The alteration of the sensory consciousness of the Self as a trigger mechanism determining a craving in substance abuse and eating disorders. A single-case study

Abstract

Introduction: Difficulty in perceiving and providing an appropriate cognitive interpretation of the stimuli originating from the body, combined with a difficulty in perceiving and describing emotions correctly, has been identified for a long time in patients with substance abuse and eating disorders. This first eidetic nucleus has been indissolubly linked to the difficulty in perceiving others as intelligible objects. Objective: The objective of this paper is to further the research into possible psychological factors underlying the deficit in the sensory consciousness of the Self, in which the internal image of the body and the person does not have a solid mental representation. In consequence, the relationship between the psychological and the somatic part of the Self seems vulnerable to psychopathological break-down. In this paper, sensation seeking is construed as an attempt to overcome an interoceptive, an exteroceptive and a proprioceptive difficulty. Craving and repetition of pathological behaviour is interpreted here as an attempt to reconstruct the body scheme in a Self which is fragmented or at a risk of fragmentation through the memory of the sensations experienced using an inanimate object, food or psychotropic substances. In relationship with them an increase in symbolic capability is impossible, as it is achievable only through a human relationship. Method: To corroborate this hypothesis, I undertook a single-case study of comorbidity with substance abuse and eating disorders. This research describes the application of an integrated method in which the use of standardised instruments as MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), EDI-2 (Eating Disorder Inventory) and TAS-20 (Toronto Alexithymia Scale), tested and retested in a frame time of 6 years, is accompanied by the interpretation of dreams, based on the theoretical platform of Massimo Fagioli’s Human Birth Theory, in order to achieve a greater diagnostic certainty as well as more definite therapeutic treatment. Results: Quantitatively, the patient’s positive reaction to psychotherapy is expressed by changes in the test–retest scale scores, while qualitatively the patient’s positive reaction to psychotherapy is expressed through changes in the dream activity. Conclusion: The results obtained encourage successive controls of the interpretative hypothesis about craving proposed in this paper with further studies.

Keywords

• craving
• sensory consciousness of the self
• psychotherapy
• human birth theory