FATHER-DISTANCE AND DRUG ABUSE IN YOUNG MEN

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Abstract
Previous clinical work has indicated that addicted men (both alcoholic and heroin dependent) have a distant or negative relationship to their father. To test this hypothesis and to attempt to quantify the concept of “father-distance,” a 16-item questionnaire regarding a young man's relationship to his father was given to three groups: a heroin- and alcohol-addicted group; a general psychiatric outpatient group; and a control group. The results indicated that only the addicted group had significant elevations of the father-distance score. This appears to substantiate the hypothesis that many drug abusers view their relationship to their father as difficult or distant. Their greater father-distance than the psychiatric outpatient group indicates that the behavior of drug abuse may be different from other emotional problems of young men and is more specifically associated with a disturbed father-son relationship. Delinquent behavior and conduct disorders have long been thought to be related to a disturbed father-son relationship and these data suggest that drug abuse in young men should often be considered and treated as a disorder of behavior. According to analytic theory, developmental theory, family theory, and statistical evidence, the father-son relationship is important to the development of social skills, skills which many addicted persons lack. Identification (by the son, with the father) is the process by which values and standards of behavior are first developed. Therefore, the mechanisms of identification and its role in the development of social skills would appear to be central to an understanding and treatment of addiction in man. It has been demonstrated that identification occurs through the perceived salience of father, the role model. This salience is achieved through availability, nurturing, and power demonstrated by rewards, threats, and punishments. The implications for treatment are profoundly important. Limited treatment programs which assume the presence of social skills are likely to fail for those identified as father-distant. We suggest that drug-addicted young men who have poor social skills need a treatment program which makes use of the developmental factors related to the process of identification. The treatment should therefore be comprehensive, probably residential for a significant period of time, highly structured, supportive, nurturing, and authoritarian. “Fathering” factors (guidance, encouragement, personal involvement, provision of rewards, punishments, and models for identification) would be the important components.

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