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Drunkenness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Robert A. Woods
Affiliation:
South End House, Boston

Extract

The familiar process of the elimination of factors from a confused equation is bringing a new stage of progress and of hope in dealing with the form of delinquency which is most distinctive of the English-speaking nations. Until now the forces of alcoholism have nearly always been given the choice of weapons. Too often unreason and ill-restraint have been matched against their like, with the result of only further intrenching the hostile power.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1914

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References

1 Whether any of the various types of drug-treatment, for which so much is claimed, have any value, is a matter of doubt. In certain cases, drastic chemical action may for a short time restore the balance of nervous energy to the nerve centres, some of which have become congested, some atrophied. If the patient, during this interval, by summoning all his moral resources, can fasten his hold again upon a normal conception of life, he may have a favorable chance of recovery. But there can be little question that the best way to bring about and to confirm a sound moral perspective is through such all-around physical and moral hygiene as is practised under the Norfolk system.

2 There are some gratifying signs that organized industrial unrest, instead of dallying with alcoholism or assuming that it is a mere by-product of poverty, to be sloughed off by economic progress, is coming to recognize in it an intolerable obstacle to any working-class program.