Authority and Addiction

Abstract

Drugs and Youth , edited by J. R. Wittenborn et al (proceedings), 485 pp, with illus, $22.75, Springfield, Ill: Charles C Thomas, Publisher, 1969. The problem of drug abuse challenges traditional medicine to expand its world view. These two books offer specialized knowledge for the interested physician. Technologyfurthered alienation and the constant crisis of cultural change impel man to use a variety of available drugs for tension-release, as an aid or replacement for adaptive abilities, and as an expression of antiestablishment attitudes and life-styles. Authority and Addiction is an interesting and well-written summary of experience with hard narcotics addicts over a five-year period at the Washington Heights Rehabilitation Center in New York City. Novelty of the Washington Heights approach to narcotics addiction is two-fold. Treatment at the center included joint management by probation officer (coercive) and case worker (permissive). Using a broader definition of addiction, the author emphasized that a person