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(1969). Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 24:399-431

Drug Use in Adolescents—Psychodynamic Meaning and Pharmacogenic Effect

Herbert Wieder, M.D. and Eugene H. Kaplan, M.D.

Despite wide interest in the drug problem, there are few generally accepted and well-founded conceptualizations available to orient our approach to it. Even the terminology, although hallowed by usage, is ambiguous and subject to distortion and misapplication. The prevailing sociological and pharmacological rubrics tend to isolate extremes from a continuum of attitudes and behavior toward drugs. More rigorous and consistent psychological hypotheses remain to be derived. To this end, we wish to draw attention to a relatively neglected aspect of the drug phenomenon, namely, the "drug of choice." Contrary to general opinion, we do not believe that drugs are chosen indiscriminately or are freely interchangeable. In fact, we place the phenomenon of choice of drug in the center of our formulations of why drugs are used at all. Although it appears that we generalize from a few case histories, our conclusions have evolved from extensive clinical experience with all types of drug users

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