Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 13 (1984) 297-303 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd.

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PERSONALITY CORE DYNAMICS AND DRUG PREFERENCE

S.G. SHOHAM, I. BARUCH, G. RAHAV, R. MARKOWSKI, F. CHARD and M. BEN-HAIM

Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv (Israel)

(Received January 25th, 1984)

SUMMARY

The aim of this study is to investigate the possible link between Shoham’s personality-core theory [l] and addiction to hard drugs. Basing ourselves on Kleinean premises, that the oral stage is critical in the formation of behavioural patterns, which are influential throughout life, we hypothesize that in the oral stage two opposing vectors, ‘separation’ and ‘participation’ are initiated. By ‘participation’ we refer to the identification of ego with an external object or symbol, and continuous tendency to lose the personal identity by fusion with this object or symbol. ‘Separation’ is the opposite vector and expresses ego’s tendency to incorporate the external object or symbol. These vectors form two multidimensional personality axes, on which the different personality types and behavioral patterns can be anchored.

This study aims at investigating the connection between these two vectors and drug addiction. We view drug addiction as a functional behaviour pattern, which brings the individual to a state of internal balance.

Shoham’s personality theory hypothesizes the derivation of behavioural patterns of different personality ‘types’, according to the strength of the two vector - the ‘separant’ and ‘participant’ types.

It is hypothesized that the drug use and the experience gained by using the specific drug by different personality types will vary according to the prominence of the core personality vector. The potency of these vectors is related to an early oral (participant) or a later oral (separant) fixation. The main hypotheses of the study are: (a) There are two polar types of addicts, which may be placed at the extremes of the ‘separant-participant’ personality continuum. (b) The drug preference varies according to the strength of the ‘separant’ and ‘participant’ vectors. The ‘participant’ addicts will prefer depressant drugs, whereas ‘separant’ addicts will prefer stimulants. The results of the present study support these hypotheses.

Key words: Personality core - Addiction - Participation - Separation - Drug preference

0376-8716/84/$03.00 o 1984 Elsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland Ltd. Printed and Published in Ireland

The modem approach to addiction started with the establishment of the concept of addiction as a functional behavioural expression of basic per- sonality needs. These needs are a configuration of bio-psychosocial com- ponent needs, For example, a correlation between sensation seeking, anxiety and the degree of substance abuse, raised ideas about drug abuse as an attempt to find relief from internal tensions, rooted in unsatisfied drives [ 21.

Much of the current psychological literature on the subject of drug addiction, is directed to a classification of drug addiction types. One of the earliest classifications of drug addicts by Collins, [3] d~ferentiates between 4 types of addicts: (1) the ‘occasional addict’ - a sporadic and non-steady user of drugs; (2) the ‘neurotic addict’ - for whom the drug use is an ex- pression of an intra-psychic conflict; (3) the ‘psychopathic; (4) the ‘psy- chotic’ addict.

Another classification of personality types in addiction, was developed by performing factor analysis of the characteristics of 440 subjects involved in substance abuse [4], This analysis revealed the following types of drug abuses: (1) Alcoholic - usually a conformist adult with a criminal record. (2) Barbiturate and secondary tranquilizer addict - usually adult, middle class, helpless, conformist with no other drug experience. (3) Narcotic sub- stances (heroin, illegal methadon, opiates and h~luc~ogenes) addict - non~onfo~ist, sensitive and tolerant to deviance. (4) M~juana, amphet- amines and tranquilizer addicts - mainly young, alienated and characterized by a variant drug abuse history, which relates to drugs as an escape from problems and as a means of communication. (5) Metaqualon, secondary tranquilizers and barbiturate addicts who feel pressed by outside stress, helplessness, insensitivity and introversion. (6) Hallucinogenes, marijuana and amphetamine users.

The different approaches to addictive behaviour are related to the dif- ferential emphasis placed on biological, social and intra-psychic factors. The present exploratory study focuses on the intra-psychic factors, as expounded by Shoham’s personalitycore theory [ 51.

