The motivation of addiction

Abstract

The addict pursues the drug effect despite its damaging impact. The aberration results from the side-tracking of a mood-dominated activity, which utilises automatic mechanisms beyond conscious introspection to regulate the pursuit of pleasure. The indirect nature of the mechanism creates the potential for its subversion. Drug use, for the non-addicted as well as the addict, bypasses the primary purpose of the pleasure principle, the motivation to achieve success. Instead, drug use produces pleasure on demand. The addict abandons the effort of striving for a goal, which has an uncertain chance of success, in preference for the certainty of the drug-induced pleasure. The sequence of unpleasure following pleasure, each proportional to the other, brings each response to a timely end and so sets in train renewed effort to achieve success and the chance of yet another bout of pleasure. The sequence delivers pleasure only on condition of prior payment or, in the case of drug use, "trip now and pay later". The bipolar nature of the pleasure principle draws comparison to a similar bipolarity extending throughout the structure and function of existence.