Alcoholism and alienation

Abstract

Dean's alienation scale was administered to comparable samples of alcoholic and normal males and females in groups of 10 to 12. Alcoholics not only evidenced significantly greater overall alienation than normals, but also demonstrated greater specific alienation, namely social isolation, powerlessness and normlessness. Furthermore, the degree of specific alienation reported by alcoholics, but not by normals, differed significantly. Social isolation reflected the greatest amount of alienation, then powerlessness, and normlessness revealed the least. Sex differences were found for the alcoholic sample, but not for the normals in terms of the specific forms of alienation, although not for overall alienation. In each of these instances, males expressed more alienation than females. The meaning of the results was discussed in view of both the etiology and treatment of alcoholism.