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Post by Susan Peabody on Jan 27, 2009 16:02:18 GMT -8
Addiction Nothing stands in the way of change as much as addiction. Addiction is all about holding on to mood-altering experiences and dangerous rituals at the expense of change, even when the changes are necessary to save your life. Addiction can sometimes feel like demonic possession in the sense that one is possessed by his or her bad habits. In Alcoholics Anonymous, members pray to a Higher Power: “Relieve me of the bondage of self.” Addiction is hard to understand. It is not logical. An addicted person is a slave to the pleasure compulsion. This is a term I coined to describe a combination of what the Freudians call the “repetition compulsion” (which is the mind’s tendency to repeat traumatic events in order to deal with them) and the “pleasure principle,” which describes the need of the infant to seek gratification. In adults, this would be called the “production of pleasure.” [/color]
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