Alcoholism: Group Factors in Etiology and Therapy, Trice HM, Human Organization, Vol.15 (2), 33-40, 1956
“Despite
the many factors involved in alcoholism, one basic characteristic
distinguishes the problem drinker from the remainder of the
drinking population.
He is unable to control his drinking. Once he has begun to drink, he
continues until some external force interrupts him. Thus, he may
"pass out,"
become ill, find himself in jail, be deprived of his "supply,"
or injure himself
on some way. The basic criterion of alcoholism is not what is done while
sober, but whether there develops an irresistible "yen" to
keep on drinking
once it has been started. The problem drinker experiences this as a strong
desire that asserts itself upon the resumption of drinking. Whether this
compulsion is a physiological peculiarity, a conversion hysteria, or
some other
factor is a wide-open question. Less debatable is the definition that the
alcoholic is one who deviates from the drinking limits accepted by
most of those
around him. Where the non-alcoholic accepts standards that define
when he has had enough, the developing alcoholic continues to drink
beyond these limitations until controls outside himself intervene to
stop him. It is this uncontrolled
drinking that constitutes the core of the syndrome termed alcoholism.”
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