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The author
Martin Amis wrote of Joesph Stalin that he tortured not so much to obtain information
as he did to enforce a collusion with a fiction. When I consider the impact of
addiction upon couples and families, I am reminded of this dark observation. The
addicted individual fashions a system of denials, rationales, and diversions that
embroil loved ones and compel their loyalty, silence, and complicity. One thinks
of the family whose presenting issue is the acting out, possibly substance abusing
teen, whose behavior deflects attention away from the addicted parent. Or else
there is the couple whose presenting problem is “communication problems”,
or “parenting conflicts”, while again, an underlying addictive behavior
is masked. In artist Gottfried Helwien’s 2003 photograph, The Golden
Age, we see a haunting image of a small girl looking on as an adult woman
(her mother?) poises to inject herself with an unidentified substance. The child
is an innocent, and yet preternaturally mature; her gaze is one of curiosity,
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