Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T02:47:05.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Treatment of a Compulsive Horse Race Gambler by Aversion Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

A. B. Goorney
A. B. Goorney*
Affiliation:
R.A.F. Hospital, Wroughton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

References to compulsive gambling are found in the psychiatric literature as early as 1914 (von Hattingberg) and 1920 (Simmel). These and subsequent literature on the psychodynamics and treatment by analytical methods were summarized by Harris in 1964. In the past year references have been made to the treatment by aversion therapy of isolated cases of horse race gamblers and of a “one-armed bandit” gambler (Barker and Miller, 1966b, Seager et al., 1966, Barker and Miller, 1966a). A further case of a compulsive horse race gambler treated by aversion therapy seems worth presenting, in view of the sparse literature on treatment of the condition by this method, and also because in this case, the therapy was immediately followed by remission of a longstanding marital disharmony which is believed to have been one major precipitating cause of the gambling.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 114 , Issue 508 , March 1968 , pp. 329 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Barker, J. C. (1965). “Behaviour therapy for transvestism: a comparison of pharmacological and electrical aversion techniques.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 111, 268–276.Google Scholar
2. Barker, J. C., and Miller, M. (1966a). “Aversion therapy for compulsive gambling.” Lancet, i, 491.Google Scholar
3. Barker, J. C., and Miller, M. (1966b). “Aversion therapy for compulsive gambling.” Brit. med. J., ii, 115.Google Scholar
4. Bergler, E. (1957). The Psychology of Gambling. New York: Hill & Wang Inc.Google Scholar
5. Freud, S. (1928). “Dostoevsky and parricide.” Collected Paper, v.Google Scholar
6. Gelder, M. G., Marks, I. M., and Wolff, H. H. (1967). “Desensitization and psychotherapy in the treatment of phobic states. A controlled inquiry.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 113, 53–73.Google Scholar
7. Harris, H. I. (1964). “Gambling addiction in an adolescent male.” Psychoanal. Quart., 33 (4), 513–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Von Hattingberg, H. (1914). “Analerotik, Angstlust und Eigensinn.” Int. Ztschr. f. Psychoan. Google Scholar
9. Kraft, T. (1967). Unpublished paper to Behaviour Therapy Seminar. Middlesex Hospital. January 1967.Google Scholar
10. Marks, I. M., and Gelder, M. G. (1967). “Transvestism and fetishism: clinical and psychological changes during faradic aversion.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 113, 711–729.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. Marks, I. M., Rachman, S., and Gelder, M. G. (1965). “Methods for assessment of aversion treatment in fetishism with masochism.” Behav. Res. Ther., 3, 253–258.Google Scholar
12. McGuire, R. J., and Vallance, M. (1964). “Aversion therapy by electric shock, a simple technique.” Brit. med. J., i, 151–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Menninger, K. (1938). “Criminal behaviour as a form of masked self-destruction.” Bull. Menninger Clinic II. Google Scholar
14. Rachman, S. (1961). “Sexual disorders and behaviour therapy.” Amer. J. Psychiat., 118, 235–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. Seager, C. P., Pokorny, M. R., and Black, D. (1966). “Aversion therapy for compulsive gambling.” Lancet, i, 546.Google Scholar
16. Shafar, S., and Jaffe, J. R. (1965). “Behaviour therapy in the treatment of psychoneurosis.” Brit. J. Psychiat., 111, 1199–1203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17. Simmel, E. (1920). “On psychoanalysis of the gambler.” Paper given at 6th International Congress of Psychoanalysis.Google Scholar
18. Solyom, L., and Miller, S. (1965). “A differential conditioning procedure as the initial phase of the behaviour therapy of homosexuality.” Behav. Res. Ther., 3, 147–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19. Wolpe, J. (1958). Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.