I turn to an unused old email account, and I find this amid hundreds of messages.
 
In my research on AA, I found it impossible to draw a straight historical biography on the disease metaphor, but there are antecedents, going back to Benjamin Rush in the 1780s.  
 
I published a somewhat related paper on this question:  Swora, Maria Gabrielle, 2001, "Personhood and Disease in Alcoholics Anonymous" Mental Health, Religion, and Culture




Don't believe everything you think.

--- On Mon, 8/11/08, Peter Ferentzy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Peter Ferentzy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: addiction as metaphor
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, August 11, 2008, 3:07 PM

Hi All,

I've taken an interest in the idea of psychobehavioral ailments as 
metaphoric "diseases", and am interested in pursuing the matter in
depth.

Does anyone know the origins of AA's allergy theory? I doubt that the 
practitioner who speaks for them, Silkworth, created the idea himself 
(though I could be wrong).

Then there's the public health model, which draws parallels to infection 
control. Does anyone know where this began?

Thanks,



Peter