Faculty Bibliography

The social context in which alcoholism treatment takes place contributes greatly to its nature and outcome. This issue is examined in two socialist countries, based on site visits and literature review. A hospital-based treatment program and its related social Club system in Yugoslavia are part of a close-knit national treatment network oriented toward self-help and peer therapy. The principal approaches to alcoholism treatment in the USSR are closely integrated into the Communist social and political structure, and include sobering-up stations, factory-based clinics, hospital-based inpatient and outpatient facilities, and a quasi-penal system for recidivists. The impact of the following issues on alcoholism treatment is discussed: (1) the public information system, in both ideology and propaganda; (2) the state's regulation of deviant behavior, as a component of the medical treatment system; and finally, (3) the acceptable role for peer treatment in a given social context

The author studied the psychological aspects of religious conversion during structured 21-day workshop sequences designed to introduce people to the Unification Church. Subjects were given a battery of tests at different times during the sequence. After the initial 2-day workshop, 71% dropped out; the 29% who chose to continue had greater affiliative feelings toward the group and greater acceptance of the church's creed than these early dropouts. The 9% who ultimately joined the church had weaker outside personal ties than the later dropouts, although their beliefs in and cohesiveness toward the church were the same as the late dropouts. These results are also compared with long-standing members of the church and matched nonmembers. The induction procedures used by the church are discussed with regard to those used by large therapeutic groups, such as self-help organizations

When inpatients attended orientation sessions preparing them for outpatient treatment, a larger proportion of these patients than of patients receiving no orientation returned for outpatient care