Addiction et grossesse: Du déplacement de l'objet d'addiction vers le nouveau-né

Abstract

Addictions and pregnancy play the role of operators of transformation in psychic life. Each one offers preliminary adjustments for the movement of regression toward a new mother/child dépendance. The study of pregnancy in addicted women poses the problem of a qualitative modification of their dépendance. The dependence at play in addiction encounters another dependence which tends to establish itself with the child-to-be. The orientation of psychic work in the direction of objectai dépendance is accompanied by a modification of perceptive investment. Addiction is characterized by an absolute dependence on the object of the addiction and by an overinvestment in perception, turned outward. During pregnancy, the wakening of cenesthesic sensations displaces sensorial investment from external sources to internal ones. This displacement could be the source of psychic readjustments activated by the pregnancy. We propose to study this process on the basis of the singular experience of a pregnant woman who is principally dependant on heroin and sleeping pills.