This Strange Illness: Alcoholism and Bill W.Transaction Publishers, 2004 M01 1 - 403 pages This brilliant work, both personal and professional in character, is a study of alcoholism, of a movement aimed at its cure, and of an individual participant in this development. The author develops an interlinked theory and scientific research program that describe an illness of the mind, body, and spirit. He does so without allowing the assumptions underlying the way we look at one area of illness, say the mind, to contradict the assumptions underlying the way we look at the human body or for that matter the human spirit. That Lobdell carries this project to a successful conclusion makes this a compelling work for everyone in the field of alcohol studies and social pathology. Lobdell, who has written on a broad range of subjects, here argues the originality and importance of recognition of alcoholism as a tripartite illness, and of congruent treatment for the three parts. He thus accepts a medical view of this vast social problem, but also recognizes dimensions within it that go beyond the ordinary limits of medical practice, as well as the complexity of its treatment. His book is at once an intellectual history of Bill W.'s vision; a short history of alcohol addiction and the culture of that addiction; a treatise on the psychological, biochemical, and spiritual aspects of the illness and its treatment; and a scientific research program for the future. Norman K. Denzin of the University of Illinois has hailed the book "as a wonderful story brought to a sophisticated readership, and will widely appeal to the recovering population." Matthew J. Raphael, intimate with the subjects as well as the concerns of this book says, "This Strange Illness is an astounding book. Jared Lobdell, a brilliant polymath, traverses a spectrum of disciplines û from biogenetics and chaos theory to psychology, sociology, and theology û in search of a sufficiently complex and comprehensive understanding alcoholism. This is the most intellectually rigorous study I have ever seen in the field." Jared C. Lobdell is author or editor of a dozen books in history and criticism and a number of articles in fields ranging from alcohol studies to systems analysis. He has served as a fellow at the Center for Alcoholism and Addiction Studies, Brown University. His current positions are at Millersville University of Pennsylvania and adjunct professor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. |
From inside the book
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... look briefly at work yet to be done . The history of alcoholism goes back quite a long time ( albeit not per- haps quite as long as generally thought — which is , in Bill W.'s phrase , since man first crushed grapes ) —and the history ...
... look at one area of illness ( say , the mind ) to con- tradict the assumptions underlying the way we look at another ( say , here , body — or spirit ) . One need not accept the implicit Cartesian view of Mind found in Freudian or ...
... look at Shakespeare's Michael Cassio ( in Othello , 1604 ) and at Nicolas Herrmann ( Brother Lawrence , 1614-91 ) . We look at episodes in conversion ( working from William James , The Varieties of Religious Experience ) : these include ...
... look at something of the institutional treatment of inebriety ( not yet alcoholism , except in a few publications in Germany ) , and at the first popular so - called medical treatment , the Keeley cure . We touch on Jerry McAuley's ...
... look at Zucker's four types , ( 1 ) antisocial alcoholism , ( 2 ) developmentally limited alcoholism , ( 3 ) negative affect alcoholism , and ( 4 ) primary alcoholism . He subdivides type ( 4 ) into ( a ) isolated , ( b ) episodic , and ...
Contents
21 | |
57 | |
A Scientific Note Typologies Heredities and the Adjacent Possible | 93 |
Mind The Psychology or Alcoholism | 129 |
Body The Biogenetics and Biochemistry or Alcoholism | 167 |
Theology or Alcoholism Sobriety and Alcoholics Anonymous | 203 |
The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous | 239 |
The Twelve Traditions or Alcoholics Anonymous | 285 |
Paradigm Regained Suggestions rrom Our Scientific Research Program | 329 |
References | 373 |
Index | 387 |