Meaning of Life as Perceived by Drug-Abusing People

Abstract

Two different methodologies, Crumbaugh & Maholic's Purpose in Life Test and Anderson's Functional Measurement, were used to compare the way meaning of life is perceived by two groups of substance-abusing people: one group consisted of 10 people who successfully completed a six-month withdrawal program based on Frankl's Logotherapy; the other group included 15 people who dropped out at the beginning stages of the program. Most of the comparisons between these groups pointed to a more positive existential orientation (in logotherapeutic terms) among those who accomplished successful withdrawal than among the subjects who failed to complete the program. Therapeutic and methodological implications of this study's approach to the measurement of the perceptions of substance-abusing people are discussed.