by Lida Prypchan Only by understanding the numerous and complex causes of alcoholism, can the gravity of the problem be appreciated so that therapy may be practiced on an individual level and the disease combated on the social scale. There are four main causes: DESIRE, TOLERANCE, PERSONALITY, BIOLOGICAL TYPE and HEREDITY: DESIRE: Firstly we must …
April 2013 archive
WHICH CAME FIRST: ALCOHOL OR CRIME?
In July 1982, Drs. Román Prypchan and Pedro Téllez Carrasco presented for their professional advancement a detailed study on 150 psychiatric skills entitled: “Problems in the Practice of Psychiatry in Venezuela. Analysis of some Sample Cases”. In this work the authors found that alcoholic psychoses constituted 9% of the total sample. There were 9 cases …
THE BOTTLE’S EMPTY, WIVES RUN FOR COVER
There are a few rare cases of people who enjoy long life and excellent health in spite of their alcoholic excesses, while others who drink less decline after just a few months of excess. Alcoholism depends on the quantities imbibed by a person on a daily basis, subject to certain conditions which are inherent in …
STATES OF AFFINITY
by Lida Pripchan The attraction, union or closeness between individuals is ruled by circumstance but also by identification and antagonism. Affinity, either for a similar concept of life, for a shared ideology, for interests in common. Antagonism, such as that observed between the man and woman who achieve perfect unity by complementing one another. But …
DELIRIUM TREMENS
by Lida Prypchan Delirium tremens was identified as a clinical syndrome by Sutton (an English doctor) in 1813, but he was unaware of its alcoholic nature. It was Rayer, in 1819, who gave a new and excellent description of this delirium and insisted upon its alcoholic etiology. Delirium tremens is the most serious of the …
DRUNK WITH LOVE
by Lida Prypchan When a normal individual (normal being the term for average, not a value judgment) gets drunk, he displays a statistically average form of behavior, called normal or simple inebriety. This is characterized by a change in mood (which becomes expansive or, less frequently, depressed), behavior, attention, and in motor function. It has …
MALE AND FEMALE ALCOHOLISM
by Lida Prypchan When a woman gets drunk, she tends to hide herself away, to be ashamed of herself. A man on the other hand, for social reasons, boasts about it. The alcoholic female drinks alone, the male tends more to meet up with friends and only to become captive to the addiction when it …
THERE ARE ALCOHOLICS AND THEN THERE ARE ALCOHOLICS
by Lida Prypchan “All we know of happiness is the word itself. Our oldest companion is new wine. Caress with your eyes and clasp in your fingers the only good thing that never fails: the living amphora of the blood of the grapevine.” (Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat) Unquestionably there are alcoholics and then there …
ALCOHOLIC HALLUCINOSIS
by Lida Prypchan Very rare in its pure form, alcoholic hallucinosis, also known as hallucinatory paranoia and chronic alcoholic delirium, characteristically exhibits auditory hallucinations which generate delusions of persecution, while retaining clarity of the senses without impairment. It differs from delirium tremens in the predominance of auditory and tactile hallucinations and clarity of consciousness; in …
AMONG ALCOHOLICS AND PSYCHOPATHS
by Lida Prypchan “Since you do not know what tomorrow will bring, try to be happy today. Take a pitcher of wine, sit in the moonlight and drink it, reflecting that maybe tomorrow will be better.” (Omar Khayyam, Rubaiyat) There are two dominant psychological types of alcoholic. There is the sensitive type, who feels inferior …
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