Abstracts
| Date | 01 September 1968 |
| Published date | 01 September 1968 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486586800100313 |
Abstracts
Erotic Professional Indiscretions, Actual or
Assumed,
and
Alleged (1968). Medlicott,
R. W. Aust.N.Z.J.Psychiat. 2 17-23.
THE
author's
initial assumption in
the
paper
was
that
actual
and
falsely alleged
erotic professional indiscretions
are
actings-out of
transference
and counter-
transference
phenomena of a basically
incestuous
nature.
This is
supported
by
a high level of
similarity
between
the
setting, individual
characteristics
and
the
family relationships of
the
persons
involved in erotic professional indiscretions
described in
the
paper
and
the
parent-
child incest
patients
discussed in an earlier
paper
(vide infra).
The
incest
barrier
and
"privilege" have
much
in common.
They
appear
to be
designed
to
allow aclose dependent
relationship
for
specific purposes
with
a
guarantee
that
ultimate
independence will
be achieved. If
the
upbringing, education
or
treatment
has
been
successful
the
child,
student
or
patient
is
free
to
develop his
own
independent life.
It could well be
said
that
the
retention
ofadegree of formality in
both
the
family
and
the
professional relationships serves
a
very
good
purpose. The
author
has
been
impressed often
by
children's
dismay
and
confusion
at
their
parent's
attempts
to
dispense
with
their
age
differences
and
assigned roles. While
between
mature
adults, professional relationships
need
not
be
too
formal,
patients
generally expect
and
respect
a
reasonable
formality. There
should be something of
the
patriarch
to
both
fathers
and
professional persons.
As
both
incest
and
alleged erotic
professional indiscretions involve universal
wishes
and
fantasies
centring
round
the
oedipal
situation
it is
often
difficult to
distinguish
actual
from falsely alleged
offences. It is also- appreciated
that
there
are
pre-oedipal as well as oedipal
phenomena involved in
these
relationships,
and
that
the
acting-out of
erotic
indis-
cretions contains
aggressive
as well as
erotic
impulses.
(See also "Lot
and
His
Daughters-Parent-
Child Incest in
the
Bible
and
Mythology"
(1967) MedHcott, R. W. Aust, N.Z.J.
Psychiat, 1 134-139;
and
"Parent-Child
Incest"
(1967) Idem,
Ibid
180-187).
191
Cannabis (1968). Leading Article
MOO.J.
Aust. i 99-101.
THIS Leader comments
that
whilst
there
is no evidence
that
marihuana
produces
physical dependence,
nevertheless
psycho-
logical dependence
"seems
to
be
all
too
common". It is also
noted
that
debate
regarding the issue of
the
legality of
taking
the
drug
is frequently
not
free
of emotional
overtones. To
this
point
the
writer
commented upon
the
advertisement
in
The
Times (London) which designated
the
law
in Britain as "immoral". In this
advertisement also
appeared
the
comment
that
"the
crime
at
issue is
not
so much
drug
abuse as heresy".
The
Leader quotes
from Dr. Felix Brown
who
has
stated
that
the
heresy is
not
against
any
religious or
political belief
but
that
the
real
heresy
is
"belief
that
sensation
and
experience is
the
essence or even
purpose
of life,
with
the
corollary
that
all
varied
and
exotic
and
even hallucinatory experience enrich
life"
what
he
terms
"the
heresy
of
the
half'life".
It is
worth
ending
with
a
quotation
from Dr.
Brown's
letter
to
The
Times:
It is
sad
:thalt
your
young
people
are
now
prepared
to
march
for
marihuana
and
not
for
some
other
cause, as
they
used
to.
It
is as
though
they
have
lost
faith
in
action
and
wish
to
contract
out.
Humanity's
problems
and
causes have
never
been
more
numerous,
urgent
and
difficult
or
more
demanding of well
thought
out
action.
The
struggle
against
poverty, overcrowding, racial conflict
and
against
war
and
mental
illness
are
causes
which
require
the
utmost
thought
and
striving by
the
new
generation. Can
they
not
be given
faith
in
the
need
to
strive
for
!these
causes
and
not
to
"tune
in
and
drop
out":
surely
the
saddest
and
most
hopeless philosophy of life
which
has ever emerged?
(See also "Bibliography on Cannabis: A
Medlars
Search"
in Brit.MOO.J. (1967) 3
430-431 and "A Case
for
Cannabis"
Stafford-Clark, D. (Ibid 435.)
Young
Drug
Addicts: Addiction
and
its
Consequences (1968) Rosenberg, C. M.
Med.J.Aust. i1031-33.
THE
author
comments
upon
the
changing
pattern
of addiction in a
number
of
countries and notes, in
particular,
that
the
drug-taking population is becoming
younger,
that
they
suffer frequently from
personality disorders
and
that
they
tend
to
come from
adverse
backgrounds. Most
were
of
average
intelligence
but
had
poor
school records.
The
paper
is concerned
with
an
analysis
of
50
cases
of
drug
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