Hi Iriss, just thought you might like to hear a piece from the bb to get all views...hope it helps...
A.A's early understanding of alcoholism came from Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, who
viewed alcoholism as a manifestation of allergy. As in “The Doctor’s Opinion”
introduction to Alcoholics Anonymous, what A.A. learned from Dr. Silkworth was that:
.
Quote:
. . the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It does not satisfy us to
be told that we cannot control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that
we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were
true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that
our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves
out this physical factor is incomplete.
The doctor's theory that we have a kind of allergy to alcohol interests us. As laymen,
our opinion as to its soundness may, of course, mean little. But as ex-problem drinkers, we can
say that his explanation makes good sense. It explains many things for which we cannot
otherwise account.
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Alcoholic anonymous the doctors opinion page xxiv