Replacement of toxic object by drug or procedure at adolescence, for psychotic structures.
We have seen in the preceding page [The Structural Theory of the Psychoses] that when bonding has not taken place one possible way to avoid biological death was to form a mutual parasitosis with the mother.
This type of dual system which at first is a life saving procedure tends with time to become detrimental to both, and to wishes of death of one or both the individuals, death which may actually happen in severe cases. This is due to firstly to the urge to stay close to an indispensable other who shelters unconscious murderous impulses; and secondly to the need to rupture this "lethal symbiosis", which can be done only by an amount of violence comparable to the strength of the bond.
The toxic device can comprise a procedure, a person, a product, a chemical, a place, or a mixture of many of them.
It has often been said that the child, after the phase of despair, bears a wish to kill the mother who does not behave as she should according to the pre-existent instincts. It may be so but there is a much more likely explanation for this. The impulse to kill the unbonded young is a instinctual drive common to all mammals, and many women attest of it in therapy settings, the repression of this strong instinct and the associated guilt producing the so-called postpartum depression. This impulse transfers automatically to the child who bears it, and spontaneously acts to release it. This transference of impulse is inevitable and not manageable by the infant but by reaction. He is thus the unwilling bearer of a murderous drive towards the mother, foreign to him, which we may call possession by the murderous object, a much stronger device than the identification to the aggressor. It may cumulate with the self-defence impulse to kill, but we have not been able to assess if an infant has this capacity during the perinatal stage.
The murderous compulsion towards the child is active for a long time in the mother and transfers into the child who acts it, following the theorem that
The more fluid (less repressed) of the two components acts the repressed drives of the other.
The child is always the less repressed of the two and regularly acts what the parent does not and refrain (except in the case of autism where either the vital drive is absent or invested only in shelling in the psyche).
The other reason is that this form of mutually detrimental compulsory fusion is unbearable. This is due to forces of independence which grow in the child even if the fixation at a postnatal stage is strong. Reciprocally, although the mother has a strong tendency to wish that fusion, she has a non weaker drive to get rid of the infant since this fusion is also unbearable to her.
The wish for symbiosis of the mother may come from her necessity to bond to the new-born which remains unfulfilled, but once the window for bonding is closed, she is not likely to be transformed for the lack of the necessary sensations and hormonal state. It may also come from her wish to have a child, as a possession of hers, a rather social aspect. More important, we think, is her need to reactivate the symbiotic bond she had not lived when born, i.e. she is taken by the replay of the call for symbiosis of her own birth, and puts it unknowingly onto her child. This explains the often cited aspect that the mother sees and uses her infant and child as an organ of hers, a new organ which has grown in her and has not separated, and why she is the absolute law and has an absolute power on her child [see Piera Aulagnier, Un interprète en quête de sens, Payot, Paris, F, 1991, pp. 272-275]. This is the exact replica of the postnatal symbiosis of the first weeks, where the child uses her mother as an organ of its. This is also the reason why she is blind to this necessity of capturing her child and using it as an appendix. Thirdly, this is the reason why this mutual detrimental symbiosis or parasitosis is a possible scheme of survival for the infant: it is possible only when the mother herself has a ground for replaying the symbiosis she has not lived after her birth.
Thus, the two components of the dyad bear an urge to kill the other one, which can manifest only in the form of fits of violence, the tensions seeking release by abusing the other one. In this case, the moderation of instinctual reactions (originary process) into less violent emotions (primary process) has not yet had the possibility to build up in the child, since this is a learning which takes place only in the case of natural symbiosis during the progress of the object relation with the mother [see Margaret Mahler].
The need for independence may function in such a system, but the major impulse, according to the testimonies gathered in therapies, is that of relieving the intolerable tensions raised by this constant psychic proximity. Therefore, flight and/or violence are the only two possible moves. Since flight would raise the intolerable absence of the other, a replay of the originary loss of the mother at birth, fits of violence are the more likely responses to the situation to try and break the lethal bond.
In some cases, the early toxic object is the father or another parent or substitute of the infancy family.
