ABSTRACT
The individual whom science identifies as being alcoholic typically is assumed to have passed through the prealcohohc and prodomal phases of alcoholism. The major behavioural science theories of alcoholism are causal. The chapter provides special attention to radical behaviourism. It examines the concepts of “craving” and “loss of control.” The chapter explains Alfred Lindesmith’s theories of opiate addiction to the “addiction” experiences of the alcoholic. Alcoholism’s effects are thus integral parts of the alcoholic’s self-presence in the world of others. The public symptoms or signs of alcoholism are twofold: physiological, in terms of effects on the body, and interactional, in terms of interactional style, mode and manner of speaking. Scientific theories cluster into three broad groupings, depending upon the predisposing factors to alcoholism that are emphasized. These groupings are biological-genetic-medical, psychological-psychoanalytic, and anthropological-sociological. Alcoholism is thus regarded as learned behaviour and should be understandable in terms of learning or reinforcement theory.
