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The Alcoholic Family

  • Chapter
The Biology of Alcoholism

Abstract

In this chapter, we deal with family influences in the pathogenesis of alcoholism. Were we to interpret this mandate literally, we would be taking as our task a presentation of evidence that the family plays a role as an etiological agent in the development of alcoholism. Although some of the data we discuss here could conceivably be interpreted in this fashion, most students of the family would be made uncomfortable by an attempt to characterize the family as an etiological agent in the development of pathology. Hypotheses about the role of family behavior in the onset and course of illness tend to rely on complex interactional models based on notions of circular causality and the mutual influence of interacting variables. Traditional cause-and-effect hypotheses are replaced in such models by multi-factorial explanations. The family is seen as one of a series of variables that interact in a dynamic, systemic fashion to influence the development and course of a condition such as alcoholism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Family Research and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., USA

    Peter Steinglass

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

    Anne Robertson

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  1. Peter Steinglass
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  2. Anne Robertson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA

    Benjamin Kissin  & Henri Begleiter  & 

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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York

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Steinglass, P., Robertson, A. (1983). The Alcoholic Family. In: Kissin, B., Begleiter, H. (eds) The Biology of Alcoholism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4274-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4274-8_7

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