Hugh Reilly
2022 Reprint of the 1950 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. For as many years as man has known alcoholism, his struggle for the power and means to control it have persevered. In very recent years some medical experts have classified alcoholism as a disease, and alcoholics as those persons whose drinking cannot be controlled but who must resort to it compulsively for the scope and relief they crave and which it seems to provide. The author of this book has long been a close student of the alcoholic problem. He certainly does not write as an amateur. Primarily he is an objective observer. Certain students of the problem will object to his approach and others may even be offended by it. This is not a scientific treatise on alcoholism but rather the vivid story of the death struggle of the alcoholic doomed to destruction, but who in the end finds the possibility of renewal through the fundamental doctrine of religion. The author very properly integrates the moral psychology of Alcoholics Anonymous as an essential element of his philosophy and teaching. This book attempts no formal answer to alcoholism, one of the greatest of our social problems, but does provide hope as an alternative to the certain doom that results from chronic alcoholism. There are many books and treatises, both lay and professional, on alcoholism, but this book is not an echo or paraphrase of any other. It deals with a complex subject, discussed from many angles, often challenging, always vigorous and original.
