ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the interaction between the small group of pioneer “alcohologists” and the diverse professional worlds that crossed in and out of the arena in its early years. It looks at the borrowing process as it has affected Alcoholics Anonymous and a new organization, Women For Sobriety; and at the manner in which all of the approaches are affected by conditions outside the arena: the self-help movement, the women's movement, humanistic medicine. A few “homes” and “asylums” for inebriates could be found scattered throughout the states starting in the 1860s and 70s. These institutions ranged from reliance on religious methods, to workhouse-hospital settings, to those based on a specific medical cure. Casual settings are those within the daily orbit of the client—for example, the living rooms of the Alcoholics Anonymous members, neighborhood drop-in centers and skid-row storefronts.
