ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Robert Straus’ discussion of the need for the interdisciplinary research on alcohol problems, and Paul Roman’s critique of the disease concept of alcoholism, by discussing some of the presumed influences of the disease concept upon public policy and the treatment and prevention of alcohol problems. Probably the least disruptive remedy would be the working out of the coexistence of the disease model alongside the addiction model, until the addiction model proves itself effective and supplants the disease concept in the treatment of alcoholism. Rush energetically promoted the disease concept and it found wide acceptance because of the growing prestige of the medical profession and because the industrialization of the cities on the Eastern seaboard made for the growth of a middle class intolerant of public drunkenness, particularly on the part of the lesser ranks. The moral model of alcoholism is always in the background of American thinking.