According to this theory, the organism strives for an internal balance between two sets of vectors arranged along a continuum. These two core vectors are two central vectors - denoted as ‘participant’ and ‘separant’. ‘Participant’ refers to the identification of ego with the other, with an object or with an external symbol. Dynamic participation means losing one’s identity by being absorbed by the external object or the other. The ‘separant’ vector is the desire to absorb the object and incorporate it into oneself. The disparity between the desire for fusion and the subjective distance, which exists between ego and the realization of his goal, is the ‘Tantalus Ratio’ and is determined by the potency of the vectors towards, or away from, fusion with the object. These vectors are determined by the basic scaffolding of the three main stages of human development: the birth process, the crystali- zation of the separate ego at the end of early orality and the tr~sition from

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childhood to puberty, by normative rites of passage. In our theoretical model, we claim that an early oral fixation before the formation of the separate self will more likely result in a participant personality type. A later oral fixation, after the formation of the separate self, is more likely to result in a separant personality type.

The interaction between child and mother during the oral stage of human development, effects an interplay with the core personality vectors, to form a scaffolding of separant and p~icipant personality types along a con- tinuum [ 51.

A early oral fixation will be linked to a participant personality, whose object relations will be characterized by a ‘bad me’, surrounded by a ‘good object’. A later oral fixation will be linked to a separant personality type, with a ‘good me’ and ‘bad surroundings’ object relationships.

The quest of the participant personality is to merge with his surroundings by being absorbed into them. The separant type on the other hand, aims to incorporate (swallow) his surroundings within himself. Each personality type tries to achieve an internal balance, according to the direction and intensity of his core vectors. This balance can be either ‘normal’ or ‘patho- logical’. We regard drug addiction as one such abnormal functional behaviour. The internal systemic balance of each individual is peculiar to himself, depending on the unique configuration and interaction of every individual’s core vectors. Hence the utilization of drugs, as a means to achieve this balance, will also vary with different personality types. Our two main hypotheses are, therefore: (a) that the drug addiction of an individual will be linked to the sep~ant-p~icip~t personality continuum; (b) that the drug preferred by the addict will depend on his being a ‘participant’ or ‘separant’ personality type. The ‘separant’ addict, desiring to ‘swallow’ the world, will tend to prefer drugs with activating characteristics. The ‘participant’ addict, on the other hand, will prefer ‘depressant’ drug, moti- vated by his desire to be ‘swallowed’ by his surroundings.

It is assumed that the influence of the drug on its user depends on the interaction between the type of drug and the personality type. .Hence, different personality types will express themselves in the different experi- ences, for which the addicts look in the drug use.

We hypothesize therefore, that the “separant’, swallower-type addict, will tend to be a sensation-seeker on the Zuckerman scale [6 1. He will also tend to be a ‘reducer’ in Petrie’s terms [7]. On the other hand, the ‘p~icipant’ who aims to be incorporated (swallowed) by his surroundings, will tend to be averse to stimuli and be an ‘augmenter’ on the Petrie scale.

METHOD

The subjects were 25 patients from the drug rehabilitation centre of The Ministry of Health in Jaffa, Israel, between the ages of 25 and 50. The sub- jects received daily, measured quantities of methadon in order to prevent

withdrawal symptoms and to enable psychiatric intervention and a con- tinuous rehab~~tion programme. Two subjects were female, nineteen were Jewish and six Arab. The duration of the drug use was between 5 and 20 years and the period of stay in the rehabilitation centre between 6 months and 11 years.

Instruments (I) Interests and Preference Inventory*: a questionnaire analagous to

Zuckerman’s sen~tion~eek~g scale [6]. The authors used the Hebrew version of this questionnaire**. The questionnaire checks the extent to which the individual seeks stimulation and activities that arouse sensation. The questionnaire consists of 45 true and false questions, the final score being the total number of sensation seeking items, less the questions sup- posed to be indicative of social desirability.

