Treatment of a Compulsive Horse Race Gambler by Aversion Therapy

摘要: 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.