Psychodynamic theory of addiction

Freud je početkom 20. stoljeća šokirao svijet svojim kontroverznim i sasvim novim teorijama o nesvjesnom dijelu psihe koji kontrolira velik dio ljudskih postupaka. Svoje je teorije nazvao skupnim imenom psihodinamska teorija. Ona se kroz godine mijenjala i razvijala te se danas koristi u tumačenju brojnih stanja i ljudskih postupaka, pa tako i ovisnosti. Kroz psihodinamski koncept, ovisnost se smatra popunjavanjem intrapsihičkih praznina sredstvom ovisnosti, nadoknadom elemenata koji osobi nedostaju, bilo da korijene vuku još iz ranog djetinjstva, bilo da trenutno ne mogu uspostaviti dovoljno kvalitetne emocionalne odnose te težnjom za postizanjem osjećaja svemoći. Ta teorija nadopunjava neurobiološku teoriju koja ovisnost tumači promjenama u strukturi mozga koje „traže“ sredstvo ovisnosti kao fizičku potrebu. Psihoanaliza se danas sve češće koristi i u liječenju ovisnika pri čemu je psihoterapeutu cilj spoznati unutarnje, nesvjesne porive, težnje i strahove pojedinca te mu ih kroz seanse polako osvijestiti s ciljem da ih on internalizira, prihvati i nauči balansirati.In the beginning of 20th century, Freud shocked the world with his brand new and rather controversial theories which preached the existence of the non-conscious part of human psyche which controlled a great deal of human actions. He called his theory the psychodynamic theory. Throughout the years, it has changed and developed and is used today in the interpretation of human actions and many diseases, including addictions. The psychodynamic concept interprets addiction as filling in the emotional gaps and compensating for the psychological elements that a person is missing by using the addictive substances. This theory is complementary to the neurobiological theory which interprets the addiction simply as a change in the structure of the brain and according to which addiction is due to a physical need of the substance. There has been an increase in using psychoanalysis in the treatment of addicts, whereby a psychotherapist's goal is to recognize the inner, unconscious, aspirations and fears of an individual, and slowly get the patient to know them through the psychoanalytic sessions in order to internalize, accept and balance them