Ya, there's a lot of truth in this, much as I hate to think of it that way. My Mom was very different when she was drunk -- she was always rebelling against whatever my Dad thought; if he said, "Black," she'd say "White" just to argue with him.
The weird thing is -- and this is going to surprise you guys, because even five years on, I still have a lot of anger issues toward my Dad -- when he was drunk, he was really nice to me, a lot of the time. When the two of us were alone and he was crocked, he used to get very sentimental and happy toward me. His incessant need to control... well, cessed during that time. He'd recall stories about good times, things I had done (usually involving either bowling tournaments or, in Little League I was a pitcher and struck out a lot of hitters -- not surprising for a bowler), and so on and so forth. That was not always the case -- if there were some specific thing he wanted me to do, that I didn't want to do, he'd be on about that even when drunk -- but there were a lot of times when he'd be happy and sentimental with me, when hammered.
A lot of my Dad's baddest side came out when he wasn't drunk at all -- when he was his brilliant-scientist-Superior-Form-of-Life self and wanted everyone to bend to his will. When drunk, he'd fight with my Mom (sometimes they'd go at it like Ali and Frazier, albeit only verbally), and he'd rage with us kids -- but when it was just me and him, he was often very different. Not sure I know what to make of that -- but thanks for prompting me to remember that side of him! Kind of messes up my whole "Dad was a raging alcoholic control freak, f890 him" narrative... but things are often not as black-and-white as they seem, are they....?
T