Figure de l’intrus et conduites addictives aux jeux de hasard et d’argent chez les adolescents scolarisés

Abstract

Study on “The Figure of the Intruder and Addictive Behaviors in Gambling among School Adolescents”. This research starts from the observation that school adolescents who engage in addictive behaviors, particularly gambling, do not always receive the necessary support from their parents. These parents, feeling their parenting is being challenged, often absolve themselves of responsibility. According to Durastante (2021), addictive behaviors in adolescents are often expressions of transgenerational trauma. These adolescents come from families with dysfunctions and educational failures, especially during adolescence. The family is seen as the first scene of crisis towards the narcissistic contract, allowing the exploration of non-family universes. Consumption appears as both a solution and a social aberration on three levels: salience, deviance, and the conflict between the ideal self and the ideal of the self. Gambling serves as a mediation role. When not well understood, it can become a fetish object or an intruder. Few studies focus on the conflict, which is the subject of this work. The research question is: How does the figure of the intruder contribute to the practice of gambling among school adolescents? The hypothesis is that the figure of the intruder, through various identificatory processes it engenders, contributes to the excessive practice of gambling among school adolescents. The objective is to analyze the implications of the figure of the intruder in the excessive practice of gambling among school adolescents. The study is based on a comprehensive paradigm in a qualitative research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with three students from Lycée Bilingue d’Ekounou, based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. These data were processed using thematic content analysis. The results show that the figure of the intruder within the family contributes to the excessive practice of gambling among school adolescents. These behaviors are viewed from a familial and transgenerational perspective, rather than as purely individual symptoms. Projective identification is identified as a royal road of unconscious psychic transmission, allowing the communication of affective states and the evacuation of disturbing mental content. The penetration of an object to degrade it or take its identity is seen as an attempt to manage feelings of insecurity or envy.