The Concept of Control and Alcoholism

Summary Clinical perspectives, as e.g. the Alcohol Dependence Syndrome and the position stated by the advocates of controlled drinking suffer from a defective analysis of how the concept of control is used within their own theoretical framework. The basic problem seems to stem from the absence of an articulated and unambiguous definition of the concept control. In order to avoid theoretical inconsistencies we here propose, as an analytic device, a distinction between teleological and causal explanations of human behaviour. This distinction leads to two basic connotations of the control concept which are not compatible within a particular scientific discourse. Our main point is not that just one version of control is possible, but rather that the two basic interpretations of control which we propose create confusion when used as if they referred to the same phenomenon, or as if they were compatible. By analyzing the concept control–and the negation of it–within the Alcohol Dependence Syndrome and the theoretical framework which surrounds controlled drinking as a therapeutic goal, we attempt to point out the practical and theoretical problems generated by the use of an unarticulated control concept.