The recent furor about drug addiction ignores the fact that in 1914, with about two-thirds our present population, we had four times as many addicts. However, the huge increase in the number of adolescent addicts is new. Ausubel discusses the widespread misconception that everyone is susceptible to addiction and describes the special personality defects of the addict or potential addict. Most recent adolescent cases are to be viewed as transitory problems, analogous to other manifestations of the adolescent hunting for thrills or something new, or their defiance of the adult world. Where there are essentially healthy personality elements, such experimentation, while thoroughly deplorable, is quite different from what happens to the true preaddict personality which seeks immediate and effortless gratification and suffers from a grave lack of healthy motivation.