NEUROSIS AND ALCOHOL

Cats are trained to feed after specific sensory signals and then the experimenters switch to actuate their own feeding signals. When alcohol is administered to these patterns disappear in the order of decreasing activity until only the original, primitive reactions remain. After recovery, the animals are subjected to severe conflict situations, which produce anxiety and conflict, and develop anxiety, inhibitions of conflict, oral disturbances, loss of dominance and other neurotic abilia. Alcohol, when given, temporarily relieves the complex reactive patterns, restores goal-oriented and thereby temporarily relieves the neurosis. Some animals continue to prefer alcohol to non-alcoholic drinks. This preference is cured by various experimental clinical procedures.