At adolescence, where the possibilities become more numerous, there is a possible way of slipping out of the mutual detrimental symbiosis (or parasitosis) with the parent, by using a procedure, an object, or a toxic product, which may replace the mother and the toxic bond with her, while maintaining most of the properties of the former bond, but appearing more manageable than the mother herself.
The toxic product/procedure comes in the place of the toxic mother as a more independently manoeuvrable object.
Clients speak of their drug exactly in the same way as their mother, and soon discover that they bear exactly the same ambivalent relationship to it as to the early object: "I wish I could get rid of it (her), it (she) kills me, but I cannot do without it (her)".
Fig. Addictions_1
Replacement of toxic object by drug or procedure at adolescence, for psychotic structures.
Fig. Addictions_2
Partial substitution of autistic shell by drug or procedure during infancy, childhood or adolescence, for initial autistic structure.
The correspondence between originary object and toxic is obvious: always close, detrimental, murderous, raises hope of a better state, favours dreams liveliness and pleasure, appease tensions at light doses, authorises release of violence at high doses (alcohol), an appendix, an organ ready to function at will, totally obedient.
Slipping easily and rapidly from one toxic device to another is typical of addictions.
When we deal with dependence on a toxic object or procedure, we have to think that the addictive object is wholly a part of the psyche and plays the role of a major psychic function. We may speak also of an auxiliary psyche. In remembering that this new system is but a continuation of the archaic parasitosis, one is struck by the fact that either in natural symbiosis or in detrimental symbiosis, each individual is a part of the psyche of the other. This follows also from system theory where it is shown that the system as a whole is more potent than each of its component, and has functions that none of them can have individually. In symbiosis, the dual system is more able that each individual, and each component profits from this increased ability. The clients say "I suddenly feels life flowing again when she comes close", or "when I am with her, I feel powerful and start making projects", "I am more peaceful". They say similar words when speaking of their drugs. One can not therefore subtract the addictive object to such a system without causing the worse results. If one attempts to withdraw the drug, a part of the psyche, the individual will fall as a rag doll, lose his bearings and be menaced by decompensation. Which will automatically send him back to his drug to regain the former metastable equilibrium.
The functions of the drug may be multiple: a booster producing life, or enhancing wishes and dreams, a moderator limiting the outbursts of violence, a disinhibiting device to favour social life, a masking device to obviate fears, to increase boldness to seek sex or let have sex, a way of temporarily relieving tensions, a system to be isolated from the danger of coming close to situations evoking the archaic events.
In many cases, coming close to a relationship, or to sex, or close to having children, evokes too much of the archaic traumas to keep up even a frail balance. Reactions would then be the natural way of managing such an upraise of archaic suffering, either in the direction of violence (seeking release of tensions), or in the direction of depression (avoiding violence, and/or seeking reliving despair and death), or in the direction of delirium (cutting hastily the links with the body in order to survive in another state). The coming of these reactions is unconsciously felt with anticipation, and the drug is sought to prevent reactions to surge or to have them subside. In particular, the toxic procedure is devised to put at bay the menace of the murderous impulses.
When a procedure, a way of life, or an avoidance of the potentially dangerous situations or relatives is not sufficient, the individual may use psychoactive substances to modify the neurological functions of the brain in order to put in check the upsurge of unwanted archaic reactions, decrease vitality, or subside sensations. Frequently, this is done in an independent omnipotent way, by taking the drug when necessary.
However, from Le Chatelier's principle, both the psyche and the CNS will react to counteract the effect of the drug, thus producing an effect contrary to that wanted, and more imbalance. This requires more drug (tolerance) and an increased difficulty to stop the drug, since with increasing imbalance, withdrawal symptoms will also increase. However, we have to distinguish chemicals which do not affect the cells of the body nor the neurones (type 1), those which do not affect the neurones but cause deterioration in other tissues (type 2), and those who affect or even kill the neurone cells with little or no possible recovery of the brain functions (type 3).
The use of psychoactive chemicals do not produce the sought regulation at the level of the psyche, but at an inferior level, i.e. in the brain, and especially in the archaic brain where lies the neurologic seats of vitality, instinctual drives and survival reactions, aggression and sex.
