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Working With The Drive: A Lacanian Psychoanalytic Approach To The Treatment Of Addictions, Cristina Laurita

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the clinical utility of applying Lacanian psychoanalytic interventions to the treatment of addictions. By combining theoretical exegesis with clinical case studies of psychotherapy with patients who struggled with addictions, this project seeks to: 1) contribute to the improvement of the clinical treatment of addictions; and 2) contribute to the advancement of Lacanian clinical scholarship in the U.S. Although the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan is well-known in Europe and South America, Lacanian clinical scholarship in the U.S. is disappointingly sparse. As a result, most American clinicians are not aware of the clinical usefulness of Lacanian theory. …