Treating Adult Children Of Alcoholics: A Developmental Perspective Paper

A comprehensive theoretical and practical presentation on the assessment and treatment of adult children of alcoholics.

In Treating Adult Children of Alcoholics, renowned psychologist, researcher, and author Stephanie Brown develops an in-depth, integrated theory linking childhood experiences with an alcoholic parent to developmental difficulties. She emphasizes the importance of the traumatic family environment and provides rich clinical descriptions, linking systems theory and literature of the handicapped to the experience of children of alcoholics.

Dr. Brown connects environmental issues with individual development. She details the defensive maneuvers required to cope with an alcoholic parent and explores their impact on the development of the self. Finally, she outlines the process of recovery, continuing to emphasize the link between environment and individual development. She traces the recovery process from its first step--admitting parental alcoholism--through the reconstruction of personal identity based on incorporating the realities of parental alcoholism into a new vision of the self.

For mental health professionals, alcoholism counselors, graduate students, recovering alcoholics and their families, and adult children of alcoholics, Treating Adult Children of Alcoholics provides a clear understanding of the impact of parental alcoholism on the developing child. It also opens the door to a solid, realistic course of treatment that offers hope to thousands of adult children of alcoholics.

STEPHANIE BROWN, PhD, is the Director of the Addictions Institute in Menlo Park, California. She also founded and was a director of the Alcohol Clinic at Stanford University Medical Center. An internationally recognized expert on the treatment of alcoholics and their families, Dr. Brown is a licensed psychologist with nearly 25 years of clinical experience, a researcher, consultant, and frequent lecturer in the field of alcoholism. She is the author of Treating the Alcoholic: A Developmental Model of Recovery, also available from Wiley.

THE ALCOHOLIC FAMILY.

The Children of Alcoholics.

The Alcoholic Family Environment.

Interactions, Patterns, and Adaptations.

THE IMPACT OF PARENTAL ALCOHOLISM ON INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT.

Trauma and Defensive Adaptations.

The Impact of Parental Alcoholism on Attachment.

The Impact of Parental Alcoholism on Identity Formation.

THE PROCESS OF RECOVERY.

The Process of Recovery: Theory.

Preparation for Recovery: Drinking and Transition.

Early Recovery.

Ongoing Recovery.

What Is Progress: Growing Up, Growing Out, and Coming Home.

References.

Index.