Confirmed Gambler Suffers From Disease

By JUDGE LEWIS DRUCKER

This is the sixth of seven articles dealing with gambling, its history and its effect upon the individual and the community, prepared by Judge Lewis Drucker of the Municipal Court of Cleveland.

Gambling is a disease similar to alcoholism. However, everyone who takes त drink does not become an alcoholic nor does every. | one who drinks excessively become an addict.

develops a sense of aggression and exhibitionism. These conflicting

emotions are met in a headlong conclusion by a punishment mechanism which involves the desire to lose. Dr. Bergler contends that these conflicts in his emotions are a subconscious acknowledgment of a

a strong sense of culpability and his losing tends to provide the release of his guilt consciousness.

Psychic Purge

The more modern psychiatrists contend that the gambler is not really looking for something for nothing. That may be the apparent objective but it is not the basic motivation of his drives. Although it seems unreal, it is however recAll of gambling, according to R. Dupony, psychiatrist of the School · ognized as psychologically sound

homosexual tendency accompanied by social defamation.

of Medicine at Paris, and P. ChaEveryone who gambles

does not develop "Gambelitis" and everyone who continues to gamble is not recognized the victim of an addiction.

tagnan, chief of clinic of mental diseases. Asiles Pulias de Alines, is at bottom a desire to compei love through an unconscious masochistic

attitude. Gambling has a social

status in the United States recognized as deeply rooted in our cultural background. It is recognized | as a behavior pattern in our American life.

Own

When the gambler finds he can not control his excessive gences either as to time or money, it becomes a problem. It has already become a sickness which must be understood and treated accordingly. He drowns his frustrations in excessive losses and becomes absorbed !11 the escape mechanism of gambling. His stakes become heavier and his losses

According to their statistical information, the gambler always loses in the long run, his moral sense diminishes and that specialized characteristic such as poker face develops. He becomes amoral and the sex instinct is shifted to gambling.

The gambler may start as an ocindul-casional social gambler. merely as a lark and as a good fellow who does not want to spoil a party. He soon finds that his tensions find expression in the exciting phases and proceeds to accelerate his gambling as an habituation. The psychic factors continue to drive him on until gambling becomes an imperative need. Then as the element of chance continues. his behavior follows the pattern of an attempt to express the conscious or uniconscious guilt feelings. He now finds himself the victim of a vicious cir-

greater. He is positive that his luck will turn. He risks everything on the last card. He is carried away by the possibility of winning, He experiences a sense of superior-cle ity and omnipotence. He glows with the thrill of conquest.

Gambling Psychology

which includes aggression and self punishment.

The gambler is a neurotic with strong desires which are expressed in a wish for fulfillment to gain money. As he continues he activates childish fantasies. He becomes obsessed with the feeling of

Dr. Edmund Bergler, assistant director of the Psychoanalytic Clinic in Vienna before the war and now a practicing psychiatrist in New York City, in his books The Psy-grandeur. chology of the Gambler" and "The Gambler-A Misunderstood Neurotic" contends that the underlying quality is his illusion of omnipotence. This feeling is shared by a pleasure complex which consists of a feeling of power. Swept along by this feeling of "grandeur" he

This induces the masochistic tendency of pain and punishment. Losing then becomes a necessary part of the psychological equilibrium. He gets a satisfaction in imposing upon himself the torture and pain of losing. He tortures himself by the need of continued losses. He is motivated by

that despite his conduct there is a secret joy in not winning.

Losing is a psychic purge--a conscious satisfaction in giving himself pain. The physical abuse to which he submits himself gives him a certain amount of pleasure. To the gambler every chance he takes, every challenge to fate is a defiance which is bound up with a feeling of guilt which may be either conscious or unconscious. The techniques, the devices, the cards, the dice, the game and all the gambling devices are merely mechanisms he uses to appease, stultify and lull his conscience.

The gambler finds shelter in secluded houses and in protected clubs. The excitement of gambling does not disturb the public. He does not become obnoxious to others because of his behavior and as a result he has not as yet aroused public disdain. He does not understand his own sick illness and he does not recognize that it is tensions and drives which compel his gambling. The gambler has not as yet been made to see why he gambles. Neither he nor the public are as yet ready to admit that his gambling is a disease. Dr. Bergler finds that gamblers seldom if ever They seek professional treatment, do not recognize the need for therapy and scientific study.

We have not as yet found any solutions for the disease of gambling. The psychotic gambler is the victim of a disease. He is suffering from deep-rooted personality maladjustment. The psychotic gambler needs sympathy, understanding and treatment.