After some experimentation, a fairly exhaustive set of 68 twelve-item scales (Addicause) was constructed to cover a wide variety of psychological needs.. After this questionnaire had been administered to enough of our inmates, statistical analysis of the data collected led to the conceptual development of targets for treatment (presumed “drivers” of addiction/) and nine corresponding treatment goals, as follows:
- Failure Failure/Punishment History/Expectation
Creating … SUCCESS
- Inflexibility Rigid/Inflexible Habits/Adjustment)
Creating … FLEXIBILITY
- Excitement-Seeking Apathy/Inhibition –> Stimulus-Hunger
Creating … EXCITEMENT
- Gratification Need Immediate Satisfaction/Relief Need
Creating … SATISFACTION
- Conflicted Values Subcultural/Primitive/Regressive Values
Creating … VALUES
- Guilt Intolerance (Guilt-Proneness/Guilt Intolerance
Creating … INNOCENCE
- Distress Ill-Health/Stress/Distress/Anxiety
Creating … HEALTH
- Joylessness Depression/Joylessness/Unfulfillment
Creating … HAPPINESS
- Weak Integration Asocial/Anti-Social Adjustment/Integration
Creating … INTEGRATION
Treatments were delivered in day-long large-group treatment workshops, and this book contains descriptions of them.
Statistical analysis of the relationship between attendance at the treatment workshops and questionnaire scores found that each of the treatments affected the participant’s motivation for self-medicating, and typically in the predicted direction. That is, each treatment lowered the measured psychological motivation that it was predicted to lower, thereby eliminating the participant’s felt need to self-medicate for it.
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