This Strange Illness: Alcholism and Bill W.

This brilliant work, both personal and professional in character, is a study of alcoholism, of a movement aimed at its cure, and of an individual participant in this development. The author develops an interlinked theory and scientific research programme that describe an illness of the mind, body, and spirit. He does so without allowing the assumptions underlying the way we look at one area of illness, say the mind, to contradict the assumptions underlying the way we look at the human body or for that matter the human spirit. That Lobdell carries this project to a successful conclusion makes this a compelling work for everyone in the field of alcohol studies and social pathology.