Att bota en drinkare : idéer och praktik i svensk alkoholistvård 1885 - 1916

The focus for this thesis is the alcoholic care in Sweden from the establishment of the first alcoholic institution in 1885 and the years right after the compulsory care act was passed in 1913. In the thesis the practical activity at the four first alcoholic institutions is examined, but also the ideas concerning alcoholic care that were formulated by the men that were the institutions initiators and responsible for the activities. The research has its starting point in and also confirms care as a sociocultural phenomenon and not merely a medical issue, and that there is an agreement in terms of meaning between the ideals expressed by the medicine as well as other societal interests. Both idea and actual practice have been examined in order to answer the question how the alcoholic care was shaped as a result of the medicalization of the drunkenness problem, but also the consequences of this alcoholic care. Especially the American and the British research position has proved that conceptions about will and morals have been significant to the shaping of a care ideology concerning the alcoholism and its treatment. A second question the research has intended to answer is if, an if then how, such conceptions affected the care ideology and the actual care in practice also in Sweden. One of the results of this thesis is that the early alcoholic care in Sweden ideologically claimed to represent and originate from medical principles and knowledge, even though the treatment methods proposed and practiced originated from the conception about alcoholism as a willpower illness. The purpose with the treatment was primarily to affect the will and moral and consequently the traditional medical science and pharmaceutics were given a subordinated position compared to the medical methods that proceeded from a holistic view on the human, as for example hypnosis and water therapy. The treatment was also individualized according to a relation between the doctor and each patient. The exam