Concepts of the self, the ordinary man, and the ideal man among the drug population

Twenty-seven heavy drug-users and twenty-seven non-users were compared on concepts of self, ordinary man, and ideal man by use of a Q-sort. Self- and ideal-concepts were found to be significantly lower for the drug group, and degree of congruency between self- and ideal-concepts was found to be significantly higher for the drug group. It was concluded that the lower ideal concept of druggers was a function of their drastic aberrations in value systems, and that the Adlerian and Rogerian thesis that there is a high positive correlation between self-ideal congruency and degree of mental health should be further tested experimentally, and perhaps refined.