[Addiction--a contribution from the viewpoint of adolescent psychiatry]

While a single patient's addiction arises from a pattern of individual factors there appears to be a general cultural climate fostering its genesis in many variants. In the present contribution the metamorphosis of the metaparadigm from the dialectic to the dialogue is characterized as cultural transition-time demanding from the individual to cope and live with permanent contradictions and conflicts. On the background of this anthropologic situation addiction is understood as internalized foreign determination sustaining a common though antiquated scheme of psychic and social conflict conditioned by outdated patterns of education and socialisation. Addiction is appreciated as an inadequate attempt of the individual and of society toward adaptation, based on historic evolution of culture.