Ego atrophy in addiction illustrated through American cultural music folklore

Popular music is an artifact of folklore that can provide a keen insight in to societal complexity. As a window with minimal censorship, it allows acce ss to a subgroup whose motifs are often obfuscated from within and without by defensive and self righteous distortions. Music is a primary source depi cting the strivings and failings of a culture or its tributaries. An overvi ew is offered of the American social historical context of substance abuse, as it informs the theory of ego atrophy to conceptualize addiction. In thi s study, it is appealed to as an aid in the elaboration of addictive behavi or. Adjunctively, major themes in movie pictures are referenced as parallel , albeit less refined, indices of stereotype in the culture. Together with societal laws and mores, these markers point to a specific behavioral and v alue system that typifies the ego of the substance abuser.