1st Edition
Psychodynamic Approaches for Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction Theory and Treatment
This book provides clinicians and students with insights on the use of psychodynamic therapy to treat drug abuse and addiction, combining theory with clinical case material.
The perspectives of analysts such as Abraham, Rado, Zimmel, Tibout, Wurmser, Khanzian, Krystal and McDougall are reviewed alongside original and more recent conceptualizations of drug addiction and recovery based on Kleinian, Winnicottian and Kohutian ideas. The case material deals with clinical phenomena that characterize working with this complex population, such as intense projective identification, countertransference difficulties and relapses. The theoretical analysis covers a range of concepts, such as John Steiner's psychic shelters and Betty Joseph's near-death-addiction, which are yet to be fully explored in the context of addiction. Prevalent topics in the addiction field, such as the reward system, the cycle of change and the 12-step program, are also discussed in relation to psychodynamic theory and practice.
Written by an experienced therapist, Psychodynamic Approaches for Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction is useful reading for anyone looking to understand how psychodynamic thought is applicable in the treatment of drug abuse and addiction. It may also be of some relevance to those working on treating alcohol use disorders and behavioral addictions.
Introduction
1. An historical overview of psychoanalytic perspectives on drug abuse and addiction – Part 1
2. An historical overview of psychoanalytic perspectives on drug abuse and addiction – Part 2
3. Drug addiction ≈ the paranoid-schizoid position
4. Recovery and reparation ≈ the depressive position
5. Lapses and relapses
6. Therapeutic issues: internal destructiveness, countertransference and projective identification
7. Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) as transitional phenomena (David Potik, Miriam Adelson and Shaul Schreiber)
8. Towards independence: detoxification during opioid maintenance treatment
9. Drug abuse and addiction in the view of self psychology
10. The 12-step program
Biography
David Potik is a clinical criminologist at the Day-Hospital and at the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Research and Treatment, both within the division of psychiatry at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel. He also works as a psychotherapist in private practice and is an accredited Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) practitioner. He has published articles on psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychopathology and drug addiction.
"David Potik’s Psychodynamic Approaches for Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction is an excellent introduction to the psychoanalytic literature on addiction theory and treatment. His specific application of object relation’s theory to a broad range of treatment settings is an invaluable contribution that many will find enlightening as well as useful."
George Hagman, LCSW, former Clinical Director of the Montefiore Substance Abuse Treatment Program, NY
