opiates to counter intense anger and rage, stimulants as augmenting agents for high-energy individuals, energizing agents for low-energy individuals, and depressants [e.g., alcohol] for individuals who are tense and anxious). The common element argued by Khantzian is that each class of drugs serves as antidotes or correctives to dysphoric states and acts as a “replacement for a defect in the psychological structure” (Kohut 1971, p. 46) of such individuals (Khantzian 2003).
