Journal of Addiction and Dependence | 2017-02-15

Psychodynamic study of wives of men addicted to opium

Fateme Sheibani

Abstract

Background :Addiction leads to numerous physical and mental problems for addicted person and, consequently,major problems for their relatives. Objectives :The aim of this study was to investigate the psychodynamic characteristics of addicts' spouses in Kerman,Iran Patients and Methods :In this cross-sectionals study,Sixty volunteer spouses of addicts were compared with sixty spouses of non-addicts. The projective test of thematic apperception (TAT) along with Ruben scoring system was used to evaluate the sample units. Data were collected from Sep2015 to Feb2016 and analyzed using t-test and Pearson s Chi-square test with the SPSS software version 20. Results :the results show that there are significant relationships between main conflict (conflict with primary object and conflict with husband s addiction), nature of anxieties (fear of abandonment and fear of unintoxication), defence mechanism( immature defence, neurotic defence and mature defence), conception of world (real and fantasy), interpersonal relationship (husband), adequacy of superego(appropriate and harsh superego), ego strength (adequate), feeling (anger and guilt-frustration), outcome(favorable and unfavorable) with group. Conclusions: Understanding and perception of the nature of addiction and how to deal with it and react to the addicted spouse bring a deep challenge to the personality characteristics of the addict's spouse. In consequence, such scenarios lead to conflicting communications among them and they turn to the frequent use of specific defence mechanisms, such as identification and denial in their interpersonal relationships.

Keywords: Psychodynamic characteristics, addicts' spouses, projective TAT