The sentence that sound so poetic in the movie ("the fine balance between the shakes of too little and the abyss of too much" as uttered by Albert Finney's character Geoffrey Firmin), is hidden among the words in this academic sounding book....
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"Dr Prescott, an eminent surgeon, had just gotten back from the liquor store with a pint of vodka, took four quick swallows. and thought, "It will be just about fifteen minutes before these damned shakes are gone." At that moment, insight struck, and he realized that he had become physically dependent upon alcohol. His self-esteem was severely shaken by this shocking discovery, the awareness that he was lacking in control. That was when he decided to quit drinking.
It is important to emphasize that these cases, while of theoretical and practical interest, should not detract from the fact that the surest embarkation point toward sobriety for the vast majority of alcoholics is still the point of a personally defined low, or bottom. But to recognize this does not explain why most alcoholics need to be so miserable, to perceive themselves at the bottom of an abyss, before they can be motivated to change their self-defeating behavior. Why is it that reasonably intelligent men and women can remain relatively immune to reason and good advice and only choose to quit drinking when they absolutely must, after so much damage has been wrought? What is there about alcoholism, unlike any other "disease" in medicine except certain drug addictions, that makes being in extremis represent a potential favorable sign for a cure?
Undoubtedly, the potent pharmacological effects of alcohol itself must play an important role in perpetuating continued drinking. Almost up until the bitter end, even when the euphoric effects of alcohol become more fleeting and short-lived, it can still be relied upon to help the alcoholic feel more "normal". Like the alcoholic proconsul in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, the drinker tries to strike "the fine balance between the shakes of too little and the abyss of too much".
But beyond the habituating or addictive aspects of the drug, certain psychological features of the alcoholics themselves also need to be taken into account. It is these very features that help explain why alcoholics usually do not heed the warnings and entreaties of others, why they usually resist the help offered even after they asked for it.
At the outset, one facts needs to be made very clear. Despite the countless claims about certain characteristic personality patterns that predispose individuals to alcoholism - dependent, impulsive, immature, and hostile traits are usually incriminated - available evidence argues to the contrary.
There is no such thing as a typical alcoholic personality.
.................................................................
Source:http://books.google.ca/books
.................................................
"Dr Prescott, an eminent surgeon, had just gotten back from the liquor store with a pint of vodka, took four quick swallows. and thought, "It will be just about fifteen minutes before these damned shakes are gone." At that moment, insight struck, and he realized that he had become physically dependent upon alcohol. His self-esteem was severely shaken by this shocking discovery, the awareness that he was lacking in control. That was when he decided to quit drinking.
It is important to emphasize that these cases, while of theoretical and practical interest, should not detract from the fact that the surest embarkation point toward sobriety for the vast majority of alcoholics is still the point of a personally defined low, or bottom. But to recognize this does not explain why most alcoholics need to be so miserable, to perceive themselves at the bottom of an abyss, before they can be motivated to change their self-defeating behavior. Why is it that reasonably intelligent men and women can remain relatively immune to reason and good advice and only choose to quit drinking when they absolutely must, after so much damage has been wrought? What is there about alcoholism, unlike any other "disease" in medicine except certain drug addictions, that makes being in extremis represent a potential favorable sign for a cure?
Undoubtedly, the potent pharmacological effects of alcohol itself must play an important role in perpetuating continued drinking. Almost up until the bitter end, even when the euphoric effects of alcohol become more fleeting and short-lived, it can still be relied upon to help the alcoholic feel more "normal". Like the alcoholic proconsul in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, the drinker tries to strike "the fine balance between the shakes of too little and the abyss of too much".
But beyond the habituating or addictive aspects of the drug, certain psychological features of the alcoholics themselves also need to be taken into account. It is these very features that help explain why alcoholics usually do not heed the warnings and entreaties of others, why they usually resist the help offered even after they asked for it.
At the outset, one facts needs to be made very clear. Despite the countless claims about certain characteristic personality patterns that predispose individuals to alcoholism - dependent, impulsive, immature, and hostile traits are usually incriminated - available evidence argues to the contrary.
There is no such thing as a typical alcoholic personality.
.................................................................
Under the Volcano
Book by Malcolm Lowry
Under
the Volcano is a novel published in 1947 by English writer Malcolm
Lowry. The novel tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin, an alcoholic
British consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac, on the Day of
the Dead, November 2, 1939. Wikipedia
Published: 1947
Genre: Fiction
Source:http://books.google.ca/books
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