Alcoholism and the Researcher

TFOR ALCOHOLICS, drinking is a life-belt which turns into a millstone. Some of those afflicted with alcoholism band themselves together in AA to maintain one of the essential conditions for survival necessary for them--sobriety. The shield of sobriety and the Twelve Steps of AA which maintain sobriety have saved many lives. This does not actually cure alcoholism, but it does arrest it. Many alcoholics, possibly most of those belonging to AA, are concerned more with sobriety and continuing it than with anything else. They are probably correct, but for the researcher who is not personally enmeshed in the illness, while the value of sobriety is obvious, he can learn very little from this alone.