L’insight dans la gestion du craving : étude de cas sur la capacité de symbolisation chez le toxicomane

Abstract

Our study is entitled: “Insight in the Management of Craving: Case Study on the Capacity for Symbolization in Drug Addicts”. In terms of the literature, some approach craving in the sense that it is a manifestation of withdrawal, and the physical presence of this manifestation (Isbell 1955); others consider craving to be the total overwhelm of a person's psyche manifested by obsessive thoughts leading the individual to a perpetual search for relief (Verheul, van den Brink, & Geerlings, 1999). However, few studies have focused on questions of symbolization in the management of craving. Thus, the problem posed by our study is that of the non-verbalization of the experience/suffering of the cannabis addict of the CSAPA center during life during the management of craving. Thus, we asked ourselves the question of knowing "how is the capacity for symbolization, through the presence of the mother, the separation with the drug object, and the verbalization with the referent environment, an element essential which participates in the management of craving which can lead to the finality of withdrawal?” Based on the psychoanalytic theory of symbolization by René Roussillon cited by Di Rocco, (2006), and Brun et Roussillon, R. (2016) we formulated the hypothesis according to which “the capacity to symbolization, through the presence of the mother, the separation with the drug object, and the verbalization with the referent environment is an essential element which participates in the management of craving, and in the finality of withdrawal”. From there, it set itself the objective of understanding the capacity for symbolization in the management of craving in the drug addict included in a withdrawal process. To achieve this, we used the clinical method, more precisely the case study. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews and the Charles Koch tree test from two patients at the Center la Vie during the year 2024. We used thematic content analysis to analyze the data. The results obtained were interpreted using the psychoanalytic theory of symbolization of Roussillon, (1997) cited by Di Rocco, (2006 p.259), Brun, and Roussillon (2016). These results show that symbolization can only be carried out if at the level of secondary symbolization, the subject manages to verbalize his difficulties, consumption desires to his family, which is his basic referent environment. The relapse is therefore explained here because there is this inability to relate his experience to his family.