In the USSR in the second half of the 80s, alcoholism was declared a national problem. Since the collapse of the “Great and Indestructible” began with its active solution, agents of Western intelligence services probably took a significant part in posing this problem. In an effort to amaze new Western “friends” with their righteous asceticism, this issue in our country was approached creatively and on a grand scale, both at the top and at the bottom. From above they set bulldozers on vineyards and warehouses, patrols on weddings and funerals, shortages and speculators on stores, and at the bottom they began to invent incredible methods of treating and preventing alcoholism. One of these “folk” methods that has survived from those times is “coding”. We owe his birth to the chief physician of the Dermatovenerologic Dispensary A.R. Dovzhenko. In 1985, his project received wide publicity and then, like a cancer, began to spread throughout the country, mutating along the way into various either very “original” or loudly named techniques - “annual injection”, “filing”, “Torpedo”, “double biological coding”, “hypnocoding”, “laser coding”, “coding” from photographs, “coding” according to Zaitsev, according to Malkin, etc. and so on. The method of Dovzhenko and all his daughters, as recognized by eminent psychiatrists and psychotherapists, is based on an emotionally stressful effect on the patient’s personality in order to create stable motivation for a sober lifestyle. Forming motivation is a basic step in carrying out any activity. However, it is ambiguous in meaning and perception, and can exist, by and large, in two categories - “from” and “to”, giving rise to completely different approaches to its creation and completely different benefits and costs in its implementation. The first of these motivations is based on the desire to get rid of an unpleasant state, avoid punishment, and not lose something; the second is based on the initial desire to obtain some benefit. “Coding” is a striking example of the “from” motivation, since sobriety with it is formed and maintained as a reaction to a threat - if you break the ban on alcohol, you will get a big “kick” to your health - “you will die, have a heart attack, stroke, become disabled, etc. .d." Unfortunately, the reaction to a threat does not remain unchanged in the mind for long. Frustration, into which the patient plunges under emotionally stressful influence, immediately turns on conscious and unconscious defense mechanisms that either reduce the intensity of the emotional perception of the threat or distort information about it, thereby deactualizing the motivational attitude. In addition, the goal of “coding” is sobriety itself, and it has already been formally achieved, since the impact is carried out after a pre-agreed period of abstinence from drinking alcohol. Due to the fact that the goal has already been realized, its relevance is determined only by the intensity of impressions about the threat to health, and its value is determined by the mass of money paid for “coding.” No personal investments, changes, sacrifices, etc. the patient did not have time to produce for the sake of sobriety, while he had already spent his health, material, family, social and other values ​​on alcoholic behavior. This ratio can be compared with the well-known, and for some, paradoxical and offensive situation, when a prodigal son is more valuable to parents than a problem-free one. It is not difficult to guess what will seem more expensive to an alcoholic - sobriety or alcohol? But the above should not be taken as a guide to disappointment in the method. It works and in the right hands it works very well. Like everything that we encounter in life, it has its shortcomings, the subtleties of which are better known. While the patient is implementing alcoholic behavior, he is either intoxicated or in abstinence, that is, permanently in an altered state, and in fact, in suspended animation, since for those around him, and sometimes for himself, he is something like a living corpse. Despite the possibleThese periods are full of events and there are no changes in personality. Each time he sobers up, “gets sick” and then promises himself to never put this “infection” in his mouth again, he simply becomes, at best, the same as he was before he became addicted to alcohol... Unfortunately, this is exactly how he started your alcoholic career! Accordingly, having “coded” the patient, as it were, returns to the previous stage of life and is potentially ready to begin the ascent to the alcoholic “Olympus” again. The conclusion naturally suggests itself that the standard emotionally stressful impact must be supplemented with something else that creates the possibility of breaking out of the usual scenario. For most people who have decided to make changes in their lives, the most common situation is a very detailed knowledge of what they want to get rid of as a result of the changes and a very vague idea of ​​what they want to get after them. If, for example, we are asked to make two lists: “what I don’t want” and “what I want,” then the first one will turn out to be quite diverse, while the second one will be rather scant. Indeed, we are specific in knowing what we do not want and are confused when asked what we want. All of the above is also typical for those who suddenly want to get rid of problems with alcohol. Metaphorically, the situation with “coding” can be represented in the form of a hypothetical air flight. A plane is leaving Moscow, whose passengers are terribly tired of being in the capital. They want to be somewhere else where they think they will be better off. Someone said that the most optimal place for this is the Primorsky Territory and you just need to fly to Vladivostok. True, passengers have a very vague idea of ​​what it looks like and in which direction it is located. Unfortunately, they were unlucky in this regard with the crew. Its members can fly an airplane very well, but they do not know how to use navigation instruments at all. In addition, they never flew to Vladivostok. Will they fly away from Moscow? Probably yes... As first-class specialists, it will not be difficult for them to drive onto the runway and take off from it. But will they land in Vladivostok? They will land somewhere, of course, but it is unlikely to be a city of interest to passengers. Most likely, this will be a forced landing due to the fuel running out in the tanks. At best - at an unfamiliar airfield, at worst - in the endless and deserted expanses of the taiga, or even the water element... So when going on a journey for change, it is better to have an accurate idea of ​​the place where you want to go, firstly, in order to build the most acceptable route and take the necessary tools along the way, secondly, in order to understand in time that you were exactly where you wanted. In other words, the “from” motivation needs to be adjusted to the “to” motivation, otherwise you will be forced to either constantly return to Moscow, or forever wander through the endless expanses of Russia... At its core, “coding” is similar to those states of shock after which a “hopeless” alcoholic suddenly “ties” for life. The secret of such spontaneous cures is most likely not that the shock changed the attitude towards alcohol, but that it stimulated changes in personality, in which sobriety is the way or condition for the existence of these changes. When “coding”, sobriety is often declared a goal and equated with achieving happiness, which is far from true, and sometimes quite the opposite. It follows that it needs to be supplemented with motivational psychotherapy that will arouse in the patient a great desire for change in personality. Changes that can ensure the realization of an attractive future for him. It would be most optimal if the patient goes through most of it before “coding”. It is important that already in the process of carrying out this procedure, the patient, knowing that violating the ban on alcohol will bring him big health problems, also knows that sobriety is just a stage along the way.