Alcoholism as a Developing Family Crisis

This paper focuses on the specific problem of alcoholism in the husband/father member of the family. Disturbed personality and decompensation hypotheses were not supported by the data. Systems theory alone is inadequate to conceptualize the inconsistency of the alcoholic, and his impact on the family. A combination of systems theory and Hill's (1949) crisis theory was suggested as one view of the alcoholic marriage. Therapeutic implications were derived from this combined theoretical perspective, and were briefly discussed.