The temporary loss of some brain functions, even to the gain of a smoother management of the impulses of the psyche, will entrain a great loss of capacity. The crippling of the sensory-motor response, of the feeling system, of the memory system, and of the vitality and instinctual drives, requires an adjustment of the part of the psyche for having a different body, and the benefit in terms of less agitation or more compliance to third party is soon lost in the view of the drawbacks: the loss of the major live producing functions, vitality, incentive, project, pleasure, creativity, etc. And furthermore, it will become increasingly difficult to stop using the toxic procedure since with withdrawal, one will remain crippled of the brain functions and short of regulation without the chemical crutches to alleviate some of the purely neurological difficulties.
This chemical dependence is the worst of all since no psychic effort would reduce the neurological crippling effect of the drug. If the drug is of the first type, recovery is possible to the price of a long range effort, but with drugs of the third type, it is almost hopeless, but for a very slow reconstruction of some brain tissue which in time will partly compensate for the lost ones.
Strangely enough, the drug system is at first a search of evasion from the prison of aa archaic parasitic relation, but with time evolves towards a complete replay of it.
For example, alcoholism which is often described as an attempt to relate more, to alleviate strong inhibitions of communication and make "friends", finally ends in a more or less autistic way of life, alone with the drug, and shelled in a bunker of chemical brain dysfunction. We found in many alcoholics an originary autistic problem to be the case. Here, alcohol tends to rebuild the original state.
Many psychotics do not have recourse to drugs, since delirium is usually sufficient to discharge a beneficial amount of energy, but in some cases, alcohol or another drug is needed to produce delirium, so as to reach this out of control omnipotent state. Here the drug helps reproducing the split state which has been used to manage the painful originary situation.
In bulimia, the child was often hurt by the depreciating words the parents had towards its body or appearance. Later, bulimia can distort the body so as to reproduce the depreciating looks he or she has experienced in childhood.
This fact follows the general principle of the necessity to replay and relive the originary events to free them. But with the addiction system, the drug itself is part of the mechanism which induces the repetition and reproduces the originary state.
As with delirium which is a way of expressing the originary horror, the drug system is a way of expressing those unaccountable perinatal events. First a method to diminish the upsurge of originary suffering or the anguish of reliving it when unwanted, it tends to allow the expression of the horror by displaying a scene in the actual life similar to the original.
For instance, homeless alcoholics in the street are a live show of the abandonment of the infant left to autarchic means of subsistence, without warmth nor contact. Dying anorexics are but the exposure of the dying situation they were left in after birth. Virtual games addicts are the exact replica of the autistic shelled in his virtual world, without any body relation with the outer world.
Working with alcoholics, we have found a surprisingly great number of them who have had a prior history of drugs in their early life: parents or medical doctors have given them anaesthetics, opiates, alcohol, amphetamines and other stimulants, benzodiazepines, barbiturates and other products. Alcohol produces secondarily to its ingestion morphine-likes in the brain and thus an intoxication akin to other opiates. In some countries, alcohol is given to babies to "fortify" them. The use of suppressers of vitality (deactivators) to manage agitated children is a common practice in some delimited regions. It appears that this sort of early chemical induction is a major factor in the ulterior use of similar drugs.
Studies of chemical dependence with rats have shown that once put by force in contact with alcohol, they remain "alcoholics" (driven by the need for ethanol) for the rest of their life. It is probable that this mechanism is constant throughout the addictions with opiates, and is very likely for the other drugs with chemical dependence cited above.
Much in the same way, induction of a drug system can be started very early in life. For instance, when an infant is calling to be taken and carried, which is a natural reflex necessity, if this move is responded to by giving it food, an association is produced between the call for contact (love) and food: this is a strong basis for bulimic compulsion.
Most drugs will produce rejection and even vomiting if given to a non-intoxicated individual. The same rejection is displayed towards procedures considered pleasant by addicts. However, it is constant that addicts talk of their system as "a pleasure", and necessary to their life. We have to think of this in terms of association: the toxic system has been early in life, at adolescence, but sometimes in infancy, associated with the voice or moves of the significant parent, meaning "love", even if no love was present in that case, or only with exceptional care like in the case of illnesses. This type of early association was found to be present in many case histories. The product or procedure is then labelled "good", or "pleasurable" by reference to early experience and not to its actual value. The sensations are distorted by affective unconscious memories.
