ABSTRACT
How professionals and academics have described and conceptualised the experiences of the wives, mothers, fathers, husbands, sisters, brothers and other family members who experience at first hand a relative's excessive drinking or drug use is the subject of this chapter. In many respects it is a sorry tale, but one that helps us understand one of the reasons why family members might have been marginalised in the past. It helps us understand why the research to be reported in later chapters was necessary and provides a vital part of the context for the interpretation of its results.
