Male adult drug addicts, through group therapy, changed from a 'conglomerate of chaotic individuals griping' about the bad treatment they received into a group of people who accepted each other and who recognized that their problems were individual rather than social and that the addiction was a symptom of their problems. The authors concluded that while the culture of the institution where the addict is confined is important for his progress, the current hopeless attitude toward psychiatric treatment is not justified and group therapy can be profitably used for addicts. To many addicts drug addiction is an alternative to psychosis or suicide.