Failure Of Pleasure As A Cause Of Drug/Alcohol Abuse & Addictions
by James W. Prescott
The Truth Seeker, September/October 1989
Questions must be raised why there is such an enormous consumer market for alcohol and drugs of various kinds. What basic needs of the individual are being met by these substances?
Questions must be raised why there is such an enormous consumer market for alcohol and drugs of various kinds. What basic needs of the individual are being met by these substances? And why does alcohol/drug use escalate into addictions for some but not others? And why are there specific preferences for certain substances over others, e.g. marijuana to alcohol or vice-versa; stimulants to depressants or vice-versa; hallucinogens to alcohol or vice-versa and etc. These individual differences exist apart from whether the drugs are legal or illegal. The legality of the drug influences its access, cost and extent of consumption but not its primary psychobiological preference. Alcohol and nicotine, which are both highly addictive drugs, are readily available and supported by our culture compared to marijuana which is a non-addictive drug. Why is it that some cultures support certain kinds of addictive drugs (alcohol/nicotine) but not a non-addictive drug (marijuana), particularly when alcohol is clearly a far more harmful and dangerous drug than marijuana?; and also support certain addictive drugs but not other kinds of addictive drugs, re: methadone vs. heroin. Answers to these questions will be given later in this essay.
Why is it that some cultures support certain kinds of addictive drugs (alcohol/nicotine) but not a non-addictive drug (marijuana)...
Until we can understand these preferences and differences for drug consumption by individuals and their tolerance and intolerance by a given culture we will never be able to understand drug use, abuse and addictions.
In the essays by Dr. Siegel and Dr. Weil, one significant answer was given as to why there is such a great human need to consume drugs of various kinds. The need for intoxication to achieve "altered states of consciousness" is a basic human drive that is as important as food, water and sex. This human imperative was described as universal to all human cultures and reflected a positive human quest to realize a "spiritual" state of being. Thus, the use of intoxicating substances in these cultures involve religious ceremonies which are governed by specific rituals that prevent the abuse of these substances. A further protection against abuse and harm is assured by the use of these intoxicating botanical plants and flowers in their natural state. The reader is referred to the essays of Dr. Siegel and Dr. Weil for a more thorough discussion of these issues as to why the human animal is inherently compelled to seek "altered states of consciousness" and how intoxicating substances serve this positive human need.
The need for intoxication to achieve "altered states of consciousness" is a basic human drive that is as important as food, water and sex.
Before proceeding with the identification of the other major force that drives the human consumption of drugs (not to be confused with the economic benefits associated with drug prices) a further clarification is needed on the role of institutionalized religions in contributing to the elimination of the safe use of botanical intoxicants by the natural religions of the earth which resulted in the inevitable promotion of the non-religious use of distilled intoxicants. It is well known that the Christian missionaries made every effort to eliminate the use of botanical intoxicants in the religious ceremonies of the American Indians and other pre-industrial cultures. Why?
The natural religions of these people with the Shaman or Witch Doctor as their Guide had direct access or communication to their Spirit God(s). They needed no priest or minister to open these spiritual doors for them. In short, for the priests/ministers to gain control over these people (their culture), they had to control their spiritual and sexual lives. The destruction of their sacred botanical intoxicants, which was their primary path to the "divine," contributed significantly to the destruction of their religion. The priest/minister was now in control with the "new religion" where the "divine" could only be experienced through their rules and rituals of authority, power and control. Thus, the use of natural botanical intoxicants became illegal and the distilled artificial intoxicants, which are far more dangerous, became legal and divorced from the protection of spiritual ritual (see p. 17).
Secondary to the elimination of emotional pain and anguish is the absolute need for humans to experience pleasure.
