Alcoholism, a contagious disease. A contribution towards an anthropological definition of contagion

Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry
S Fainzang

Abstract

The goal of this article is to show, from the discourses of drinkers' spouses, members of a "cured-drinkers" movement in France very different from the AA, what the idea of the contagious character of alcoholism means in the subjects' representations and by extension, what the idea of contagion may contain when seen from an anthropological perspective. This work rests on the observation that many people consider that their spouse's alcoholism makes them sick, and tend to identify with the sick person by finding effects of alcoholism on their own bodies. The notion of contagion qualifies here the perception of the impact of the other's sickness on oneself, by physical and social proximity to the drinker, insofar as the conditions for contagion to be possible include not only sharing the same physical (domestic) space, but also the existence of a social bond.

References

Dec 1, 1986·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·A D Gaines, P E Farmer
Apr 1, 1984·British Journal of Urology·P GaneC Nezelof
Jul 1, 1984·Avian Pathology : Journal of the W.V.P.A·B Andral, D Toquin

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Citations

Jan 19, 1999·Tropical Medicine & International Health : TM & IH·A Caprara
Dec 1, 1998·Anthropology & Medicine·S Fainzang
Dec 1, 2001·Human Nature : an Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective·S Atran
Jun 6, 2020·The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease·Kenneth S KendlerKristina Sundquist
Apr 28, 2010·Medical Anthropology Quarterly·Ben KillingsworthChris Dowrick

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