Beyond the Primal Addiction: Food,Sex, Gambling,Internet, Shopping and Work,edited by Nina Savelle-Rocklin and Salman Akhtar,Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2019, 192 pp.

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Building the Nest: Reworking Adolescent Development in Adult Recovery from Addiction

Using an extended case vignette, the author explores addiction, specifically compulsive gambling and substance abuse, from several psychoanalytic perspectives. Addiction/compulsive behavior is explained as a strategy for managing loss at key developmental stages. The concept of trauma repetition is utilized to understand both the repetitious nature of chronic addiction, and the trauma that underlies it. The process of recovery is chronicled through the therapeutic relationship. A classic children's story is referred to as it threads through the narrative.