FROM HOMELESSNESS TO HOLDING: THE USE OF TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS IN THE CLINIC OF ADDICTIONS

Abstract

This study analyzes the psychic function assumed by the drug-object in subjective experience, based on Donald W. Winnicott’s theory of transitional objects and transitional phenomena, investigating its possible articulations with the clinic of addictions. This is a theoretical study of a qualitative nature, developed through a bibliographic review. The investigation gathered and analyzed twenty-three works, including writings by Winnicott, scientific articles, book chapters, and academic materials selected through the descriptors addiction, addictive object, transitionality, Winnicott, toxicomania, drug addiction, and playing. The results indicate that, in certain clinical configurations, the relationship with the drug-object may operate as an attempt to confront experiences of helplessness, early environmental failures, and difficulties in processes of emotional maturation. It was identified that investment in the addictive object may assume functions of holding, illusion, continuity of being, and psychic support, albeit in a precarious, repetitive, and potentially destructive manner. It is concluded that the approximation between the clinic of addictions and Winnicott’s theory of transitional phenomena contributes to a less moralizing and less reductionist understanding of the addictive phenomenon, favoring a clinical listening attentive to the subject’s singularity and to the subjective functions attributed to the drug-object.