Types of Social Structure as Factors in "Cures" for Alcohol Addiction
Alcoholism has presented a serious psychiatric and public health problem for many years both from the point of view of social consequences and from the point of view of effective treatment. Many psychiatrists hesitate to speak of "cures" at all, preferring the terms "improved" or "arrested cases". Although the problem has been attacked from the most various hypotheses concerning the nature of addiction, "cures" have always been very difficult and uncertain, no matter what type of therapy has been used. Against this background of medical and psychiatric experience the claim of one temperance group stands out in startling relief: "One-hundred-per-cent effectiveness with non-psychotic drinkers who sincerely want to quit is claimed by the workers of Alcoholics Anonymous."