This document provides a clinical analysis of the psychological effects of addiction and pathological gambling in adults, exploring the psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioral perspectives.
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[...] The basic principles of Beck's cognitive approach are applicable to that of behavioral addictions, such as pathological gambling. Beck allied himself with Wright and Newman in 1993 to submit a proposal for clinical and therapeutic application. They postulate the predisposition of a certain number of people to addiction, including a lack of motivation to control behavior and a lack of alternatives to experience pleasant sensations. Behavior evoking dependence is relative to anxiety and fear, after which the individual repeats an act and a way of acting. [...]
[...] The Pavlovian model translated into the playful act for its part is summarized in a mechanical act according to which the pathological player would be inclined to spend money as soon as the infantile anxiety of detaching from his parents manifests. This childhood anxiety persists in him and reappears in another form: the impulse and addiction to the game of chance and money. Pavlov's canine salivation, a mechanical response to the sound of the bell, is translated into the individual's imperative need to spend money in JHA. [...]
[...] 27-40" Rigaud B. [...]
[...] Psychological practices. Vol.13, n°1, p. 43-51) Within the walls of a psychiatric institution, the addiction clinic is the source of many difficulties and therapeutic obstacles. In general, patients 'addicted' are taken care of by therapists to treat their addictions. However, it sometimes happens that these subjects are administered care without them getting rid of their dependence definitively and returning to the institution for a new intake. In reality, their addictive behavior has not disappeared. In addition, the 'temporal universe' of addicts is not like the one that therapists classically use in their therapies. [...]
[...] The same Mac Dougall speaks of 'symptomatic acts' the compulsive and repetitive behaviors of the individual because he estimates that they circumvent and avoid the faculty of thought of the subject because if the latter cannot think rationally, it is the unconscious acts that are valued. These unconscious acts illustrate the compulsion. On the other hand, acts that cannot be assimilated in a subjective manner are conceivable through repetition. In fact, Boulze (2007) indicates that 'the focalisation of the psyche on the act and/or the product would allow to inhibit the emergence of traumatic memories. The addicted subject desires to know nothing, to think no more. » (Boulze L. et al News on addiction and necessary return to work of memory. [...]
