The psychology of alcoholism / by George B. Cutten.

  • George Barton Cutten
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The psychology of alcoholism / by George B. Cutten. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In addition to the increase of its consumption, the effects upon the body seem to be getting more in- jurious and to be developing new forms and types. Moderate drinking has rarely been carried out successfully, for it almost inevitably develops into excess; but to-day there appears. to be less and less control, the moderate drinker passing very quickly into the impulsive, violent consumer. It has been stated, evidently on sufficient historical basis, that the nations which have longest used alcoholic drinks have become partially immune to their effects, the Jews and the nations of Southern Europe being pertinent examples. It seems hardly necessary, and certainly not profitable, for any people which is seeking its own highest development, to go through this process in order to be able to drink alcohol with comparative impunity. What the solution of the problem will be is un- certain, but with safety we may predict that with the creat number of men and women now devoting thought and energy to the subject, some lessening of the abuse must come, especially when we con- sider that it is a battle for the highest good of both individual and race. The proportionate increase of drunkenness seems to be greatest among women, and England has the disgrace of furnishing the greatest pro- portion of female inebriates of any country in the world. There the women drunkards equal or exceed the men in numbers. In America the drinking is largely con- fined to males; the proportion in continental countries falls somewhere between these extremes. The Com- mittee of Fifty computes that in America not more than 20 per cent. are abstainers, and on the other hand the percentage of excessive drinkers is only placed at 5. The latter figure is not too large. Within the past few years there has been a great awakening on the subject, and the reasons for this awakening we wish to consider in the remainder of this chapter. The nature of the attack upon alcohol was formerly of a religious character. Drunkenness
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