Alcoholism is an Illness. Right? Wrong!

Abstract

It is the writer’s contention that the idea that alcoholism is an illness, at least as the latter term is generally interpreted, currently poses one of the greatest stumbling blocks to effective action by potential change agents in an alcohol-dependent person’s social system — employer, spouse, and helping professional. Viewing alcoholism strictly as an illness is erroneous: such a conception often creates more difficulties than it solves, both for those who detect and confront and those who have the responsibility for treatment. To say that alcoholism is an illness results in some facts about the condition and ‘what works’ being encompassed but, at the same time, it excludes or places other facts at the periphery of one’s attention. The illness concept is, after all, a theory — a way of marshalling and organising data. As such, as an attempt to identify what is ‘true’ and what is proclaimed as ‘true’, it has prescriptive implications for what one ought to do with, for, and to a person in that state. It has been said that there is nothing so useful as a good theory — and it is equally correct that there is nothing so unconstructive as a bad theory. It is relevant, therefore, to assess the illness model as it pertains to alcoholism and evaluate to what extent it both fits the facts and serves as a design for appropriate action, whether by industry, family members, or treatment personnel.

Reprinted, with permission, from Canada’s Mental Health, 22 (4) (1974), 9.