Selected Beliefs About Alcoholism and Other Addictions Held by Recovering Psychologists (Report)

Selected Beliefs about Alcoholism and other Addictions Held by Recovering Psychologists Psychologists and other mental health clinicians often identify and treat addictions in the course of their professional careers. Addictions manifest themselves in overt behaviors as well as covert attitudes and beliefs. Healthcare professionals frequently disagree over the etiology, characteristics, and nature of addictions. Vaillant (1983) addressed these differences and concurred that practitioners often disagree on the cause(s) of alcoholism. Whereas some psychologists believe that alcoholism is a disease, other psychologists depict alcoholism as a bad habit or a culturally-induced behavior (Vaillant, 1983).