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.

    39/388 page 15
    value of the mind as a distinct entity and its power over the brain, and hence over the whole body; thus we are also forced to differ from the materialist. Our position is the medium one: we recognize the truth in both, but accept neither one to the exclusion of the other. The interaction of the mind and the brain is hard to doubt, and is equally difficult to explain. At most we know very little of the true relationship, but we do know that there is a real reciprocal action, pathological cases, some of which we will discuss, proving this. Since our subject deals almost ex- clusively with the influence of the brain over the mind, it seems necessary to state our position in the controversy, especially as many of the publications on alcoholism have been contributed by men who have been able to accept only the view of a one-sided relationship. _As we are dealing with the continued effects of alcoholism on the mind, the physiology of acute alcoholism will not be treated, except in so far as it may throw light upon the chronic effects; for we know that a single action, if repeated, tends to change the organism so that it will remain permanently in the same condition as that brought about by the tem- porary effects of the single action. Many volumes have been written upon the physiological aspects of alcoholism, but it is obvious that in a work on psychology we can give only an epitome of the results of the investigations in physiology. For a long time it has been known that an “ elective affinity’ existed between nervous tissue and narcotics, including, of course, alcohol; but it remained for E. Overton! and H. Meyer? to define more clearly the nature of this affinity. It has been noticed that all substances which are soluble in fats and do not injure animal tissue are narcotics. The action of these narcotizing substances is shown most plainly where 1 E. Overton, Studien tiber die Narcose, Jena, 190l. 2-H. Meyer, ‘‘Zur Theorie der Alkoholnarkose,” Archiv fiir ex- perimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologte, Bd. 42. -
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3