The Psychopathology of Drug Addiction and Alcoholism

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Abstract
Alcoholism and drug addiction have always presented a difficult psychiatric and social problem. Psycho-analysts, along with many others, have from early on been interested in the treatment of these disorders, and have attempted to investigate and understand their underlying psychopathology. In this chapter the author provides a picture of the psycho-analytic literature on alcoholism and drug addiction and to correlate the psychoanalytic findings. Abraham discusses the psychological relations between sexuality and alcoholism. He suggests that alcohol, by removing inhibitions, increases sexual activity, not only of a normal but of a perverse type, such as incest, homosexuality, scoptophilia and exhibitionism. Pierce Clark stresses the importance of deep regressions in alcoholism, such as primary identifications with the mother combined with intense self-love. Rado made a number of important contributions to the problem of drug addiction. He observes that drugs produce feelings of tension and at the same time they relieve existing tensions, final result being the conversion of painful into pleasurable tension.

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