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Love and hate in methadone maintenance

Love and hate in methadone maintenance THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: 37:163-166 (1977) BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS During a thirty-four-month period that I worked in a methadone maintenance clinic, I observed certain recurring patterns of behavior which I shall relate to descriptions of ego defense mechanisms in the psychoanalytic literature. The behavior I observed in the clinic setting parallels the descriptions of transference phenomena that have been observed in the psychoanalysis of patients with so- called borderline personality organization. Leon Wurmser has related Compulsive drug use to "narcissistic crises" in the lives of the individual drug abuser. Wurmser states that he has never seen a compulsive drug abuser who was not emotionally deeply disturbed, and he links this disturbance to the borderline type of psychopathology. In spite of such observations, most of the psychological treatment of addicts is left to those persons in the treatment hierarchy who have the least knowledge and experience in psychotherapy. There are no serious attempts to gain access---for addicts--to the best forms of psychotherapy avail- able, partly because of the process that involves denying that addictive illness has psychological origins but also because of the extremely trying nature of therapy with borderline patients, even if they are not addicted to heroin. Transference http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

Love and hate in methadone maintenance

Davidson, Virginia
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 37 (2): 4 – Jun 1, 1977
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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
1977 The Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1007/BF01254645
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOANALYSIS: 37:163-166 (1977) BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS During a thirty-four-month period that I worked in a methadone maintenance clinic, I observed certain recurring patterns of behavior which I shall relate to descriptions of ego defense mechanisms in the psychoanalytic literature. The behavior I observed in the clinic setting parallels the descriptions of transference phenomena that have been observed in the psychoanalysis of patients with so- called borderline personality organization. Leon Wurmser has related Compulsive drug use to "narcissistic crises" in the lives of the individual drug abuser. Wurmser states that he has never seen a compulsive drug abuser who was not emotionally deeply disturbed, and he links this disturbance to the borderline type of psychopathology. In spite of such observations, most of the psychological treatment of addicts is left to those persons in the treatment hierarchy who have the least knowledge and experience in psychotherapy. There are no serious attempts to gain access---for addicts--to the best forms of psychotherapy avail- able, partly because of the process that involves denying that addictive illness has psychological origins but also because of the extremely trying nature of therapy with borderline patients, even if they are not addicted to heroin. Transference

Journal

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis – Springer Journals

Published: Jun 1, 1977

Keywords: Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis

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