There is, however, a far more powerful force that is driving the pathological need and consumption of drugs that frequently leads to abuse and addictions in modern cultures and in those "primitive" cultures that have become contaminated with modern cultures. It is simply this: it is the extraordinary depression/alienation; anxiety/boredom; and hostility/rage that afflicts contemporary man in "modern" cultures that is driving the drug/alcohol consumer market. This extraordinary emotional pain becomes intolerable and every attempt is made to drown this emotional pain in drugs and alcohol. Secondary to the elimination of emotional pain and anguish is the absolute need for humans to experience pleasure. The reduction or elimination of emotional pain (apparent pleasure) should not be confused with the positive states of pleasure which are essential for the experience of "altered states of consciousness" and the true spiritual state (integration of the conscious and subconscious/unconscious brain — mind).
And no amount of law enforcement can correct this state of cultural psychopathology!
Where does all this emotional pain and anguish come from?
It is apparent to this writer that the enormous pathological consumer market for drugs and alcohol will not go away until we can prevent the epidemics of depression/alienation; anxiety/boredom; and hostility/rage that is consuming most modern cultures. And no amount of law enforcement can correct this state of cultural psychopathology!
Where does all this emotional pain and anguish come from? It comes primarily from the following two sources: a) the failure of intimate physical affectional bonding in the maternal/infant relationship and in the father/child relationship; and b) the failure of intimate sexual affectional relationships during adolescent and adult development. In short, it is the failure of love at the biological, psychological, social and spiritual levels. When the biological foundations of love are not established during infancy/childhood then there is a domino effect which impairs the ability to develop love relationships at the psychological, social and spiritual levels. Each succeeding level of love is dependent upon the integrity of love at the preceding level.
...it is the failure of love at the biological, psychological, social and spiritual levels.
The easiest and quickest way to induce depression and alienation in an infant or child is not to touch it, hold it or carry it on your body. Extensive scientific research has documented that this form of sensory stimulation (touch and movement) during the formative periods of brain development is absolutely essential for normal growth and development of the brain and behavior. Deprivation of this form of sensory stimulation, which I have called "Somatosensory Affectional Deprivation" (SAD), results in abnormal development and function of the brain. Dependent upon the severity of this sensory deprivation there is structural damage to brain cells (e.g. abnormal dendrites, loss of opiate receptors); and abnormalities of brain function, as it is reflected in the neurochemical and bioelectrical activity of brain cells. It is these brain abnormalities induced by SAD that accounts for the abnormal emotional and social behaviors that are a consequence of SAD: depression/alienation; anxiety/boredom; and hostility/rage. These data have been reviewed in previous issues of The Truth Seeker and elsewhere and will not be reviewed further here.
The easiest and quickest way to induce depression and alienation in an infant or child is not to touch it, hold it or carry it on your body.
The reader is referred to Dr. Essman's paper in this issue of The Truth Seeker (page 13) entitled: Social Isolation and Brain Chemistry: Understanding Drug-Induced Behaviors that gives greater detail on how social isolation rearing (through the mechanisms of Somatosensory Affectional Deprivation) profoundly affects the neurochemistry of brain function; how such SAD reared animals have different behavioral responses to drugs than non-SAD reared animals; and in the view of this writer provides the principal psychobiological explanation for stimulus-seeking behaviors where drugs are a form of stimulus (sensation) seeking. These animal data have direct relevance to human behavior, in this writer's view.
Some of the principal consequences of social isolation rearing or SAD for the purposes of this essay are: a) hyperreactivity to sensory stimulation; b) avoidance of intimate touching and impaired ability to experience pleasure; d) increased tolerance of pain; and e) depression and uncontrolled violent behaviors. These effects occur in both infrahuman animals and in human animals. For example, in my cross-cultural studies I have been able to predict with 100% accuracy the violence (Killing, torturing, mutilation of enemy captured in warfare) and non-violence of 49 primitive cultures distributed throughout the world based upon the two predictor variables: a) the degree of infant physical affection; and b) whether premarital coitus was permitted or punished (Prescott, 1975, 1989).
