I can totally see how viewing alcohol as nothing more than a poison and that it adds virtuallly nothing to our lives, and in fact adds negative experiences can enhance abstinence.
But what I worry about is... so what. So what if it's a poison and it does nothing but crap on our lives. I'm pretty sure there are tons of alcoholics that know full well how awful it us and continue drinking anyway.
I guess in my view it is still more important to figure out underlying causes and get to the business of learning better tools to cope with those causes. Otherwise, alcohol can just be replaced with something more "positive"... exercise, gaming, caffeine, sex, god.....
Just my two cents. But I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering this book soon to support my ideas of alcohol nonsense anyway.