Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease - Softcover

Fingarette, Herbert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520067541 ISBN 13: 9780520067547

Publisher: University of California Press, 1989

Synopsis

Heavy Drinking informs the general public for the first time how recent research has discredited almost every widely held belief about alcoholism, including the very concept of alcoholism as a single disease with a unique cause. Herbert Fingarette presents constructive approaches to heavy drinking, including new methods of helping heavy drinkers and social policies for preventing heavy drinking and the harms associated with it.

About this title

About the Author:

Herbert Fingarette, a distinguished professor at the University of California, has been a consultant on alcoholism and addiction to the World Health Organization, and a Fellow of the Stanford Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. His work has had a significant influence on the U.S. Supreme Court, state supreme courts, and current national policy makers on substance abuse.

From Library Journal:

Fingarette aims to refute evidence that alcoholism is a disease. Rejecting the terms alcoholic and disease, he points out that many "heavy drinkers" do not experience craving and/or loss of control, can engage in controlled drinking, and have spontaneous recovery. He also notes the variable success rates of medical treatment programs. Ultimately, Fingarette states that heavy drinking is dependent upon a host of situational factors. The heavy drinker is not "a passive patient who will be treated by an expert . . ." but an individual capable of exercising control and assuming responsibility. The weakness here is that alcoholism and heavy drinking are in fact different entities; in discussing alcoholism there is room for both a disease and a situational model. Barbara J. Powell, Veterans Administration Medical Ctr., Kansas City, Mo.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0520067541
• ISBN 13: 9780520067547
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 166