The Psychological Mechanism of Alcohol Addiction

Abstract

Studies of alcohol addiction have tended to be concerned with "underlying causes," thereby turning attention from the addictive process itself. Alcohol addiction is here considered a generalized tension-reducing response. On the basis of analogy to some animal experiments on "compulsive eating," three requisites for the development of an addiction are posited. They are (a) some emotional arousal with regard to drinking, (b) the repeated occurrence of stress situations together with the above, and (c) drinking of enough alcohol on such occasions so that a tension-reducing effect is achieved. Breaking up the addiction is accomplished by substituting other tension-reducing responses for drinking.