Alcoholism: Approach To The Patient
Tiebout had many years of training and experience in the management of alcohol problems before his first exposure to Alcoholics Anonymous. However, his earliest detailed article concerning alcoholism was published in 1944, 5 years into his relationship with AA, and is primarily a description of AA itself. Over the next 10 years he published a number of articles outlining his theories about alcoholism, the psychodynamic causes of the disorder and his reasons for endorsing AA as the definitive solution.
Howard J. Clinebell, in a book for clergy on alcoholism counseling, recalled that Tiebout "likened the 'runaway symptom' of alcoholism to the dangerously high fever of pneumonia. The fever is a symptom of the underlying infection, but unless it can be lowered, the person may die of the 'symptom"." Psychiatrists, Tiebout felt, had been ineffectual because they ignored the deadly symptom in an attempt to treat a (theoretical) underlying disease. He credited AA with an ability to target the symptom directly. Tiebout's understanding of the alcoholic mind cannot be entirely separated from his understanding of the 12-step approach, but the primary themes in his writings can be summed up under several points.
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