You wrote:
 
Great assignment for the ATHG-L list, Melissa!  I'm going to scribble
down a few notes for you over the next few days--and I'm also looking
forward to what some other ATHG-Lers might have to offer on this.
Meantime, some 1970 references/thoughts come to mind (I'm thinking
alcohol here):
 
1.  Biggie:  NIAAA is founded.  There is some fugitive
literature/reflections on this.  I'll see what I've got.
 
2.  Take a look at Bob Straus's "Problem drinking in the perspective of
social changes, 1940-1973," Filstead, Rossi, & Keller (eds.), Alcohol
and alcohol problems: New thinking and new directions, 1976.
 
3.  Cahalan's book _Problem Drinkers_ came out in 1970.  So did Cahn's
_The Treatment of Alcoholics_.  Robin Room finished his working paper
on "Assumptions and Implications of the disease conception of
alcoholism."  Spradley's classic _You Owe Yourself a Drunk_ came out.
And Wilkinson's _The prevention of drinking problems_.
 
4.  Me?  I had recently completed my first job assignment in the
alcohol arena.  As it happens I was an ersatz "sociologist of built
environments" at the time--working for a group of architects in a
company called (1st) Building Program Associates and (later) The
Environmental Analysis Group.  I went around doing ministudies of how
people used/defined/were influenced by spacial arrangements.
Interesting stuff.  Anyhow, Fried Wittman recruited me to become part
of an NIMH architectural research team that was sent around the country
(to five cities, if memory serves) to examine the _facilities_, and
facilities needs, associated with alcoholism treatment at the time.
Ironically, this project wrapped-up just a tick before NIAAA came along
and divested NIMH of federal alcohol research responsibility.  Fried's
final report is still lodged in ARG's library somewhere.  My take on
the whole thing was that alcohol facilities were so diverse and served
so many different purposes that THEIR LATENT FUNCTIONS must have been
more important than the (narrower) manifest functions associated with
"treatment" per se.  It deflected me into an interest into "alcoholism
treatment" a secondary welfare/health care/social control system--an
interest and observational perspective I've never really lost over the
intervening quarter-century.
 
More comment to follow when I have a chance, Melissa.  Ron
 
 
 
 
 
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       Alcohol and Temperance History Group
<[log in to unmask]>
>Poster:       "<[log in to unmask]>"
>              <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      1970/1995/2020
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>I'm doing a teaching session soon where I'm going to ask participants
>(mainly drug/alcohol clinicians/researchers/planners) to look back to
1970
>(approx.) and identify significant events/trends in the D&A field (and
>society at large), then to put a 1995 perspective on them - wisdom in
>hindsight etc.
>Then jump to 2020, speculate about what's happening then, then try to
get
>some 2020 hindsight on 1995).
>I'd welcome any ideas about:
>1. What was really important c.1970 (e.g. Vietnam, the U.S. Controlled
>Substances Act...)
>2. What might be happening in 2020
>3. How 1995 will look from 2020.
>All contributions welcome!
>
>Melissa Raven
>National Centre for Education & Training on Addiction [NCETA]
>Flinders University BEDFORD PARK  SA  5042 AUSTRALIA
>Telephone  61(0)8 201 7557 Fax  61(0)8 201 7550
>Email  [log in to unmask]
>