ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that each alcoholic is a universal singular, epitomizing in his or her lifetime the experiences of all alcoholics. Alcoholism has, since 1955, been designated as a form of physical, as well as mental, illness by the American Medical Association. An inquiry into alcoholism is also a study in mental illness, but into a form of mental illness to which alcoholics give special meaning. The human and economic costs of alcoholism are incalculable, and are barely reflected in the statistical facts that record alcoholic-related suicides, broken marriages and families, loss of work productivity, ruined lives, personal degradation, and the loss of self, income, sanity, and physical health. By positioning the normal social drinker midway between the problem, alcoholic drinker and the person who abstains, American society has driven its obsession with self-control into the mind of every man and woman who comes in contact with alcohol.