Of particular significance here are the findings of Dr. Bonnet and his associates (1976) who documented in isolation reared mice the loss of opiate receptors in the brain, as well as reduced narcotic binding in these neural systems. Such neurobiological effects could well be the mechanism that underlies the impaired ability to experience pleasure in isolation reared (SAD) animals which would include the SAD reared human animal.
Why do these relationships exist? The answer is to be found in the nature of brain mechanisms and behavior. The neural circuits (networks) of the brain that mediate pleasure, when activated, inhibit the activity of those neural circuits of the brain that mediate depression and violence and vice-versa. When the pleasure circuits of the brain are damaged through SAD, then they can no longer perform their normative function of inhibiting and controlling those neural circuits (networks) that mediate depression and violence.
Since it is imperative that the emotional pain of depression/alienation (failed intimate love relationships—beginning with mother and father) be dealt with; and since there is now an impaired ability to experience intimate touching and integrated pleasure (contentment, joy); there are very few options left: drugs and alcohol to drown the emotional pain or to stimulate pharmacologically the pleasure that every human being needs to survive emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.
...it is integrated pleasure that is the key to understanding the relationship of pleasure to violence...
It is important to emphasize that it is integrated pleasure that is the key to understanding the relationship of pleasure to violence which includes violence against one's own body, either through self-mutilation or drug abuse. For somatosensory pleasure (physical pleasure of body touch and movement) to have its beneficial effects it must be integrated into higher brain centers. This integration cannot take place or only very incompletely in the SAD individual since the neural circuits of the brain for pleasure have not been completely developed or are so damaged that they cannot perform their normative functions. Thus, we see the need for continual "fixes of pleasure," whether it be with drugs, sex or other forms of pleasure-seeking that can never be fully satisfying. It is like being on a treadmill with no way to get off—like isolation reared monkeys who rock back and forth, hour after hour and day after day (see Time Life documentary film: Rock A Bye Baby).
It is like being on a treadmill with no way to get off...
In my theoretical model, I have proposed a four stage process of integration of pleasure into higher brain centers. With respect to sexual pleasures these are:
Reflexive Pleasure
a) Reflexive Pleasure that is limited to genital reflexes which is characterized by reduction of physiological tension but does not reflect a positive pleasure state. It is at this stage that sexual exploitation and violence occurs, and where the "pleasure" experienced is very short-lived and requires another quick "fix":
Associative Pleasure
b) Associative Pleasure includes generalized feelings of pleasure throughout the entire body but does not involve significant perceptual-cognitive changes; a generalized state of positive pleasure and well-being is experienced;
Integrative Pleasure
c) Integrative Pleasure includes more profound states of body pleasure as well as significant perceptual-cognitive sensations, e.g. drifting, floating, loss of perception of body boundaries and feeling "at one" with one's lover; this is the stage at which the dimension of "spirituality" first emerges in sexual love and is an amystical state: and
Transcendental Pleasure
d) Transcendental Pleasure is a mystical spiritual state of sexual love/pleasure/union that virtually no one in our culture can experience because of the lack of the pleasure neuronal networks of the brain that are required to experience this state of Transcendental Pleasure. The insufficient development of intimate physical affectional bonding during infancy and childhood and repressive sexuality during adolescent and adult development are the principal but not exclusive causes for failure to experience this state of Transcendental Pleasure.
It is emphasized that each of the above stages requires an increasing degree of neuronal integration of brain structures where the final stage involves an integration of the neocortical brain (conscious mind) with limbic brain structures (subconscious/unconscious mind) which is accomplished through the activity of the cerebellum—one of the brain structures damaged by SAD—Somatosensory Affectional Deprivation.
A more extensive treatment of this theory with supporting data can be found in my article: Affectional Bonding for the Prevention of Violent Behaviors: Neurobiological, Psychological and Religious/Spiritual Determinants (1989, see references). It is emphasized that when I use the terms "mystical" and "spiritual" they refer to human experiences—not to "supernatural" or "divine" experiences. It is this neurointegration of neocortical, limbic and cerebellar brain structures (the conscious, sub/unconscious minds) that makes "mystical/spiritual" experiences possible.
