The debate on whether alcoholism is a disease or a personal conduct problem has continued for over 200 years. In the United States, Benjamin Rush, MD, has been credited with first identifying alcoholism as a "disease" in 1784. He asserted that alcohol was the causal agent, loss of control over drinking behavior being the characteristic symptom, and total abstinence the only effective cure. His belief in this concept was so strong that he spearheaded a public education campaign in the United States to reduce public drunkenness (Manuel, 1987).
Alcoholism runs in families. Even before researchers showed how and why some people are predisposed to becoming alcoholic, simple observation showed that when one or both parents are alcoholic, the children are at risk. Until recently, researchers couldn't be sure whether this familial link was hereditary or environmental or both. Do people drink because they "leaned to" at home or do they drink because they are genetically programmed to become alcoholic? While the environmental influence certainly can't be discounted, new evidence strongly suggests that heredity plays a much stronger role in alcoholism than was once thought (THE ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA, 1990).
The 1800s gave rise to the temperance movement in the United States. Alcohol was perceived as evil, the root cause of America’s problems. Accepting the disease concept of alcoholism, people believed that liquor could enslave a person against his or her will (Manuel, 1987). Temperance proponents propagated the view that drinking was so dangerous that people should not even sample liquor or else they would likely embark on the path toward alcoholism. This ideology maintained that alcohol is inevitably dangerous and inexorably addictive for everyone. Today, we know that strong genetic influences exist, but not everyone becomes addicted to alcohol (Williams, 1961).
The temperance movement picked up steam in the late 1800s and evolved into a movement advocating the prohibition of alcohol nationally.
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