Continuities and discontinuities of moral treatment in models of treatments for drug addicts

Abstract

Some aspects of the development of insanity medical treatment turned to madness in France will be analyzed with emphasis in the pinelian innovation of the 19th Century, the moral treatment, and the models that appeared in opposition or in continuity with it (rural colonies, that were opposite of hospitals environment; and therapeutic communities, that propose re-socialization). The goal of this analysis is to detect in what these models, formerly applied to the insane, are present in the current treatments, on recuperation farms and in help groups that don´t adopts the model of segregation, but are based on the Twelve Steps Philosophy. Based on the psychoanalytic theory(with emphasis on the concepts of narcissism, secondary narcissism, ego ideal and drive), questions about these forms of treatment will be made (especially as regards the appeal to religion, the infantilization of patients, the perpetual judgment, the place given to relationships). Besides, other forms where there is a creative and autonomous existence of addicts will be searched.