Changes in Public Attitudes on Narcotic Addiction
E. MANSELL PATTISON M.D.1,
LYALL A. BISHOP 2, , and
ARNOLD S. LINSKY PH.D.3
1 Assistant professor of psychiatry and coordinator for social and community psychiatry, department of psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Wash. 98105, coordinator for social and community psychiatry
2 Medical student and summer psychiatric research fellow, department of psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Wash. 98105
3 Research associate in sociology, department of psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Wash. 98105
By sampling articles on narcotic addiction from the popular magazines over the past seven decades, the authors investigated trends in public attitudes toward the narcotic addict. In comparison with the public view in 1900, the addict is now seen as less responsible for his behavior, and the social milieu is given greater significance. Public recommendations about coping with the problem of addiction have shifted in emphasis from punitive methods to medical treatment and social rehabilitation. These findings are consistent with concurrent changes in the popular view of the nature of man.
