Language is one of the defining characteristics of man. His ability to name things allows him to represent them. If subjectivity guarantees humanity in each person, what happens when words and the symbolization they allow are missing? In addiction, the act of consuming takes the place of an emotion or a thought, which the person thus avoids, by finding a kind of immediate satisfaction. It corresponds to an externalization of our internal theater. This action can be used as a representational support for psychic conflicts when language falters in this mission. Beside the immediate discharge of tension, the action forms then an expressive digression, which can nevertheless remain unheeded if it is not interpreted in its symbolic value. To consider the action of addiction only as a problematic behavior to be normalized is then a form of drama, and at the same time a voice screaming at the other and remaining deaf to itself. Addiction can thus be considered as an acted language, waiting to be translated. Beyond the behavior that challenges us, addiction can be rich in meaning. The action-oriented clinic, as developed by F. Marty, allows us to hear and understand this language. Therefore, on the one hand, it is a question of organizing the entire addictology clinic around the stakes, expectations, and contributions of the consumption of psychoactive products. On the other hand, it is necessary to find a form of intentionality in addictive behaviors, allowing the person to finally feel that they are the owner of their own experience. Addiction does not belong exclusively to the disease. In what way will the person use consumption to express or show, through this act of consumption, something that they cannot express in any other way, to themself, to their relatives, or to the institutions. The use by these patients, who are often doubly victims of narcissistic-identitarian sufferings, of the affect, the body and motricity constitutes a privileged register of expression to try to communicate. These are forms of narration to be welcomed as such. It is thus that the action, in this clinic, amply exceeds the question of consumption and can be understood as an interpellation, a provocation. The action-oriented clinic consists, therefore, also in finding the means of addressing those to whom they are intended. During psychotherapy, the analysis of counter-transference constitutes a canvas on which representations can be drawn, formulations can be woven. The way of positioning oneself within the framework of psychotherapy, in particular, is very rich. The framework is a medium for projections. Therapists can detect subtle variations for each patient. The patient's posture during treatment, the body language during the session, the missed appointments, the forgetfulness, but also the actions taken outside in their everyday life, the accidents, the missed actions, acting-out. constitute a prelanguage, waiting to be put into words, to fully take on their value of resolution. Any action would indeed testify to an attempt at signifying connection. Also, the narration of factual elements of daily life, projects, conflicts with relatives, speech, boredom, revolt, opinions, encounters, failures, images, sensations... finally, everything that is said, acted upon, shown and shared in the session, is felt by the therapist and brings forth various psychic representations in their thinking, which they then proposes to the patient in the form of interpretative hypotheses, in order to relaunch the associative chains, at the start in this protected space. (c) 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
