When one thinks about Pender Island, the first thing that comes to mind may not be Rat Park – the 1970s experiment that studied the connection between addiction and isolation.
The study was conducted in part by now-resident Bruce Alexander, a psychologist and professor emeritus at Simon Fraser University who spent his career studying the psychology of addiction.
In a recent conversation, Alexander explained the established point of view of addiction that existed in the 50s, 60s and early 70s, when junkies were considered all but lost once the addiction took hold.
“It’s a theory of devil possession or demon possession because the drug is a demon that possesses the human being,” he told me. “The human being becomes less than a human being, and there’s really no way out of it — once a junkie always a junkie. That was pretty close to being a universal doctrine. There was nothing in my professional training that made me doubt that.”
However, while volunteering at a methadone clinic in Vancouver’s downtown east side in the 1970s, his thoughts on this began to change. There, he engaged in conversations with heroin users, to try and understand more about why they chose to use the drug.
During these conversations, the heroin users would share stories of community, connection, and purpose that existed for them because of their lifestyle around drug use.
Alexander was born and raised in the United States and would begin his working career there. However, during the 1960s he bore witness to the country’s increasing involvement in the Vietnam War and felt a surge of emotion over the situation.
His strong opposition to the war ultimately led him to leave the U.S. and move to Canada, where he began his teaching career at SFU in the 1970s. He had many pivotal experiences while living and working in Canada, which helped him question the theories of the day about addiction.
Those interactions, while at the methadone clinic, were pivotal to help set him on a new path to learning more about addiction. What followed was an experiment that questioned the standard beliefs of the day about drug addiction – The Rat Park Experiment.
The experiment included offering rats the option of drinking drug-laced water, both while living in isolation and as part of a robust social network. The result suggested that the animals who lived alone were more likely to become addicted to the drugged water supply, while those with social connections were far more content with the clean alternative. It flew in the face of what he had been taught.
“Seeing that we were making a cultural mistake and wanting to be part of the change,” he said, “wanting to be part of the very earnest group of people who were working very hard to get our culture back on track, so that we weren’t abusing these people unnecessarily.”
Alexander retired in 2005 and moved to Pender Island with his wife, a “country girl” who had grown tired of urban living.
“She lived in East Vancouver graciously and changed our 33-foot lot into a national park, basically,” he said. “When I retired, she said let’s live on Pender. I said sure, that’s fine. And here I am.”
“And I love it here.”
You can listen to his interview on my podcast, The Stories that Brought You Here.