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Anders Bergmark & Lars Oscarsson: Att vilja vara
en annan - några funderingar kring motivationsbegreppet inom missbrukarvården (The desire to be someone else - some rejlections on the concept of motivation within the treatment of alcohol and drug abuse).
"Motivation" is a central concept in many clinical settings of alcohol and drug abuse treatment. In some cases
the client's motivation is a requirement for entering a
treatment programme, in others therapeutic intervention
is applied to produce motivation on the part of clients
unwilling to participate in treatment.
In thi s article we discuss and problemize som e clinical
and theoreticai interpretations of the motivation concept
and some possibie consequences of its application in
terms of the client's self-understanding and the structure
of treatment settings.
In order to put into context the clinical and more theo-
retically articulated versions of the motivation concept
presently occurring in the field of alcohol and drug research, we have a brief outline of the concept both from a
historicai perspective and in terms ofmore contemporary
philosophical traditions. Further, we propose a perspective in which the concept of motivation is understood as
a subjective condition or element in the relation between
the individual and society, and we introduce the distinction between "continuous" and "discontinuous" choices
as a way of understanding and describing individual
change, within a theoreticai framework, as aresult of
subjective choices which give social institutions a structuring function for these human actions.
In conclusion, we discuss how some therapeutic settings and interpretations of the motivation concept can
con firm the client's "abuse supporting" understanding
of himself instead of offering opportunities for change.
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