...sensory deprivation of maternal physical affection during infancy and childhood results in an impaired ability to experience sexual pleasure later in life.
In my attempts to document the relationship between deprivation of physical affection, violence, drug abuse and alcohol-induced violence in contemporary cultures, I developed a questionnaire: Index of Human Affection to assess these relationships. Some of these data have been published and Tables 1 and 2 are reprinted from my article Body Pleasure and The Origins of Violence first published in The Futurist (April 1975) and later reprinted in The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists (November 1975) and in other publications.
Table 1 shows the natural association of values and behaviors that was determined by a statistical analysis called Factor Analysis. The number (coefficient) before each statement represents the strength which that statement has on that list or profile. The highest value that can be reached is 1.0. This data was obtained on 96 college students and documents the statistically significant linkages between: a) approval of violence; b) condemnation of physical pleasure; c) alcohol and drugs are rated as more satisfying than sex; and d) endorsement of conservative political values.
Table 2 provides a more direct assessment of the relationship between the use of drugs/alcohol and sexual values and behaviors. The rejection of premarital sexuality (rejection of sexual pleasure) is highly and statistically significantly related to the use and preference of drugs and alcohol to premarital sexual pleasure. Thus, drugs and alcohol become substitutes for the natural mechanisms of the body (sexual pleasure) to reduce emotional tension. It should be noted that the highest correlations with the rejection of premarital sex are: a) Drugs are more satisfying than sex (.73); b) Alcohol is more satisfying than sex (.70); and d) I get hostile and aggressive when I drink alcohol (.68).
In addition, the relationship between reports of deprivation of maternal physical affection with a variety of statements involving drugs, sex and violence for male prisoners and normal college students were evaluated. These data were obtained on 75 male prisoners and 456 normal college students. Prisoners who agreed to both of the maternal deprivation statements were compared with prisoners who disagreed with both of the maternal deprivation statements: a) My mother did not hug and kiss me a lot; b) My mother does not really care about me;) and in terms of values/behaviors involving touching, sex, drugs and violence. The same procedure was followed for the normal college students.
Listed below are the highly significant relationships (PHI coefficient) between the deprivation of maternal physical affection and care with a variety of items involving dysfunctional alcohol/drug use and violence. The items most strongly related to the prisoner's reports of deprivation of maternal physical affection were:
a) I do not get enough touching (.59)
b) My father does not
really care about me (.52)
A culture will support drug usage that is consistent with its own social and moral values.
c) I sometimes feel like killing myself (.51)
d) Drugs are more
satisfying than sex (.44)
e) Sexual pleasures help build a bad moral
character (.44)
f) Alcohol is more satisfying than sex (.43)
g)
Prostitution should be punished by society (.42)
h) My parents have
many unfriendly arguments (.40)
i) I take drugs more often than I
experience orgasm (.39)
j) I usually do not get much pleasure from
my sexual activity (.39)
The last of the above statistically significant relationship(s) deserves special emphasis since it supports the SAD thesis that the sensory deprivation of maternal physical affection during infancy and childhood results in an impaired ability to experience sexual pleasure later in life.
There were no significant relationships between deprivation of maternal physical affection with the above statements for the normal college students. These data are consistent with the well known fact that prisoners come from dysfunctional and non-affectional families, as it is reflected in the high incidence of child abuse and neglect in the lives of prisoners. These data were presented at the "Colloquium on the Correlates of Crime and the Determinants of Criminal Behavior" with my associate Dr. Douglas Wallace that was sponsored by the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (1978).
