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Toxic Parents, Addictions, and Institutional Psychotherapy
Author(s) -
Evzonas Nicolas
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12623
Subject(s) - psychology , psychotherapist , addiction , neuroticism , mental health , psychopathology , id, ego and super ego , institution , substance abuse , psychiatry , personality , psychoanalysis , political science , law
This article discusses the connection between the compulsive use of toxic substances and the shortcomings of the family environment. It provides a detailed account of the author's experience with an adult patient in a psychoanalytically oriented mental health care institution in France and argues that drug abuse can be conceived as a self‐calming strategy and an effort to be without the other. The coexistence of neurotic and psychotic mechanisms in the patient's mental function is highlighted and discussed in the light of structural psychopathology. Finally, French institutional psychotherapy, as a dynamic and tolerant form of psychiatry that emphasizes multi‐transference in response to the split‐off elements of the psychotic ego, highlights the pertinence of treating psychotic drug addiction in a pluralistic framework.