The DISEASE Theory

The DISEASE Theory Tristram Jones, Ph.D. Kaplan University, PS375 Unit V

In ancient Egypt…. The ancient Egyptians saw drunkenness as an affliction of the spirit that took hold of the mind and body. Egyptians had a phrase “drink madness” for alcoholism. Like the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, who came to similar conclusions about three thousand years later, the Egyptians saw the problem as a unique insanity.

Then Came the Greek • Herodotus, “the father of history” (484 B.C. - 425 B.C.) developed a perceptive take on chronic drunkenness. In a master stroke of insight and concision, he defined it as “a body and soul sickness,” reflecting his familiarity with the Egyptian attitude of an earlier epoch. There is every reason to believe Herodotus journeyed to Egypt around 454BC

Unfortunately, this enlightened perspective did not survive the 4th century. Beginning around 415 AD with Hippocrates’ humoral theory of disease. Hippocrates (460-370 BC) Aristotle, too, considered alcoholism an organic disorder, the focus began to shift.

The Humoral Theory: • Hippocrates taught that “all diseases arise from bile and phlegm; the bile and phlegm produce diseases when inside the body, one of them becomes too moist, too dry, too hot, or too cold; they become this way from foods and drinks...” This theory of disease persisted well into the 19th century.

The Humoral Balance:

Occasional voices of resistance… • Sebastian Franck strove to make his mark as a philosopher and an historian, but was obliged to earn his living as a soap maker. He resided in Bavaria where, in 1531, he published a book entitled The Horrible Vice of Drunkenness. Franck offers the theory that drunkenness equaled an irreversible obsession, lamenting that “much has been tried against drinking among Germans, but nothing much has been achieved.” Franck believed that for Germans to be healed of drinking, “all would have to be reborn and receive new heads.” He believed the Second Coming promised the only cure!

In 1944 a Journalist Remembered poor old Franck! • Journalist Alson J. Smith saluted him in an article published in 1944. Smith mused: ‘All would have to be reborn and receive new heads.’ Although it was written more than three hundred years ago, this is true in the best scientific sense. For today, doctors and psychiatrists alike agree that the only salvation for the alcoholic is to be reborn- to ‘receive a new head.’ There is little or nothing that medicine can do for him- a new world will have to come! We are not going to make much progress against [drug-and-alcohol addiction] until we realize this and reorient our temperance education to take account of it.’

But the Father of American Medicine never heard of Franck! • In 1784 Benjamin Rush published the 36-page tract, An Inquiry into the Effects of Spiritous Liquors Upon the Human Body, and Their Influence Upon the Happiness of Society. This is the most frequently-cited evidence of Rush’s association with the contemporary medical model.

Why do we think AA teaches the disease theory? "We AAs have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking, it is not a disease entity.” –Bill Wilson Kurtz, E (1979) Not God. Harper & Row: New York (p22)

God and Mann at Yale? • Who is Marty Mann? She co-founded the National Council on Alcoholism, and installed herself as executive director. In a letter she wrote in 1957, she credited herself with literally “...thinking up what is now the National Council on Alcoholism,” and that’s just about right! It is a tribute to Mann’s promotional and organizational genius that she was able to accomplish so much so suddenly, including incorporating the NCA beneath the impeccable rubric of the Yale Center of Alcoholic Studies.

Who was Elvin Morton Jellinek? • MEET MR. DISEASE THEORY! The most revered figure in Disease Theory! Author of The Disease Concept of Alcoholism and creator of the Jellinek Curve was…a complete FRAUD. Mann found her organizational soul mate in Jellinek, a heavy- weight scientific authority whose impressive academic credentials lent clout to her crusade.

Then Came the Paradigm Shift!

And the disease theory becameNECESSARY!

Then came government! Congress passed the Alcoholic and Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act, providing additional millions for the construction and staffing of community-based recovery centers. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare created a National Advisory Committee on Alcoholism. Congress created the Hughes Act, which promoted the prevention and treatment of addiction. This spawned the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), The Hughes Act created a new industry, which Hughes himself later referred to as an ‘alcoholism and drug abuse industrial complex.’”

Insurance Companies Joined the Party!

What the “alcoholism and drug abuse industrial complex” needed was a medical basis to ensure funding and respect!So where’s the medicine??

And how did alcoholism become every known form of addiction?

The DISEASE Theory