The above findings are also consistent with the results of Dr. Herbert Barry (reported in this issue of The Truth Seeker) that the primitive cultures which gives the least physical affection to their infants (low body contact of infant with caretaker(s) and high infant crying) were the cultures that were characterized by the greatest degree of drunkenness (Barry, 1976). Given the advice of Dr. Spock (which was followed by millions of mothers) that it was O.K. to let your baby cry itself to sleep and the rise of infant/child day care centers where there is little or no bonding of the infant/child with mother or anyone else, is it so surprising that our culture is so characterized by emotional psychopathology?
How do these data and theoretical perspectives help explain why certain cultures support certain drugs but not others. For America, the answer is clear. A culture will support drug usage that is consistent with its own social and moral values. America is a very competitive and violent society and will support drugs that are consistent with this value system and oppose drugs that do not support this value system. Alcohol is one of the most potent facilitators of aggressive-violent behaviors and thus, is supported despite its high addictiveness and health damaging consequences.
...marijuana is one of the most potent drugs that inhibits aggressive and violent behaviors.
Similarly, marijuana is one of the most potent drugs that inhibits aggressive and violent behaviors. Further, it facilitates the experience of pleasure which is basically opposed by the moral value system of the American culture except when it is combined with violence, i.e. sadomasochism. This is why films that portray rape can be shown in our neighborhood theaters, e.g. Clockwork Orange, Straw Dogs but not films of sexual pleasure that contain little or no violence—these films are considered obscene.
In the U.S. Government document Marijuana and Health, A Report to the Congress from the Secretary, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (February 23, 1971), the following summary statements were made:
- "From the standpoint of lethality, cannabis (marijuana) products must be counted among the safer of the drugs in widespread use. Death directly attributable to the drug's effects is extremely rare even at very high doses" (p.5);
- "Long before the recent debate over this effect, the Indian Hemp Commission of l893-94 found no evidence in the Indian population that marijuana use was a stepping stone to the use of opiates in any substantial number of people" (p.88);
- "The Indian Hemp Commission concluded that the overall incidence of cannabis-induced violence was negligible" (p.92);
- Quoting from the Chopras study of some 30 years of marijuana use: "With regard to premeditated crime, in some cases the drugs (bhang, ganja and charas) not only do not lead to it, but actually act as deterrents. One of the most important actions of cannabis is to quiet and stupefy the individual so that there is no tendency to violence" (p.92);
When members of the "Rowdy" group switched membership to the "Cool" group they switched from alcohol to marijuana use.
In the United States, Professor Herbert Blumer and his associates at the University of California conducted a study of drug use in a sub-cultural group called "Rowdies"—those who were predisposed to aggression and fighting and another group called "Cools"—who were calm, cool, collected and showed little or no tendency to aggression and fighting. The "Rowdy" group preferred alcohol and the "Cool" group preferred marijuana. When members of the "Rowdy" group switched membership to the "Cool" group they switched from alcohol to marijuana use (p.93).
Pleasure with drugs is not acceptable but pain and violence with drugs (alcohol) is acceptable.
A similar analyses explains why we can support the use of an addictive drug methadone but not the addictive drug heroin. Methadone takes away the "high"—the pleasure—of heroin. Pleasure with drugs is not acceptable but pain and violence with drugs (alcohol) is acceptable. The pleasure of sex is not acceptable but sexual violence is acceptable. Note the strong objections to making condoms available in our high school clinics and the inability to advertise condoms on TV. The use of condoms is an explicit acknowledgement of sex for "pleasure only" which is strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and other conservative religious groups. For the same reasons the Vatican condemns masturbation as "an intrinsically and seriously disordered act." (1975).
It is this anti-sexual pleasure ethic of the conservative fundamentalist religions that helps compel the use of drugs and alcohol as a substitute for sexual affectional relationships.
