NCJ Number
174957
Journal
Alcohol Health & Research World Volume: 20 Issue: 1 Dated: 1996 Pages: 6-14
Date Published
1996
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Alcoholics differ in many of their personal and drinking- related characteristics; clinicians and researchers have tried to categorize alcoholics based on these differences for the past 150 years.
Abstract
Such typologies can advance the understanding of alcoholism and improve treatment of the disease. The history of alcoholism typologies can be divided into three periods: the prescientific period, the Jellinek era, and the post-Jellinek era. During the prescientific period, physicians, especially those specializing in treating mental illnesses and addictions, developed numerous typologies based primarily in clinical observations, anecdotal evidence, and intuition. Jellinek was credited with creating the first scientific typology that developed into a comprehensive theory of alcoholism as a disease. Typologies that have evolved since Jellinek's landmark work have been derived mainly from empirical research data. Despite the wide variety of methodological approaches used, it appears that subtypes from all typologies developed since the 19th century can be classified into two major categories, Apollonian and Dionysian subtypes. 27 references and 2 tables