(2) Petrie’s Augmenting-Reducing Test [ 71:. an instrument developed to determine the extent to which the individual reacts to a stimulus, aug- menting or reducing it. The instrument is built of a number of parts - a calibrated wood rod on which the subject estimates the width of measuring blocks that are of different widths, a blindfold and a stand. The subject is blindfolds and has to estimate the width of the blocks with each arm separately. This estimation is then checked on the measuring rod. These estimates are recorded by the experimenter. The subject’s score is the difference between his estimation and the actual width. Certain changes were made in the procedure, to prevent extreme fatigue of our addict population. Such procedural changes have been made in previous researches [S] . ~e~~ernen~ (one ex~ination for each arm) of 4 wood blocks and measuring sticks yielded 8 scores per subject.

Semi-structured interview The purpose of the interview was to investigate the experiences and

sensations of the subjects, while under the influence of drugs, in order to determine their drug preference. The preferred drugs according to the frequencies distribution were divided into 3 main groups: (a) heroin; (b) opium; (c) other drugs (hashish, persian coce, cocaine and amphetamine). The subject’s experiences were content analysed and scored for their measure of ‘swallowing’ and ‘swallowedness’. The content analysis was performed by three judges, who received instructions to score each sentence on a nine point scale of both tendencies. Each sentence then received a score on both the ‘swallowing’ and ‘swallowedness’ measure. Test-retest, and inter-rater reliabilities were computed. The test-retest reliability, ranged between 60 and 70 and the inter-rater correlations are presented in Table I.

*B. Segal, Interest and Preference Inventory, University of Alaska, Anchorage, 1979, unpublished. **S.E. Hobfoll and T. Ron, Hebrew Version: Interest and Preference Inventory, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Israel, unpublished.

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TABLE I

INTERJUDGE RELIABILITY OF ‘SWALLOWEDNESS’ AND ‘SWALLOWING’

Judge

1 2 3

Swallowedneas

1 2

1.00 0.72 1.00 0.65 0.73

3

1.00

Swallowing

1 2 3

1.00 0.74 1 .oo 0.55 0.64 1.00

Procedure The interviewer met each subject individually twice. The sittings were

at an interval of 1 week. During the first sitting, the semi-structured inter- view was conducted and during the second sitting, the questionnaires were administered in the following order: Firstly, the interests and preference inventory and, secondly, the Petrie ‘Augmenting-Reducing Test’. Each sitting lasted an hour and took place at The Jaffa Rehabilitation Centre.

RESULTS

The 8 Petrie scores were factor analyzed and one factor that accounted for 82% of the variance was found. For each subject, a score on this factor was computed. A one-way analysis of variance was performed on the variable of the preferred drug with the other variables. No significant differences were found between the groups. Therefore an analysis of co-variance was per- formed where ‘swallowedness’ and ‘swallowing’ were the dependent variables and drug preference the independent variable; age, length of use, sensation- seeking and Petrie, were the co-variates. The results of this analysis are presented in Tables II and III. Table II shows a minor effect of the Petrie test

TABLE II

ANALYSIS OF CO-VARIANCE OF THE SCORE ON THE ‘SWALLOWING’/ ‘SWALLOWEDNESS’ MEASURE

.

Source of sum of Degrees of Mean F Significance variance squares freedom squares

Co-variates Petrie 9.84 1 9.84 3.22 0.09 Age 0.94 1 0.94 0.31 0.60 Sensation-seeking 7.67 1 7.67 2.51 0.15 Duration of use 0.25 1 0.25 0.08 0.80

Drug preference 23.5 2 11.75 3.85 0.05 Residual 54.92 18 3.05

Total 97.11 24 4.05

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TABLE III

ANALYSIS OF CO-VARIANCE OF THE SCORE ON THE ‘SWALLOWED’ MEASURE

Source of variance

Co-variates Petrie Age Sensation-seeking Duration of use

Drug preference Residual

Total 78.85 24 3.28

Sum of squares

Degrees of Mean freedom squares

1.26 1 1.26 0.54 0.50 0.13 1 0.13 0.06 0.90 8.06 1 8.08 3.46 0.90 0.81 1 0.81 0.35 0.60

