Sylvestyer Wapitso
3 December 2008
"Alcoholism is not a purely genetic condition. Both genetic and environmental factors play a role.
There is a genetic component among alcoholics nonetheless," says Dr Philip Opondo, head of psychiatric department at Nyangagbwe Referral Hospital.
Sociological theories analyse social, cultural and psychological variables to illustrate that the behaviour of an alcoholic vary systematically across groups, societies and communities. The social learning theory purport that an alcoholic undergoes a psychological process through social structural factors which impact on individual behaviour. Human beings are social beings who are subjected to various social orientations depending on the communities they reside in.
Getting people away from chemical dependence entails various interventions. Over time, social scientists have argued that societies stress achievement and material success.
However, all these are attainable through socially approved educational and occupational means. All those at the bottom of the social class structure and members of the disadvantaged groups have unequal access to the legitimate means of survival.
Consequently they fail to fulfill such aspirations and this can put a strain on their lives. Of all communities, alcohol indulgence reigns supreme amongst low-income groups.
A review of empirical literature illustrates that alcohol problems are rampant in a socially disintegrated society. Alcohol is perceived to be the disease of the lonely. The behavioural patterns of alcoholics portray a vivid picture of depressed, anxious, stressed and alienated individuals. Having neither goals nor dreams to achieve, alcohol becomes their friend as they are victims in the society that produced them.
Various studies have depicted an alcoholic as an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. As they imbibe the firewater, it gives them a false belief that they are the centre of everything in life and the rest of the world revolves around them. Their confidence is boosted and in sobriety, they join the human society and become participants in life.
A celebrated social scientist Robert Merton, in his anomie theory, argued that in society, there are conditions of disequilibria, disorder, social disorganisation, lack of social integration and lack of normative consensus. Alcoholism becomes a conditio-precedent in anomic societies. Alcoholism thrives where there is no neighbourhood cohesion, where there is moral decay, family break-ups and above all, where all social instruments that enhance the social fabric of society are dismantled.
Most people are conformists as they try to achieve society's goals in approved ways. However, Merton observes that deviance arises when the approved ways of achieving goals do not correspond with the actual situation individuals find themselves in. Thus anomie comes about. After norms weaken, there are no rules to follow. People find themselves in despicable situations, less education, less wages, no jobs and absence of promotion prospects. Consequently, they break rules and engage in deviant behaviour.
As the Botswana government endeavours to price alcohol beyond the scope of the average household budget, it is important that in its attempts to address social woes brought by the alcohol syndrome, the focus ought be made on man as an integral element of society. The prospect of removing man from the target range of alcoholism is very important because all the implications of the alcohol syndrome might be a character indicator of a disorganised society that teeters on the brink of collapse. All the social glues upon which society hinges on ought to be enhanced.
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