Strife for excellence and addiction to body movement: a risk model in high-level athletes.

Authors
Citation
C. Carrier, Strife for excellence and addiction to body movement: a risk model in high-level athletes., ANN MED IN, 151, 2000, pp. A60-A64
Citations number
11
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine
Journal title
ANNALES DE MEDECINE INTERNE
ISSN journal
0003410X → ACNP
Volume
151
Year of publication
2000
Supplement
A
Pages
A60 - A64
Database
ISI
SICI code
0003-410X(200004)151:<A60:SFEAAT>2.0.ZU;2-0
Abstract
Champion athletes strive to attain a personal goal defined by a socially co nstructed image of psychomotor performance to be accomplished at the moment of the championship celebration, This intrapsychic process is initiated by a transformation of the body, programmed and controlled by repeated traini ng. The athlete's body becomes accustomed to ritualized obsessive movements , favoring the feeling of self-fulfillment solely during muscular effort (c ontraction/relaxation, displacement). This social goal of excellence implie s personal adaptation involving an addictive link to movement: a mechanism uniquely valid in high level sports. Twelve years experience in psychologic al support of high-level athletes participating in Olympic sports has led t o an analysis of this adaptive mechanism and a proposed psychopathological model of its invasion of the athlete's psychic economy.