This Strange Illness

Lobdell, who has written on a broad range of subjects, here argues the originality and importance of the recognition by Bill W., cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, of alcoholism as a tripartite illness, and his congruent treatment for the three parts. Lobdell thus accepts a medical view of this vast social problem, but also recognizes the dimensions within it that go beyond the ordinary limits of medical practice, as well as the complexity of its treatment. His book is at once an intellectual history of Bill W.'s vision, a short history of alcohol addiction and the culture of that addiction; a treatise on the psychological, biochemical, and spiritual (even theological) aspects of the illness and its treatment; and a scientific research program for the future.