Comparative investigations of the abuse of alcohol, drugs, and nicotine for a representative group of 4082 men of age 20

The addictive process

In order to understand and treat addictions one must go beyond the specific agent and practice, one must understand the addictive process. The author bases his conceptualization of an addictive process on twenty-five years of naturalistic observation, individual and group psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic treatment and therapeutic trials of one hundred and thirty-three single and poly substance and behavior addicted patients. No single addictive personality (addict) exists. People become addictive because specific etiological and constitutional factors contribute to their vulnerability to the addictive process. This process can be defined and diagnosed. It involved common inter/intrapersonal psychodynamics. One must look for the addictive complement and trigger mechanisms which can initiate and perpetuate the process. The process has a life history and stages, which can be cyclic, periodic, or sporadic. The individual can shift from one addiction to another or sustain multiple addictions at different times. Understanding the above factors is essential to making an accurate diagnosis and to treatment.

[How alcohol and drug consumers see themselves: a personal and social self-assessment (author's transl)]

In a representative inquiry we found significant differences in the self-assessment of 4082 20-year-old Swiss men, as to whether their consumption of alcohol and drugs is high, low, or zero. The heavy users of alcohol and drugs describe themselves as men with frequent personal difficulties and psychosomatic disturbances. They tend to separate earlier from their family and prefer a less conventional, more consume-orientated, and passive way of life than the remainder.