Psychopathology of Drug Addiction

Because of some ill-defined instability of persoirality, no better than a borderline adjustment was made. The individuals of this group are not fundamentally antisocial and, with some artificial assistance, an acceptable adjustment can be made. After their first few experiences with narcotics. 

The individuals of the borderline group are laboring under a more than usual amount of conffict and tension, and they are continually reacting to ingrained feelings of inferiority based on defective personality, psychic trauma, or physical defects. 

The dosage can be increased, over and above the physical requirements to maintain physical comfort and avoid withdrawal phenomena, in an effort to recapture the original sensation of pleasure. For many addicts, this dosage is sufficiently large to be beyond their financial grasp. The addict then usually submits to treatment and on release, soon relapses into the comfort of his drug. 

Sometimes the addict may adjust at a financially supportable level of drug intake and carry a moderate habit for j ears. He is usually a more intelligent addict who has some insight into his fundamental difficulties. The added conflict of addiction may be too much for endurance. The addict makes a neAV adjustment by rationalizing the entire difficulty on the basis of somatic complaints. The borderline group shades into the psychoneurotic (group 3). 

The addict with the psychopathic personality (group 2) uses narcotics 

---