The Alcoholic Personality

EVERYONE knows about alcoholics; yet we who work in the field, who attempt to obtain precise knowledge of the alcoholic in the interests of treatment and of prevention, feel less certain about what alcoholics are like. We do know that there are vast differences among individual alcoholics, and that these differences depend on a large array of factors, such as social and cultural backgrounds, intelligence and education, the stage to which drinking behavior has progressed, and so on. However, we also know that there are certain personality characteristics, traits, consistent patterns of behavior which occur commonly among alcoholics.