Nicotine Today: Smoke, Steam, and Pouches – A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Nicotine has changed its shape. Where once the cigarette was the main symbol of smoking culture, today there are many alternatives: vaporizers (e-cigs), heated tobacco, nicotine pouches (“snus”), or sleek little devices that look more like tech gadgets than cigarettes. These new products are often marketed as “healthier” or more “modern” versions of smoking.
But if we look at them psychoanalytically, we find that even if the form changes, the emotional meanings of nicotine remain surprisingly similar.
From Fire to Vapor: What Stays the Same
In the classical cigarette, there is fire, smoke, ashes—a ritual with strong sensory and symbolic power. Vaping, on the other hand, replaces smoke with vapor, and nicotine pouches even remove inhalation entirely. On the surface, these seem like radical changes.
Yet the gesture often remains the same: the hand-to-mouth movement, the pause in conversation, the deep inhale and exhale, the sense of a secret private moment. Psychoanalytically, this repetition can be understood as a way of returning to the earliest stage of satisfaction—what Freud called the oral stage. The lips, the mouth, the breath: these are sites of both pleasure and self-soothing. Whether through smoke, steam, or a pouch under the lip, the body repeats the same drama.
Modern Forms, Old Fantasies
Vaping: Often presented as cleaner, digital, and futuristic. The cloud of vapor may feel less guilty, but the ritual of inhalation remains. For some, it may even add a playful or exhibitionistic element—producing large clouds, flavored aromas, and new “styles” of smoking.
Snus / Nicotine Pouches: Invisible, discreet, without smoke. Here the fantasy may be one of secrecy and control: consuming without being noticed, keeping the dependence hidden. The pouch becomes a silent companion, almost like a secret between oneself and the body.
Heated Tobacco / Vaporizers: Halfway between cigarette and e-cigarette, combining old rituals with new technology. This “in-between” form often mirrors ambivalence: wanting to quit, but not really wanting to let go.
What Is Being Held Onto?
Donald Winnicott once described how children use “transitional objects”—a blanket, a teddy bear—to feel safe in moments of separation. Nicotine products often function in a similar way. Whether cigarette, vape, or pouch, they are things to hold, to reach for, to rely on when anxiety or emptiness arises.
The form may change, but the psychological function remains constant: nicotine regulates tension, fills pauses, creates a sense of being accompanied.
Why Quitting Feels Like a Loss
When people try to quit, they often describe a feeling of emptiness, of “missing something” that goes far beyond the chemical craving. This is because nicotine is not just a substance—it has become an internal object in the psychic world: something that soothes, something that rebels, something that creates belonging. Losing it can feel like losing a piece of the self.
How Psychoanalysis Can Help
Instead of only asking “How do I stop?”, psychoanalysis asks:
What role does nicotine play in my life?
What am I reaching for when I reach for the cigarette, vape, or pouch?
What inner tension does this ritual soothe?
By exploring these questions, one can begin to understand the unconscious dimensions of the habit. The goal is not just abstinence, but freedom: freedom from repeating the same ritual blindly, and freedom to discover new ways of living with anxiety, desire, and dependence.