The Phenomenological Structure of Drug-Induced Ego States. II. Barbiturates and Sedative-Hypnotics: Phenomenology and Implications

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Abstract
Empirically derived descriptions of experimental states, induced by heavy, chronic consumption of drugs, provide valuable information for treatment personnel as well as for scientists studying drug abuse or pharmacology. A 7-yr program of research has studied persons committed to heavy, long-term use of several prominent substances of abuse. This report results from that research and provides a phenomenological description of the psychological state induced by heavy, chronic use of barbiturates and sedative-hypnotics. Interview, Q-sort and semantic differential data indicate the barbiturate state is intensely unpleasant: a state in which users lose desired characteristics, take on undesired characteristics, engage in self-destructive acts and emerge in worse condition than before entering it. Explaining why people choose to enter such a state is difficult. Several theoretical alternatives for doing so are considered. Psychotherapy with these individuals must deal with the theme of abandonment/rejection that permeates their lives and with the diffuse hostility, expectations of failure and defeat, self-destructive tendencies and feelings of hopelessness that they display. Suggestions are presented for treatment of individual cases.

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