Lived Future in Addiction

Abstract

Abstract: Aim: The article presents the basic tenants of dialectical phenomenological psychopathology (DPP) of temporal experience in substance-related disorders. Results: DPP examines the conditions of possibility of lived experiences. It goes beyond mere qualitative descriptions of subjective psychological states to identify their pre-reflective structures. The modifications of these structures are considered essential to mental disorders, including additions. The paper argues that the phenomenon of addiction arises when there is a failure of the dynamic process of temporal balances and imbalances between the dimensions of lived past, present, and future. In such an altered state, the present pathologically dominates over past and future. Personal history and future consequences of intoxicated behaviour are disregarded. The future in particular loses its ‘normal’ characteristic of a probable horizon of present experience and becomes ‘actualized’ as present continuous. At the same time, a part of the future ‘dissociates’ from the present objective situation and becomes improbable. To substantiate these claims, the article presents four case vignettes of clients suffering from such pathological entanglement of temporal dimensions. Conclusions: DPP may be seen as an invaluable approach to examine the dialectical structure of human experience. As such, it constitutes a promising paradigm for the 21st century person-centered psychiatry.