Discussion of Alfred Flarsheim's Article, The Psychological Meaning of the Use of Marijuana and LSD in One Case

In this brief case history, Dr. Flarsheim has presented us with some interesting speculations, but his main concept, that of the role of parental death wishes in marijuana and LSD users seems very much open to question. While he stresses this as only a suggestion, he does

anticipate some general applicability. For this, his evidence is meager.

We are certainly at a disadvantage in finding common psychological denominators in such users. Despite the large number of young people who take these drugs, only those with emotional difficulties, either attendant on taking the drugs or separate from such usage, seek psychiatric help. We may thus see a rather skewed sample.

Those with lesser degrees of psychopathology, those who try drugs, even repeatedly, for the mystical experience and even the pleasure achieved, may not seek our help; Dr. Flarsheim's patient, on the other hand, would probably have reached the consultation room had these drugs never been discovered. Also, since so many more students experiment with marijuana than with LSD, it does not seem justified to lump the samples together and seek a common psychology of drug abuse.

The danger of extrapolating from the case of a severely disturbed patient, who utilizes drugs in dealing with a psychosis, to a general principle concerning the use of these drugs by subjects with a broad range of psychopathology, needs no emphasis. Further, while there may have been more clinical data, deleted because of space limitations, one would hope for more support for his hypothesis than the two phone calls from the parents. One must question a lack of conflict in these parents concerning their death wishes. That such masochistic patients may provoke hostility in parents is obvious, but one must differentiate between unmitigated death wishes and ambivalence. Both the phone calls and the mother's early over-concern bespeak an intense ambivalence.

I have been able to follow the development of heightened resentment in the mother of a ch