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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.

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Library Journal Review

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. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Claiming that "Almost everything that the American public believes to be scientific truth about alcoholism is false," Fingarette summarizes in this book the scientific evidence against the disease model of alcoholism. This model views the disorder as a progressive sickness that follows an inevitable downward course unless interrupted by treatment, and rests ultimately on a posited "loss of control" over alcohol intake on the part of the victim. Writing principally for general readers, Fingarette clearly documents the assertion that there is no clear line between heavy drinkers and alcoholics and that career lines of heavy drinkers have many pathways--good, bad, and neutral. He also shows that the loss of control is based principally on psychological expectations rather than on any physiological change, and that some problem drinkers can return to moderate drinking. The endurance of the disease model in the face of mounting contrary evidence is attributed in part to the size and influence of the addictions treatment industry. Futhermore, the majority of counselors are recovering alcoholics who hold a pragmatic viewpoint rather than a critical scientific perspective. The disease model has disadvantages in that it repels from treatment heavy drinkers who will not accept the alcoholic label, and reduces uncontrolled drinking to a physical cause, thereby encouraging heavy drinkers to evade responsibility for their maladaptive behavior. Fingarette offers a critique of treatment methods and outcomes, and reviews implications for treatment and social policies. -J. F. Rooney, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg

Booklist Review

A professor and researcher of alcoholism at the University of California offers evidence to discredit the classic ``disease concept'' of alcoholism. Maintaining that heavy drinkers defy neat classification, Fingarette insists that popular substance-abuse programs that subscribe to the prevailing myth of alcoholism as a disease are virtually ineffective and inadequate to address such a widespread and diverse problem. In addition, he recommends the establishment of individualized courses of treatment, reeducation programs, and social policies designed to deglamorize and curtail excessive alcohol consumption. This explosively controversial theory of alcoholism is certain to excite interest and arouse passions. Chapter notes, bibliography; to be indexed. MF. 362.2'928 Alcoholism-U.S. / Alcoholism-U.S.-Prevention [CIP] 87-26692

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Herbert Fingarette was born Herbert Borenstein in Brooklyn, New York on January 20, 1921. He served in the Army during World War II. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1947 and a doctorate in philosophy in 1949 from the University of California. He taught philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara for 40 years. He wrote numerous books including The Self in Transformation, Self-Deception, Confucius: The Secular as Sacred, The Meaning of Criminal Insanity, Heavy Drinking: The Myth of Alcoholism as a Disease, Death: Philosophical Soundings, and Mapping Responsibility. He died from heart failure on November 2, 2018 at the age of 97.

(Bowker Author Biography)