ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the disease concept of alcoholism from a cultural and an organizational perspective. It argues that the application of the disease concept to alcohol abuse and alcoholism reflects basic features of American culture, and represents a natural evolution of ideology and practices that reflects the historical experience with alcohol in American society. The present author has long been sympathetic to this process as a general explanation of what has happened in the American alcoholism movement, and as a fairly accurate description of the medicalization of alcoholism. Prior to describing the interplay between processes among three intertwined organizations which laid the foundation for the contemporary disease concept of alcoholism, a working definition is necessary. A great deal of effort has been concentrated in defining the content of the disease concept of alcoholism. The thrust toward public persuasion and political influence in the promulgation of the disease concept originated with Marty Mann.
