Alcoholism term paper, free samples

alcoholism term paper

Lack of availability of the alcoholic parent at ritual times can be a signal of change if that parent had been crucial to the celebration of the ritual before he or she began drinking heavily. However, if the alcoholic parent had never participated in the ritual or if the parent's participation was not central to it, absence due to drinking would not indicate a change in the ritual. It is important that "distinctive" families not be seen as families in which there is less alcohol abuse behavior, or as families in which the alcoholic is simply not at home. "Distinctive" families can be exposed to a high level of alcoholism and still keep their rituals intact.

research papers alcoholism

However, it is the dimension of intentionality that is particularly important for the Alcoholic Family. Alcoholism can easily disrupt the carrying out of family rituals. Holiday times, vacations, and similar times are susceptible to being undermined by the intrusion of alcoholic behavior or the need to accommodate an alcoholic member. Hence the family often has to work at preserving its rituals in order not to have them disrupted or taken over by alcoholism issues. Intentionality is another term for the family's resolve and persistence in preserving its rituals in the face of chronic alcoholism.

free essays on drug abusers vs. alcohol abusers

First, we can clearly see that when alcohol abuse emerges in early phase, it has preemptive power as a developmental issue. That is, it proves such a powerful and compelling force in family life that all other issues tend to be recast in "alcohol terms." Struggles about values become struggles about whether or not alcohol abuse is to be tolerated. Struggles about rules governing interpersonal relationships within the family are most forcefully engaged when rules for interpreting and managing intoxicated behavior must be worked out. Delineation of external boundaries often centers around who is to be let in on the alcoholism issue and how they are to be "briefed."

free essays on drugs and alcohol

But of equal importance is the transmission of personal values, values that we might more appropriately call family, rather than societal or cultural. Although societal values regarding alcohol use clearly affect family and individual behavior, for our purposes the more interesting focus has to do with the family's unique perspective regarding alcohol. That is, for us the more interesting question is how values and behaviors related to alcohol use are incorporated within the family culture, and then transmitted to children. Thus when we talk about transmission of alcoholism across generations, it is primarily this family perspective that we will be taking.

alcoholics anonymous essay

For some families, this process represents a logical extension of one initiated by the treatment program used during the transitional period. This is particularly true of programs that emphasize the value of long-term involvement in one or more of the various self-help groups so popular in the alcoholism field. Families might emerge from such a program having been introduced not only to Alcoholics Anonymous but also to Al-Anon, Alateen, or Alafam (the counterparts to AA groups for spouses, children, and whole families respectively). Involvement in these groups can become a very absorbing process.

alice walker research papers

Important contributions to the controversy directly relating to Walker's treatment of men have been made by the African American scholars, Trudier Harris and Philip M. Royster. Both take The Color Purple as the ground of their discussion. Harris's negative response to the novel is built on the fear that it might call into life what she calls "spectator readers," European American readers who buy into the description of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 report on the "pathology" of the African American family and whose racist stereotypes she sees reinforced by Walker's presentation of the African American community and African American men.

alternative energy essays

One of the more promising alternative energy sources is solar energy. This source can be expected to provide increasing amounts of energy in the future for uses ranging from residential heating to industrial heating and cooling. Research is well under way in this field to eventually supply electricity. The primary research and development efforts have been coordinated by the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) located in Golden, Colorado. Federal support has declined in recent years and President Reagan has shifted some energy development research funding away from solar and toward nuclear research. The major focuses for the future when dealing with solar energy have to do with the storage problem and with electricity conversion efficiencies.

american civil war essay

The war, when it came, found the medical departments of both the Union and the Confederate armies to a great extent unprepared. Their doctors were few and largely untrained in military medicine and surgery. Moreover, a long war was not foreseen, and many of the hospitals of the first year were improvisations. Only gradually, beginning in 1862, were they replaced by hospitals of a radical new design, based on the one-story pavilion. Before the end of the conflict, Northern and Southern doctors were to treat hundreds of thousands of casualties from wounds, and cases of sickness running into the millions.

american civil war impact essay

As in all wars prior to World War I, more men died of disease than from battle. It is estimated that of 500,000 or more soldiers who succumbed, at least two of every three died, not of wounds, but from sickness. It has been observed, however, that, as compared with previous wars of the 19th century, the Civil War was a relatively healthy one. The decreased degree of mortality can to a great extent be ascribed to improved methods of sanitation and hygiene. At the outbreak of war many medical officers, Union and Confederate, had had little, if any, experience in military surgery.

causes of civil war essay

A dramatic gesture of the war, which pointed up the scarcity of essential raw materials within the Confederacy, was the offering of church bells to be melted down and cast into cannon. Although the net result of such sacrifices was probably negligible, they seem to have been repeated. The May 1, 1862, issue of The Index, the Pro-Confederate weekly published in London, carried a letter from Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard encouraging such gifts. Taken from the Mobile Register of March 18 and addressed to the "Planters of the Mississippi Valley," the letter reads: More than once a People fighting with an enemy less ruthless than yours …