Identification with a parent's addictive system is obvious in many cases. The addiction in the parent produces permission to use the same system and also vicarious reinforcement, with the same goal: pleasure and reward (the adult's power over things).
At adolescence, the increase of vitality with coming up sexual desire produces a upsurge of the originary events. The compulsory meeting and intimacy with a partner of desire creates the exact conditions of the originary events: need for contact. This is common to every individual and we relive our perinatal life in a more or less conscious and symptomatic way depending of our abilities to elaborate on those drives. When dramatic events have taken place, this upsurge will produce again the states our psyche has then used to manage the situation: intolerable pain, depression and despair, fits of violence, self-ablation of psychic functions, loss of body (sensations, or even vitality), retreat to prenatal stages, suicide, etc. This is the process of adolescence depression or decompensation, the frequency of which attests the frequency with which we produce dramatic events at birth.
Drugs, then, can be found as a solution to avoid decompensation. Usually, it has been induced by the parents in childhood or by the adolescent environment later and is at hand to try and alleviate the upsurge of pain and imminent fracture. Being at first a mean to prevent the replay of the originary split, loss of function, or shelling in of the psyche, it will with time finally reproduce that split or retreat. Trying to avoid the re-enacting of the originary parasitosis with a menacing partner (object), the addictive procedure will end up in reproducing a similar parasitosis with the drug (or toxic procedure).
As for the originary toxic object, there is no way of enduring the pain and plunge in the death pit at the loss of the addictive product or procedure. Withdrawal is lived as the withdrawal of a necessary contact, of a function which is part of the individual, a very important part of himself, therefore creating a very strong bond to the toxic procedure.
Obviously, a person can replace the originary toxic object as a auxiliary psyche and this is one of the most common addiction. In this case, the toxic can be
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the mother herself |
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one will cling to the mother (father) despite the tendency for independence and autonomy |
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a mother substitute |
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who will become the partner in a relationship of elated fusion at first (passion), becoming destructive later |
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a group of persons |
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who will play the role of symbiosis for a while, and may turn detrimental or destructive later |
If the parasitosis cannot be established with a person or a group owing to too high fears of relationships or sex or both, the sought auxiliary psyche has to be an object, a product or some procedure one can have control over.
As we have said, studies of chemical dependence with rats have shown that once put by force in contact with alcohol, they remain alcohol driven for the rest of their life, even after a prolonged period without contact. [for basic articles, see: Belluzzi, Grant, Garsky, Nature, 260, 1976, pp. 625-626; Belluzzi, Stein, Nature, 266, 1976, pp. 556-558; Davis, Walsh, Science, 167, pp. 1005-6; Myers R., Alcoholism, 2, 1978, pp. 145-153; Myers, Melchior, Science, 196, 1976, pp. 554-6]
Secondary to ingestion, ethanol produces a cohort of enkephalines with long metabolism duration, contrary to natural endorphins which are metabolised rapidly. Thus the use of alcohol produces an intoxication with pseudo-morphines kept in the brains sites for long period and inhibiting the natural neurotransmitter function. Withdrawal can therefore not be produced without strong symptoms due to the absence of essential neurochemistry in important loci.
The sites in the CNS which are modified by the bio-derivatives of the ingestion of ethanol are along the dopamine and noradrenaline circuits, showing an analogy with the modifications observed when psychotic states are present. We observe a high binding in the limbic system, hyppocampus, amygdala, septum, cyngulate gyrus, and frontal lobe cortex, associated with mobilisation, aggression and repulsion, sex drive, emotions and regulation of the impulses. And in some measure with the medullary sensory nuclei associated with pain. [Hiller, Simon, Pearson, Res. Commun. Chem. Pathol. Phar. 6, 1973, pp. 1052-1061]
Being purely a chemical at first, becoming a external moderating device in the place of the non-existent psychological moderation used to try and pilot the neurological system by artificial means, the product will soon become part of the psyche itself. It will play the role of a moderator, but also, at increased levels the role of a disinhibitor and booster, and even of a liberating device to help delirium or suicide. It will become the vector of "communication" between drinkers, although in this exchange of words, one is alone and there is no listener. It will help to have sex or prevent anxiety based impotency or premature ejaculation. It may help going to work or to parties by masking the fears of society. This artificial balance may also need other chemicals to counteract the effects of alcohol: the sedative effect at small level may be helped by stimulants, the motor and reflex deficiency may be masked by increased control and/or constant drinking, and the necessity to hide the compulsion from observation may also be masked by constant drinking.
