1st Edition

The Subject of Addiction Psychoanalysis and The Administration of Enjoyment

By Rik Loose Copyright 2002
    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    Drugs and drug use are an integral part of human culture. Yet we know hardly anything about drugs, at least not the kind of knowledge that would help us to understand how drugs affect people and how people beome addicted to drugs. This is most surprising in the light of the vast amount of knowledge accumulated in the sciences. Psychoanalysis might not be an obvious choice for the treatment of addiction. Nevertheless, it is in an excellent position to make a contribution to a problem that has so far defied much of our understanding. By inviting people to speak about themselves, psychoanalysis has established a unique way of collecting clinical material, a material that surely must be immediately relevant coming as it does from the horse's mouth. With addiction on the increase, this fact alone justifies the necessity for a different approach.Providing a theoretical foundation for the argument that psychoanalysis should be seriously considered, and where possible incorporated into the treament of addicts, this thoughtful and innovative book can serve as an orientation in the ongoing front-line battle with addicts and addiction.

    Foreword -- Preface -- Classical Foundations for a Theory on Addiction: The Energetics of Libido and the Economics of Desire -- Introduction -- The place of cocaine in the work of Freud -- Freud's pre-analytical period -- A limit to Freud's dream -- Freud’s war during the “inter-bellum”: the death-drive and the extermination of happiness -- Conclusion -- The Post-Freudian Reduction of a Field and the Fruits of a Confrontation -- Introduction -- Between drive and ego: the ascent of the subject -- Elements for a Lacanian Theory (and Treatment) of Addiction: The Administration of Toxicity -- Introduction -- The pleasure before death: the symbolic, the imaginary and jouissance -- The death of pleasure: the real, the body and jouissance -- Science, addiction and diagnosis: a question of administration -- Addiction and discourse: a moral question and the ethics of treatment -- Conclusion

    Biography

    Loose, Rik