A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF THE CONCEPT OF SPIRITUALITY AS UNDERSTOOD BYRECOVERING INDIVIDUALS

In 62 individuals recovering from substance abuse, materialism and spi ritualism and cognitive patterns were quantified, before (retrospectiv ely) and after recovery with the Mathew Materialism Spiritualism Scale (MMSS) and a Cognitive Patterns Questionnaire (CPQ). MMSS was also ad ministered once to 61 general controls. Recovering individuals showed highly significant prerecovery to postrecovery increases in spirituali ty on most subscales of MMSS and changes in cognitive patterns. Sixtee n controls who met the criteria for alcoholism on the Michigan Alcohol ism Screening Test (MAST-positive) were separated from the others. Pre recovery MMSS scores did nor differentiate the recovering individuals from MAST-positive controls. However, the prerecovery MMSS scores obta ined by recovering individuals were significantly lower than the score s obtained by the MAST-negative controls. On the other hand, after rec overy, recovering individuals showed higher MMSS spirituality scores i n comparison to MAST-positive controls. The only MMSS item that differ entiated recovering individuals after recovery from MAST-negative cont rols was mysticism with the recovering group obtaining higher scores.