Abstract

VORCARO, Angela. Is drug addiction a social symptom?. Mental [online]. 2004, vol.2, n.3, pp. 61-73. ISSN 1679-4427.

This paper discusses drug addiction in the light of psychoanalysis, seen as a theory of culture. From this perspective, the use of the adjective "social" to refer to the metaphorical response of the symptom that represents a specific inscription of the discursive articulation proper to this symptom into the social discourse. The jouissance of drug addiction is questioned on the basis of certain possibilities related to the relationship between abstinence and incorporation. In conclusion, the author discusses the reduction of social ties to a duality whereby a re-encounter with the Other coincides with the lost object, where the drug, another person or an authority are replaceable, in an economy of jouissance of simple exchanges that would seen to bring back the days of the pleasure principle.

Keywords : Social symptom; Drug addiction; Jouissance.

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