[Identy crisis and drug abuse in young people]

Nowadays young people during the phase of their puberty and adolescence often show symptoms of a grave crisis of identity which particularly idspose them to drug-abuse. On the one hand this search for one's identity is characteristic of the formative years of a juvenile; on the other hand it is a general problem of the generations which must be seen in the full context of the social, technological, industrial and political development of our time. Lacking possibilities of identification in the context of a general relativism of traditional norms and values, radical changes in the structures of the family and of our society, accompained by over-exaggerated demands on one's personal performance and prosperity, and significant failures of communication as well as the unreflected liberalization of a "permissive society" make young people look for new possibilities of identification which they try to find in sub-cultural groups and fascinating experiences which drugs. Many juvenile drugconsumers show increasing crises in their personalites and farreaching psychological distrubances often followed by a serious development. All these phenomena illustrate the frustrated search for genuine personal identity in an illusionary world of drugs. Only the solidaric and constructive cooperation of the generations can overcome the manifold problems and conflicts of young people which are concentrated in their identitycrises, and only this cooperation can open up new perspectives for a future which is humane and worth living, a future which is the real aim of the subcultural movements and psychodelic experiences.