Existential clinical psychology and the problems related to drug use

Abstract

We start from the theoretical foundations of Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialist Philosophy to understand the drug use problems and discuss the possibilities of clinical interventions on these phenomena. This perspective considers the use of drugs as a free choice, defined from the project of being, concerning the personal situation. The progressive-regressive method implies a back and forth between the universal and singular dimensions of the situations, in a dialectic spiral of understanding that interconnected objectivity and subjectivity. The authors discuss the life story of a dancer, who narrates his addiction to cocaine, understood in the relationship between bad faith and alienation. The existentialist clinic must unveil the role of drug use in the user's life trajectory, taking the project of being a factor of analysis.