A Medical Challenge: The Alcohol Disease in Sweden 1946-1955

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse how alcohol misuse was constructed as a disease in Sweden from 1946 to 1955. During these years, alcohol misuse was intensely medicalised on a conceptual level, albeit not so much within the treatment sector or at the institutional level. Post-war humanism, a search for a solid ground for reformation of an unpopular system, and strong US influence were some of causes for this development. However, a medical framing without a medical cure did not manage to establish itself and the dominant problem description remained mostly social for the better part of the 20th century.