Juris I. Berzins

The Decline of the Addict as “Psychopath”: Implications for Community Care

The recent passage of the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act (NARA) has caused major changes in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug dependent persons; greater responsibility is placed upon the local communities for the treatment and aftercare of addicts. The present study compares addicts admitted into the Clinical Research Center at Lexington under NARA provisions with previous categories of patients, and finds that the MMPI peaks of civilly committed patients show the broadest spectrum of psychopathology among the four groups studied. The greater heterogeneity of NARA patients argues for diversified approaches to treatment and aftercare in the community.

Sex role orientation and assertiveness among female college students

Eighty college women, classified into four sex role orientations (feminine, masculine, androgynous, and indeterminate) by the PRF ANDRO Scale, participated in a behavioral role-playing task requiring their “usual” responses to situations in which an assertive response was appropriate. In the second phase of the experiment, 1/2 the women in each orientation were exposed to instructional demands to respond much more assertively. Relative to women who did not receive these high demand instructions, women in all four groups were able to increase their rated assertiveness significantly, suggesting that the differences in assertiveness (androgynous and masculine women outperforming feminine and indeterminate ones) which were present in the first phase of the experiment and were corroborated by self-and peer-reported data are more appropriately understood in performance rather than competence terms.

Effectiveness of Marathon Group Psychotherapy with Hospitalized Female Narcotics Addicts

The effectiveness of marathon group psychotherapy vs daily group psychotherapy was examined by comparing changes in the personality test scores of small matched groups of hospitalized female narcotic addicts. Although both treatments reduced scores on the “neurotic triad” of the MMPI, the marathon treatment also appeared to change specific attitudes toward criminal and drug subcultures.

Discussion: Androgyny, Personality Theory, and Psychotherapy

Recently formulated conceptions of psychological androgyny appear to involve a variety of metaphorical models whereby masculinity and femininity are said to be balanced, tempered one by the other, integrated, or transcended. Through an application of Stephen Peppers (1942) root metaphor theory to these models, it is argued that validational research will prove more profitable than theoretical debate over which vision of androgyny is “best.” The importance of including measures of self-esteem in sex role research is also emphasized.