vulnerable subjects but also to the whole community. International cooperation in that field is more than ever on today’s agenda.
In this article, the author reports on the metapsychological work centred around these child soldiers, namely, what triggers off their murderous impulse in the first place, followed by a description of the traumatic event that affects their psychic future.
She uses as an illustration the account of an ex child-soldier “ Samir ” who, in the company of his peers, executed 350 people in one hour, when he was 14 years old.
Twenty years later, Samir is unable to forget. He continues to be a prisoner of his drugs and the repetitive traumatic dreams that petrify him.
The author focuses on articulations between urban space and psychical space. Using a clinical experience and research about adolescents wandering in two big African cities (Dakar and Bamako), he attempts a topological exploration of the subjective individual and group impact of places (suburban housing projects) and the speech life that is in play in them. This leads to considerations on graffiti and drug use.
At the request of a juvenile court judge from the Tribunal of Brasilia, the department of Social Psychology of the federal University as set up a project with two hundred youngsters the justice system and their families. Entitled “ Project Phoenix ”, this work aims to reinforce the capacities of families and adolescents to protect themselves against the violence and the hold of the favela, or slum. Exchanges within the group foster recognition of each person’s resources. This article written by Maria Fatima Olivia Sudsbrack, professor and initiator of this project, analyses the process itself through more than a year with these youngsters and their families. Through her first-person account and her analysis, she opens up some paths for French educators.