26.67 2 13.34 5.73. 0.01 41.93 6 2.33 2.64 0.05

F Significance

and a significant effect of the preferred drug variable. According to this table, preference explains 24% of the sum of squares, i.e. the correlation ratio (eta) between preferred drug and the measure of ‘swallowing’/‘swal- lowedness’ is 0.49. The mean of the measure of swallowing is highest in the group which uses hashish, persian coce, cocaine and various amphetamines and lowest for those who use heroin. Table III shows a significant effect for preferred drug variable (P < 0.01). The mean of ‘swallowedness’ show that heroin users are high on this measure and the other groups are low on this measure.

DISCUSSION

The aim of this study was to investigate the connection between per- sonality types - as related to the ‘separant’ and ‘participant’ core vectors - and addiction to drugs. We hypothesized the theoretical possibility of the existence of two types of addiction: one that expresses the dynamics of participation and the other of separation in the personality-core-dynamics. The findings largely support the research hypothesis_ The ‘separant’ addict - the object ‘swallower’ - tends to prefer activating drugs such as cocaine. He looks for arousing drugs, the Nemo-physiolo~c~ effects of which are arousing. The ‘separant’ addict is a reducer on Petrie’s instrument, which means that he is hungry for stimuli from his surroundings.

The ‘participant’ addict, on the other hand, seeks to be ‘swallowed’ by his surroundings. He prefers heroin which has a depressing neurophysiological effect. The ‘participant’ seeks in his drug experience the feelings of self annihilation. He is, therefore, an augmentor on Petrie’s scale and averse to stimuli.

One can see the likeness between the classification of Braucht and Kirby [4] and the addict types found by our present study. Those who prefer the ~~uc~ogenic drugs, ~phe~mines, marijuana, barbiturates or major

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tranquilizers are characterized by a rich history of drug experience, aliena- tion and aggression and can be placed on the separant side of our separant/ participant continuum. On the other hand, the participant addicts correspond to those groups of Braucht and Kirby who, preferring barbiturates, minor tranquilizers and metaqualones, feel helpless in the world full of pressures. They are introverts and conformists.

Our central claim is that the use of drugs is one of the ways, by which individuals try to cope with their intra-psychic imbalance. Other possible avenues to achieve balance, would be creativity, revelation and love.

The present research can be regarded as a suggestion for further inter- d~cip~n~ studies on drug addiction. The personality types can be linked to physiological processes and both may be related to cultural factors. The latter may be, for instance, the separant or participant ‘social character’ of a culture, which may be linked to the preference of some drugs over others. However, the most important finding of this study, is that the drug preference of the addict is related to the type of his subjective experience. This experi- ence, may be considered an indicator of his personality core dynamics. The personality core is therefore related to the choice of drugs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to acknowledge the help given to them in the course of the research by Dr. M. Reiter, the staff and patients of the ~u~~~ ~e~u~~~~- tation Centre for Drug Addicts.

REFERENCES

1 S.G. Shoham, J. Genet. Psychol., 126 (1976) 119. 2 E. Kaestner, L. Rosen and P. Appel, J. Consult. Clin. Psychol., 45 (1977) 462. 3 H. Collins, Psychol. Rep., 44 (1979) 603. 4 G.N. Braucht and M.W. Kirby, J. Consult. Clin. Psychol., 46 (1978) 1463. 5 D.G. Shoham et al., Genet. Psychol. Monogr., 96 (1977) 165. 6 M. Zuckerman, Sensation Seeking: beyond the optimal level of arousal, Hillsdale,

New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New York, 1979. 7 A. Petrie, Indi~duality in Pain and Suffering, Chicago Press, Chicago, 1967. 8 B. Spilker and E. Gallaway, Psychophysiology, 6 (1969) 49.