COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS SPIRAL OF OPTIONS AND INVOLVEMENT

Interest in compulsive gambling has been chiefly restricted to psychoanalytically oriented researchers (Freud, 1961; Bergler, 1970; Halliday and Fuller, 1974). The model of anally fixated neurosis that is presented in various guises is alien to the gamblers it deals with. The gamblers I have known have been amazed at the lack of understanding of gambling and the gambling world that this model implies. However, this tends to be less true with Bergler’s summary of symptoms (p. 7), which rings true to the gamblers I interviewed: (1) Gambling is a typical, chronic, and repetitive experience in his life. (2) Gambling absorbs all his other interests like a sponge. (3) The gambler is pathologically optimistic about winning and never “learns his lesson” when he loses. (4) The gambler cannot stop when he is winning. (5) No matter how great his initial caution, the true gambler eventually risks more than he can afford. (6) The gambler seeks and enjoys an enigmatic thrill which cannot be logically explained, since it is compounded of as much pain as pleasure. While the gamblers state that the pleasurable and painful aspects of gambling excite them, they concentrate on money and getting even; the psychoanalysts underplay the latter aspect. © 1979 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.