“It Wasn't the Proper Me” — Narratives about Alcoholism and View of Oneself: The Impact of Disavowed Shortcomings and Dissociation

Abstract

This work is based on interviews with socially stable individuals with a history of alcoholism. The interviews concerned the participants' views of themselves, their alcoholism, and how they came to increase their drinking against better judgment. The participants understood their alcoholism as inevitable, and as connected to life experiences. They expressed difficulties in accepting their own shortcomings, and in understanding their increased drinking. Dissociative processes seemed important for these difficulties. The authors suggest that clinicians should provide a therapeutic context characterized by understanding, in which it is possible to counteract dissociation, and possible for the patient to gradually accept his or her own shortcomings.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcoholism
• dissociation
• subjective experience
• self
• shortcomings