It is this anti-sexual pleasure ethic of the conservative fundamentalist religions that helps compel the use of drugs and alcohol as a substitute for sexual affectional relationships. It is for these reasons that the most sexually exploitive and repressive cultures are also the most violent and drug abusing cultures; they happen to be those same cultures that are most heavily indoctrinated with fundamentalist monotheistic values, e.g. the overwhelming Catholic countries of Latin America. Compare these countries with the Nordic and Scandinavian countries who have the least involvement with fundamentalist monotheistic values and whose problems with violence and drugs are minor compared to the Latin American countries and the USA. Within this context it merits reemphasis that the use of natural botanical intoxicants by the Indian cultures of North and South America have been carried out for hundreds of years without serious harmful effects or violence; and that this changed with the advent of the Christian missionaries.
...the most sexually exploitive and repressive cultures
This brief essay could only highlight some of the enormous complexities that underlie drug use, abuse and their associated addiction. Clearly, the law enforcement approach is totally incapable of addressing the complexities of the biological, social, psychological, religious, economic and other cultural factors that drive our drug/alcohol abuses and addictions. As long as there is child abuse and neglect, sexual exploitation and sexual violence, and the fundamental inequality of women in patriarchal monotheistic cultures that drives violence against women and children (and thus failure of affectional bonding), which also drives women's violence against her own children, there will always be drug/alcohol abuse and addiction.
REFERENCES:
Barry, III, H. (1976) Cross cultural evidence that dependency conflict motivates drunkenness. In: Everett, M.W., Waddell, J.O., and Health, D.B., (Eds.). Cross-Cultural Approaches to the Study of Alcohol. Mouton Publishers, Paris; Aldine, Chicago.
Bonnet, K.A., Miller, J.M. and Simon, E.J. (1976): The effects of Chronic Opiate Treatment and Social Isolation on Opiate Receptors in the Rodent Brain. In: Kosterlitz, H.W. (Ed): Opiates and Endogenous Opioid Peptides. Elseview, Amsterdam.
Essman, W.B. (1971): Neurochemical changes associated with isolation and environmental stimulation. Biological Psychiatry (3), 141.
Marijuana and Health (1971). A report to Congress from the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Washington, D.C.
Marijuana: Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1893-1894 Silver Spring, MD. The Thomas Jefferson Press, 1969 (Introduction and Glossary by John Kaplan) Reprinted, original published in 1894.
Prescott, J.W. Body Pleasure and The Origins Of Violence. The Futurist April 1975.
Prescott, J.W. Somatosensory Affectional Deprivation (SAD) Theory of Drug and Alcohol Use (1980) In: Theories On Drug Abuse (Lettieri, D.J. Sayers, M., and Pearson, H.W. Eds.) NIDA Research Monograph 30. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Rockville, MD.
Prescott, J.W. (1989) Afftectional Bonding for the Prevention of Violent Behaviors: Neurobiological, Psychological and Religious/Spiritual Determinants. In: Violent Behavior Vo. 1: Assessment and Intervention. (Hertzberg, L.J., et. al. Eds) PMA Publishing Corp. New York.
Prescott, J.W. and Wallace, D. (1978) Role of Pain and Pleasure in The Development of Destructive Behaviors: A Psychometric Study of Parenting, Sexuality, Substance Abuse and Criminality. In: Colloquium on the Correlates of Crime and the Determinants of Criminal Behavior. National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice LEAA Washington, U.C.
Siegel, R.K. (1989) Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise. E.P. Dutton New York.
Weil, A. (1972). The Natural Mind Houghton Mifflin Company Boston. (Rev. 1986).
ON PLEASURESome of your youth seek pleasure THE PROPHET |
Violence and Pleasure: The Attitudes of College Students
The reciprocal relationship of violence and pleasure holds true in modern industrial nations as well as primitive societies, neuropsychologist Prescott believes. He tested his theory by means of a questionnaire given to 96 college students (average age: 19). The results showed that students who have relatively negative attitudes toward sexual pleasure tend to favor harsh punishment for children and to believe that violence is necessary to solve problems.
