Narcotics research, rehabilitation, and treatment. Hearings, Ninety ...

496Mr. Blo-mmer. Can the learning behavior that he must acquire beinduced by chemical means or is psychotherapy enough?Dr. ViLLARREAL. Psychotherapy has been enough for some peoplebecause it generates competing behavior. It straightens them out inother ways so they can have other forces engage their behavior andnot leave them time to go for drugs. This, of course, is rare.Synanon is one case in which a lot of competing behavior is produced.Synanon and Synanon-type organizations generate an enormousamoimt of competing behavior and an enormous amount of selfdisciplinewhich have been effective in the people that are adequatelyqualified to get into that ])rogram.The point is that if you block the effect of a drug and the subjectfalls into the temptation provided by the impulse or the environment,the im])idse to take the drug will die out inevitably.Mr. Blommer. But has not Synanon really failed to teach peoplethat consistently?Dr. ViLLARREAL. Well, they have been very successful with afraction of the population of the addicts without any question. Asmall fraction, unfortunately. It requires a great deal of commitment.And not all addicts can go that route.Mr. Blommer. That is all I have.Chairman Pepper. Mr. Brasco.Mr. Brasco. Yes; Dr. Villarreal, let me see if we can reduce this towhere I personally can understand it. I thought I did before.In your slides you seem to indicate that the repeated taking ofdrugs was a physical thing rather than the process of making a determinationactivated by the thought processes. And, of course, you usethe animals because they do not have the same thought processes asman. But getting back to the situation that counsel just mentionedand having practiced criminal law some 10 years myself before I waselected to Congress, I have found people who were in prisons for a longperiod of time have the same reaction as was just described.Now, I cannot see how that would be primarily j)hysically motivatedbecause if it was, I would think he would have those symptomswhile he was incarcerated as well as when he got back to his homeenvironment. It would seem to me that the fact that he was offdrugs for 6 or 10 years and goes through withdrawal symptons wouldbe primarily something that is activated by the mind. Do you understandmy question?Dr. ViLLARREAL. Yes; I think I do. Your question is similar tothe following: We humans eat food; we do not eat things that arenonnutritiovis; we feel imi)ulses to eat things that are food and notthings that are nonnutritious.What are the elements in food that determine that? How ilo weknow what materials are food? Again, in sexual behavior, men areattracted by women and vice versa and we are not attracted to otheranimals, or animals to aiiinuds of different species, and the (juestionis what determines those programs that aiv i)rinted in the brain?In the case of food materials, food materials are those materialsthat have the properties of generating eating behavior. You eatthem once. Tlic im|)ulse comes back to do the same thing again andyou know you are hungry when you feel the imj)ulse to eat.Mr. Brasco. Well, I understand what you are saying.