Other opiates and benzodiazepines may create similar dependence problems as alcohol, also with neurochemical withdrawal symptoms.
In principle, there is less reported chemical dependence with stimulants such as amphetamines, or with cannabis and like, although we found the psychological dependence very strong. Owing to a similar brain functions modification, we think that adverse chemical withdrawal symptoms cause staying on the drug much in the same way as for alcohol. Tobacco produces also through nicotine an unbalance in the brain neurosubstances which in turns creates withdrawal symptoms often too disturbing to be faced without help. These drugs are often combined and taken at the same time to produce highs or artificial regulation.
Used as stimulants to help stay awake and reduce fatigue, diminish appetite, accentuate sexual desire. Withdrawal symptoms: cramps, nausea and diarrhoea, convulsions. Cocaine: Withdrawal symptoms: depression, fatigue, disturbed sleep.
Ecstasy is an MDMA amphetamine and 2CB a phenethylamine with effects similar to those of other hallucinogens.
Have a tendency to produce rapid upsurge of archaic material, states, attitudes and reactions, they are notorious unconscious revellers. This is also the reason for their use in shamanism, for the enhancement of the sensitivity of the healer. However, without preparation and specialist help, these recalls or flights can be especially dangerous to the psychic balance of the individual, and even disastrous, even if they could in controlled context have some therapeutic value. Regression or trance techniques using breathing and movement are more respectful of what our conscious can integrate and the need for drugs is not justified. These drugs also produce withdrawal problems, from unbalance in the nervous system, and from the psychological loss which cannot be suffered. LSD and psylocibin produce hallucinations.
Bulimia and anorexia have some special features which need description although these types of disorders follow the general principles described above of displacement of an archaic parasitosis onto a procedure. The neurochemical effect stems from under or over saturation of the nucleus in the hypothalamus regulating nutrition by undereating or overeating, which influences the adjacent nuclei regulating mood, aggression and also sex. Rats have been turned bulimic by overstressing them and making fatty food available. Therefore, some degree of control over unwanted instinctual reactions reenacting early life can be achieved by a distortion of the nutritional dispositions.
Usually, anorexia sets in at adolescence to repeat the drama of the first days, i.e. a slow descent towards death, followed by actual death from which one has recovered by miracle. Anorexic have then made a sort of symbiosis with death, namely a death component the mother born in her unconscious. The anorexic stops rejects food to call for real love (contact and fulfilling of needs), instead of the food he is given in its stead.
In anorexia, the individual seeks a state of magical oversensivity, much linked with a sentiment of omnipotence and power over others, like reading their mind and anticipating their likely moves. The anorexic is already "dead", and therefore bears some defiance towards death, which to him does not cost much, and he frightens the other with this game. He takes a hold on his fear of death to provoke him. If we are afraid and try to prevent him dying, we may well drive him to actual death, since in this challenge, he can easily win.
Anorexia tends to transform into bulimia, following the general principle that a new addictive object or procedure can replace an older one. We have here an example of a detrimental symbiosis sliding from one object to another: mother Æ death Æ no food Æ food Æ work, etc.
The disinvestment of the body and its torturing remain, but the control of the vitality has displaced from the starving form to the hunger form.
In bulimia, overeating draws a great part of the available energy for digestion, thus reducing the amount of vitality available for emotional life. Blunting emotional life by deriving energy elsewhere is an attempt to reduce unwanted reactional and emotional crisis. Eating reduces the sensitivity, therefore the feeling of constant anxiety, and masks fears when socialising.
