The etiquette of the American alcoholism literature demands that the psychiatrist should acknowledge that physiopathological, cultural and social elements have a role in the genesis of alcoholism. On the other hand,, the physiopathologist is required to admit the existence of social, cultural, and possibly some individual psychological factors. With few exceptions, however, after having made the prescribed bow, specialists proceed to formulate their etiological theories exclusively in the terms of their respective disciplines. Sociologists and anthropologists, too, go their way and give a casual nod to psychology and physiopathology. Thus, the idea that presents itself to an omnivorous reader of the alcohol literature is usually that “alcoholism” is either an economic, a psychological, a physiological or a sociological problem to the exclusion of the other aspects. Such is the impression even after the perusal of a book in which representatives of the various branches of science collaborate.
As the majority of the students of alcoholism, including the socilogists, mention alcoholism as an illness or the symptom of an illness, one may be somewhat confused as to whether it is a personality disorder, a physical illness, or—figuratively speaking—a disease of economic life, of social structure or of culture. (Jellinek 1960, p. 13)
Publication bibliography
Jellinek, E. M. (1960): The disease concept of alcoholism. New Haven: Hillhouse Press.