Jungian psychotherapeutic practice in the treatment of alcohol dependency and other drugs: Limits and challenges of the application of analytical psychology to the dependency phenomenon

Abstract

This chapter addresses some issues concerning the treatment of addictions from the perspective of Analytical Psychology. The only clinical experience of Carl Jung himself, reported in the published letters, was chosen because within his theoretical writings, no mention was found regarding the subject. Some points are made about the way Jung understood this experience of care. Within his understanding of the case attended to, the influence of William James' thought, specifically, in his way of understanding the singular spiritual quest as one of the possible results of transformation to give another resolution to the problem of alcohol dependence outside the psychotherapeutic setting, is observed. Some questions arise about the meaning of his withdrawal and what this would represent in the reality of psychotherapy. In order to develop these questions, a brief history was made about the place of drugs in the history of society, presenting the model of harm reduction and multidisciplinary care developed in public policies. This makes a counterpoint to the reality of private care. In this way, their challenges, their contributions and their limitations in the face of this problem were discussed in the context of psychotherapy.