The Drinkers

Alcoholism appears to be growing into a bigger & bigger U.S. health problem. Reporting in the current Journal of Clinical Psychopathology, Dr. Robert V. Seliger, chief psychiatrist of the Neuropsychiatric Institute of Baltimore, writes: "This behavior illness . . ." causes ravages "worse and more varied than those of any other specific known medical or psychiatric sickness. The toll it takes each year in lives, due to alcoholically induced accidents; in happiness, due to marital and family life upheavals . . . and in actual cash, from the home budget to state and federal funds, is a toll greater than we can calculate."

Dr. Seliger is encouraged by the fact that alcoholism is now the subject of more & more discussion and action in medical, civic and industrial circles. The keener interest, he says, has led to wider realization that alcoholics are sick people and "are no longer classifiable as 'bums' and 'drunks.' "

Three Grades. Dr. Seliger puts drinkers into three categories: moderate social drinkers, heavy social drinkers, and alcoholics. The social drinker, he says, "can stop drinking at will . . . [Even at parties he] usually stops short of actually getting drunk to the extent of not knowing what he is doing. [He does not get] involved in real jams, fights with strangers, police, and so on."

At the other extreme, the alcoholic is one whose "use of alcohol interferes with one or more of his important life activities, as, for example, his job standing and ability, his reputation, his home life. This interference is shown in behavior, in his inability to stop drinking at will, in the fact that alcohol 'handles' him . . ." Dr. Seliger even does some specific pointing: "Many of our most intelligent, versatile and useful citizens . . . are, medically speaking, alcoholics, and require treatment . . ."

What really worries Dr. Seliger is the in-between group of heavy social drinkers. Increasing in numbers, he says, they are a danger for three reasons: 1) they get themselves and their friends into jams; 2) they are bad accident risks; and 3) they make a training ground for chronic alcoholics. "Many business leaders, professional men and high-powered executives [are] in this medical bracket."

What Will the Waiter Think? Psychiatrist Seliger does not favor prohibition, because he thinks it is against human nature, and besides, it gets no results. But he would like to see "a concerted program of education against heavy social drinking, beamed at the reading and listening public--including the 'teen and twenty-agers--and supported as a public health service."

Perhaps, he says, "through various opinion-molding media, we could change the prevailing social attitude about heavy social drinking, and especially about daytime drinking, so that instead of its being considered obligatory, or 'smart,' even' the waiter would look astonished and disapproving . . ."

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