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Arquivos Brasileiros de Psicologia

On-line version ISSN 1809-5267

Abstract

COSTA, Raul Max Lucas da  and  DANZIATO, Leonardo. The invention of Alcoholics Anonymous: alcoholism and subjectivation. Arq. bras. psicol. [online]. 2018, vol.70, n.3, pp. 21-34. ISSN 1809-5267.

The emergence of alcoholism as a medical category in the late nineteenth century was contemporary to medical interventions in the urban masses. Later, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) emerged as a brotherhood for the purpose of treating 'alcoholic disease' from methodical and spiritualistic precepts. This article aims to discuss the historical and genealogical constitution of AA, highlighting its subjective effects around the category alcoholism. We conducted a bibliographic study using the written production of AA, analyzing the data from the Foucaultian perspective. We found that AA individualized the diagnosis of alcoholism, which was previously conceived as a social disease. We conclude that AA reformulated the conception of alcoholic disease giving it a subjective connotation and inaugurated a pragmatic therapy whose effect was a new identity construction based on a moral of life.

Keywords : Alcoholics Anonymous; Alcoholism; Subjectivation; History; Genealogy.

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