Alcoholism

A detailed Summary of Alcoholism

In class, we have read the book written by Caroline Knapp entitled, Drinking, A Love Story, and watched the movie "Days of Wine and Roses". These are both stories of people struggling with the illness of alcoholism. Caroline Knapp's book explained both what it was like for others to deal with her, being the alcoholic, and also how she had to deal with the illness herself. It was the story of her own personal struggle, in depth with the alcoholic's thought process and what he or she encounters with the illness. Caroline explains her family in quite a bit of detail; she explained what it was like growing up in her household and what she was like before she acquired the love for alcohol. She also informed the reader of the mental withdrawal of alcohol by the alcoholic. The movie was the story of a married couple who were both alcoholics. They were young and had a daughter who was in some ways neglected. The movie illustrated the couples cravings and desperation for alcohol. It ended with the two separating because of the husband's realization of their problem and will to stop himself from continuing to be an active alcoholic. The movie did a good job illustrating physical withdrawal of alcohol. I will be analyzing the

se two stories and connecting them to the perspective of social psychology with the help of the publication of theories of Charles Horton Cooley and Professor Cullum-Swan.

There have been three sociological perspectives that we have discussed in class: structural functionalism, cultural studies and social psychology. Structural functionalism focuses on more on things like race, gender, sex, and class. Emile Durkheim is a sociologist who focuses on structural functionalism. He sees society as a group of people who must fulfill certain functions, and when this is done properly, society is at a "normal state". If they do not fulfill their functions, then they are running at a "pathological" state. To understand society, then, functionalist say we need to examine both structure (how the parts of a society fit together to make a whole) and function (how each part contributes to a society). Cultural studies focus on norms, values, culture, and language of a society. Sociologist, Howard Becker, focuses on the cultural approach to sociology with deviance. Deviance is in "the eye of the beholder" (Cullum-Swan, 2000), and how society reacts to it. "It is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant" (Becker, 1966), also "what is deviant to some is not deviant to others" (Cullum-Swan, 2000). This approach tends to focus more of the sociology of a group rather than an individual. Social

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Approximate Word count = 957
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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