Both forms are a way to control the sexual drive, which is as a rule unconsciously strongly rejected. Anorexics lose menstruation and sexual appetite when their ratio of fat lowers below 17% (normal 25%). Bulimic lower their sexual drive by overeating, by having solitary binges instead of having partners, and by controlling the desire of the others onto them in an ambivalent fashion by the distortion of their body and character.
Today, addiction to pharmaceutical drugs has come to a point of general crisis. This is due to many factors: the availability of the products, their reimbursement by insurance parties, the false faith in their innocuousness, the social ideology that their use is normal and which therefore brings a ready excuse. Worst of all is the fact that they are prescribed. The physician is in the transference role of the authoritative father who compels the child to take a toxic, an imposition for which it has no resistance. This abusive use of transference is detrimental to many, and in some cases destructive.
The public in general ignores the real dangers of psychotropic substances, sometimes wishes to ignore it, or is misled by commercial pressure disguised as scientific information. Few people know that these products have been poorly studied, that the studies have been biased or bought, or that major factors have been purposedly omitted, that their conclusions are grossly false, and that they have never been tested to the extent to which they are commonly used.
[See the bibliography page. And especially under the names of Bregging, and Cohen. See also the site www.Bregging.com and www.icspp.org.
Breggin, Peter R., Brain Damage, Dementia, and Persistent Cognitive Dysfunction Associated With Neuroleptic Drugs: Evidence, Etiology, Implications, The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 11, 3 & 4, 1990, 425-464.
Bregging, Peter R., Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, Springer Publishing Company, New York, NY, 1997.
Cohen, David, Cailloux-Cohen, Suzanne, Guide Critique des Médicaments de l'Ame, Éditions de l'Homme, Montréal, Québec, CND, 1995.]
Further articles:
The crave for comfort is also part of the same disposition: it is sought with energy to alleviate the risk of decompensation during late adolescence and even later. The loss of even a minimal amount of comfort is almost impossible for many persons without entering deep depression, fits of violence or attempts of suicide. They are seen to fight with the utmost energy to prevent such an "accident" to happen. This is very typical of the auxiliary psyche type of addiction: the sustentating device is more important than anything else and cannot be lost.
Comfort tends to reproduce womb-like conditions, or originary symbiosis conditions, where the surroundings are cosy, the environment compliant, the persons around non-exigent, and the wishes are met by anticipation without conditions, counterpart, nor compensation. Fight is absent, food is abundant, ambivalence and opposition are absent, diversity of thought and sentiment do not exist. All is one and differences are nil. Others are deemed not to exist.
Excessive sport or sex has been shown to produce similar effects as opiate intoxication, through the repeated release of natural endorphines. However, contrary to the use of an external opiate producer with long metabolic life, endorphines are short lived molecules and to maintain the intoxication, one has to produce the "high" very regularly. This boost can be had by sex, sport, scaring situations, and situations producing high excitement such as ones where on may gain or lose someone or something important: courting, gambling, success seeking, etc.
In addition to the main series of structures that have been described, it is observed that some individuals faced with misimprinting at birth or early in childhood, or faced with traumatic events later in life such as rape or abuse, may develop chronic pain or organ disturbances affecting their life.
For the present, we think that psychosomatic disorders are one of the possible consequences of aberrant imprinting, and may serve the same purpose than addictions, that is support and avoidance of breakdown of the frail psychic balance. Tensions in the autistic-psychotic-paranoic series are mostly due to effort to adapt (with the exception of primary autism where no vitality is there to produce tensions), and some are due to refrain from unwanted violent behaviour [see Depression, violence, and delirium —>] which are not like those coming from repression and suppression in the neurotic.
But psychic tensions create tensions in the whole body, in red muscles and in unvoluntary white muscles. Therefore, the regulation of the flow of fluids in the organs may be reduced or impeded. This is detrimental to the general circulation, lymphatic circulation, hormones diffusion, etc. There are possible hypertension effects, migraines, difficulties in breathing and oxygenation, pain in muscular tissues, hormonal defects in various systems, and up to degradation of target organs.
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