Fragmented Intimacy Addiction in a Social World
Fragmented Intimacy transcends familiar concepts of addiction by focusing not on addicts in isolation but on the social contexts that are disrupted and on the struggle that affects all those involved as they attempt to regroup and initiate change. Applica
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Peter J. Adams
Fragmented Intimacy Addiction in a Social World
Peter J. Adams, Ph.D. School of Population Health University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland New Zealand [email protected]
ISBN 978-0-387-72660-1
e-ISBN 978-0-387-72661-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007934532 © 2008 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science + Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now know or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
Preface
I recall during my early years as a clinical psychologist being asked by hospital staff to speak with a 32-year-old man addicted to alcohol who was being discharged following treatment for pancreatitis. This had been his third admission for the same illness, and hospital practitioners were exasperated by his choice to continue drinking despite being repeatedly told it would cause irreparable damage to his pancreas from which he would be unlikely to survive. I met him in a side-room on the ward. He sat in his pyjamas in the corner of the room, thin and ashen looking, with a worried frown fixed across his face. Our conversation was initially stilted and I was trying hard not to replicate the lectures and sermons he was likely to have already received from hospital staff. As we talked I was able to piece together bits of information about his current circumstances: he lived alone, he was unemployed, and his only family contact was with a brother who visited to check on him occasionally. He started to relax into the conversation and then talked about his long struggles with alcohol: his drinking had begun in his early teens; it had provided him with confidence and friendships; he had had some serious motor vehicle accidents; he had tried to stop drinking but soon continued; he had lost friends, jobs, and family relationships; and in response he had increasingly sought intoxication as a refuge. He admitted this was not the way he wanted to be and declared that this time when he returned home he was going to stop for good. Somehow I felt unconvinced. Although he stared intensely into my eyes as he said this, his words sounded vaguely like something he had stated many times before; somewhat similar to those routine declarations one makes at church services or at New Year’s Eve celebrations. I offered to meet with him further, and we negotiated a time later that week. Unsurprisingly, I never saw him
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