Psychiatric Findings in an Interdisciplinary Study of Forty-Six Alcoholic Patients

Abstract

Psychiatric histories obtained from 46 subjects with alcoholism, 23 currently drinking and 23 dry for 2 years or more, revealed universally present interdependent character traits which are termed "schizoid", "dependent", "depressed", "hostile", and "sexually immature". These are defined and illustrated. They are felt to be essential to but not unique to the pathogenesis of alcoholism, and are hypothesized to originate in the failure of the mother-child relationship to provide adequate security and mothering experiences in the infantile period.