ABSTRACT
Alcoholism is a sterile medical diagnosis because the major methods of helping the alcoholic are not medical. Alcohol dependence as a simple common sense assessment is a good evaluation of one per cent of the average alcohol dependent’s problem. The explanatory and facilitatory model of alcohol dependence and the alcohol dependence syndrome is no exception, and stands squarely in the sociopolitical evolution of multidisciplinary services for problem drinkers. If social workers have difficulties with the syndrome, psychologists may find it more appealing, in that degree of dependence and the postulated learning mechanisms of dependence related to physiological withdrawal symptoms suggest a more objective approach which is consistent with elements of learning theory and many psychologists’ thinking.
