ABSTRACT
The most immediate implications clearly have to do with such issues as the need for a greater flexibility in the response to alcoholism and the place of controlled drinking methods in the range of services available to the alcoholic. The term ‘paradigm’ is one of the most overworked and confused in current parlance and Kuhn has admitted that he himself has contributed to this confusion. Despite these considerable reservations, however, one of the attractions of the idea of paradigm change in the present context is that Davies’ report of resumed normal drinking in former alcohol addicts fits so neatly with Kuhn’s description of the disruptive, anomalous finding which precipitates a scientific revolution, especially so in view of the almost accidental nature of the finding commented on earlier. In recent years the walls of the disease theory of alcoholism have been collapsing all around.
