‘Alcoholism in America’ Revisited

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Reconsideration of a 1966 theory about the interplay between predisposed personalities and drinking groups in the genesis of alcoholism is presented. Observations about both sets of variables have been sustained and reinforced during the intervening years, and a new conceptualization of the nature of drinking groups is offered. The emergent perspective fits closely with differential association theory, and is then applied to job-based alcoholism programs to demonstrate the applicability of the perspective in the reversal of alcoholic behavior.