NCJ Number
216103
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 50 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2006 Pages: 559-569
Date Published
October 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study reported on psychological changes observed in alcohol-dependent felons in Poland who had undergone treatment with the therapeutic approach known as the Atlantis program.
Abstract
Findings suggest that the effectiveness of therapy for alcoholics in terms of self-awareness changes is higher in incarcerated offenders than in outpatients. The changes in the incarcerated felons confirmed to a large degree the initial expectations of the study: defensive and individual self-awareness decreased, whereas reflective self-awareness increased. Utilizing 2 groups of Polish male alcoholics 31 incarcerated male alcoholics, and 26 non-incarcerated, alcohol-dependent males participating in an AA-model of psychotherapy, this study monitored changes in self-awareness. The Atlantis program was introduced in 1992 at a prison ward in Poland. It is an extension and refinement of the approach formulated in the so-called 12 steps of the AA movement. The study questioned whether imprisonment might either foster or hamper the process of personal change. It was presumed that in both types of participants, the therapy should result in a decrease of defensive and individual self-awareness and an increase of the external and reflective self-awareness. It also questioned whether motivation would relate to the self-awareness changes. Tables, notes, references