The Psycho-pathology of Alcoholism and Some So-called Alcoholic Psychoses

Abstract

The social problems connected with alcohol are always before us, but social reconstruction after the great war has brought them into greater prominence than ever, while America having gone “dry” and the prohibition campaign starting in this country have brought the question of alcohol home to even the unthinking section of the community. In the past we have had the physiological effects of alcohol put before us almost ad nauseam, and everyone is fully aware of the disastrous wide-spread results of excessive drinking. Well-meaning temperance reformers are continually pointing out the intimate relationship existing between alcoholic excess and illness, crime and pauperism. Not so very long ago in the press, we had the almost amusing incident of a manifesto issued by a list of eminent physicians, who decried its use in medicine, followed not long afterwards by another manifesto signed by an equally eminent catalogue of medical men, who laid much emphasis on the beneficial effects of alcohol as a therapeutic agent. The personal factor is always apt to colour one's views, and I may be no exception to the rule. It is a common fallacy to suppose that science is free from bias and prejudice, but the facts I shall bring before your notice with regard to the relation of alcohol to mental disease will tend to indicate their presence.