In Prescott's experiment, students rated a series of statements on a scale of 1 to 6, where 1 indicated strong agreement and 6 strong disagreement. Through a statistical technique (factor analysis), Prescott developed a personality profile of the violent person.
Table 1 shows the degree of relationship among the various statements which reflect social and moral values. The figures at left, known as "loadings," are treated like correlation coefficients. They indicate the strength with which each variable contributes to the overall personality description of the respondent as defined by this specific profile.
Table 2 shows how students' attitudes toward premarital and extramarital sex correlated with their attitudes toward alcohol and drugs. The number in the r (correlation coefficient) column reflects the strength of the relationship between attitudes toward drugs and attitudes toward premarital and extramarital sex. A perfect relationship would be 1.0, indicating that one variable can be perfectly predicted from the other. Correlations in the .50 to .70 range are regarded as highly significant. The results indicate that people who reject premarital sex are likely to prefer alcohol and drugs to sex and to become hostile and aggressive when they drink alcohol.
THE FUTURIST l975
TABLE 1
Somatosensory Index of Human Affection
Factor 1: 66.6%
| Violence Approved | |
| .85 | Hard physical punishment is good for children who disobey a lot. |
| .8l | Physical punishment and pain help build a strong moral character. |
| .80 | Abortion should be punished by society. |
| .76 | Capital punishment should be permitted by society. |
| .75 | Violence is necessary to really solve our problems. |
| .74 | Physical punishment should be allowed in the schools. |
| .69 | I enjoy sadistic pornography. |
| .54 | I often feel like hitting someone. |
| .43 | I can tolerate pain very well. |
| Physical Pleasure Condemned | |
| .84 | Prostitution should be punished by society. |
| .80 | Responsible premarital sex is not agreeable to me. |
| .78 | Nudity within the family has a harmful influence upon children. |
| .73 | Sexual pleasures help build a weak moral character. |
| .72 | Society should interfere with private sexual behavior between adults. |
| .69 | Responsible extramarital sex is not agreeable to me. |
| .61 | Natural fresh body odors are often offensive. |
| .47 | I do not enjoy affectional pornography. |
| Alcohol and Drugs Rated Higher Than Sex | |
| .70 | Alcohol is more satisfying than sex. |
| .65 | Drugs are more satisfying than sex. |
| .60 | I get hostile and aggressive when I drink alcohol. |
| .49 | I would rather drink alcohol than smoke marijuana. |
| .45 | I drink alcohol more often than I experience orgasm. |
| Political Conservatism | |
| .82 | I tend to be conservative in my political points of view. |
| .77 | Age (Older). |
| .51 | I often dream of either floating, flying, falling, or climbing. |
| .45 | My mother is often indifferent toward me. |
| .42 | I often get "uptight" about being touched. |
| .40 | I remember when my father physically punished me a lot. |
The collaboration of Douglas Wallace, Human Sexuality Program, University of California Medical School, San Francisco, in the questionnaire study is gratefully acknowledged.
TABLE 2
| Premarital Sex Not Agreeable | Extramarital Sex Not Agreeable | ||
| Drug Relationships | Mean | (5.3) | (3.5) |
| r | r | ||
| I use and experiment with drugs quite often. | 4.8 | .52 | .18 |
| I smoke marijuana quite often. | 4.0 | .27 | .05 |
| I drink alcoholic beverages quite often | 3.8 | .32 | .11 |
| I get hostile and aggressive when I drink alcohol. | 5.1 | .68 | .30 |
| I would rather drink alcohol than smoke marijuana. | 3.4 | .35 | .32 |
| Alcohol is more satisfying than sex. | 5.3 | .70 | .34 |
| Drugs are more satisfying than sex. | 5.4 | .73 | .34 |
| I take drugs more often than I experience orgasm. | 4.8 | .47 | .13 |
| I drink alcohol more often than I experience orgasm. | 4.8 | .44 | .17 |