Essay - The Oedipal Loop: Substance Abusers vs. 'Royalty' the Psychologies of...

The Oedipal Loop: Substance Abusers vs. 'Royalty'

***** psychologies of substance abuse and of royalty may seem on one level to be worlds apart. One is, after all, literally on top ***** things by law, decree, and birth—the other *****ly gets "to the top" in an illusory world created by reli*****ce on the drug of choice. But up***** closer examination, especially in the play Oedipus the K*****g, the mindset of the substance abuser and that ***** a misguided monarch turn out to be similar in an almost uncanny number of ways.

It has been said that Oedipus is above all a "victim." He ***** a victim of fate; of the machinations of people around him; ***** a curse. Similarly, many people in ***** web of ***** abuse consider themselves "*****s" of their addiction. However, this sort of view of both King ***** addict is something of an oversimplification. In both cases, the sense ***** victimization springs from a dis*****rted re*****lity: the addict begins with a grandiose belief ***** he/she is responsible for "saving the world." As one contemporary psychologist puts it:

***** a victim "of the first water" *****n. You're responsible for the behavior of everybody in the world; and *****y're not doing it. You're ********** the ultimate victim role then. (http://www.marshasummers.com/innerman/victim.htm)

Oedipus echoes that belief over and over in his proclamations; ***** fact, he not only assumes gr*****iosity of influence, he asserts that whatever his people have suffered, ********** suffering even more:

Ye sicken *****, well wot I, yet my pain/ How great soever yours, out*****s it all.

***** sorrow touches each man severally/ Him and none other, but I grieve at once Both ***** the general and myself and you. (http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.pl.txt,2)

***** can be forgiven for a bit ***** grandiosity, as a reigning monarch with all ***** him reaffirming ***** importance. However, his grandiosity quickly turns to a*****her aspect of substance-abuse **********: paranoia and its companion, "blame-throwing." Rare is the substance abuser who at first doesn't blame someone else ***** "driving [him] to drink" or the like—even though ***** is simply not an accur*****e picture:

***** some people ***** be born with an inherited tendency toward *****ion, and some life experiences may make it more or less likely, nei*****r genes nor experiences alone cause addiction. Rather, the path to drug use, abuse, ***** addiction are actions that the substance ***** chooses. Simply stated, the addiction ***** the result of a series of bad *****s made by the substance *****r. (http://www.coaf.org/Kinship/SAyourfault.htm)

Oedipus's paranoia asserts itself most dramatically when he is confronted by Teiresias and told that *****, in *****, is the problem. He first insults ***** prophet, then ***** a conspiracy between Teiresias and Creon to "steal" his crown:

OEDIPUS Is this a plot ***** *****, or thine own? / TEIRESIAS Not Creon, thou thyself *****rt thine own bane. (http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.pl.txt,10)

Ane even when the sage denies such a thing, the king persists:

***** spite and envy follow in your train!/ See, f***** this crown the State conferred on me.