No: 16 / UNPRESENTED DEPRESSION IN SUBSTANCE ADDICTED ADOLESCENTS: FEAR OF BREAKDOWN

  • UNPRESENTED DEPRESSION IN SUBSTANCE ADDICTED ADOLESCENTS: FEAR OF BREAKDOWN

    Sevgi Öztürk
    Summary :

    The definition of the word addiction is a relationship between the individual and the object that established by the individual?s choice, but the autonomy of this relationship could be eliminated over time. This losing from autonomy with the development of addiction, lead to to appear new attitudes and behaviors that not owned before. This causes some problems to the compliance of the individual?s inner world and the external environment. The adolescence is a stage that is experiencing losses and separations in many respects. The revival of oedipal conflict and striving to individuation makes it necessary to leave the love objects of childhood. But the end of a certain form of the relationship between the parents leads to fragility of the narcissism of the adolescent. In this study the psychic worlds of adolescents with drug addiction are evaluated by the projective test of Rorschach. The responses concerning depressive mood or the traces of them and the difficulties in representation processes are interpreted according to psychoanalytic object relations theory. Drug abuse during the adolescence period and related depression are discussed according to Winnicott?s ?fear of breakdown? concept, object representation within the object relations of the addicts. Deficiency in the early stages of mother and child relationship makes it difficult to internalisation of the object as a whole and permanent, thereby sets basis for addiction and fear of breakdown. Fear of breakdown is a failure of a defence organization. It describes the unthinkable state of affairs that underlies the defence organization. Depression produces the whole of ?depressiveaffect designs? related with the lost object. Whereas ?the fear of breakdown? is devoid of all the representation activities.

    Keywords : Drug addiction, adolescence, depression, fear of breakdown, projective tests.