Preface & Chapter I - IntroductionPreface & Chapter I - Introduction
Psychology of Alcoholism, The by George Barton Cutten (1874 - 1962)
An early 20th‑century study outlines alcoholism as a psychological, physical and moral disease, backed by medical opinion, economic data and social change. The author explains his plan to examine alcohol’s lasting effects on the mind while highlighting the growing global response against its harm.
34:39•1 Apr 2026
The Psychology of Alcoholism: How Alcohol Reshapes Minds, Lives and Nations
Episode Overview
- Alcoholism is presented as a physical, mental and moral disease, with strong effects on memory, imagination and especially the emotions.
- Medical opinion has shifted from prescribing alcohol widely to identifying it as a major cause of disease, crime, poverty and death.
- International congresses, physicians and legislators are increasingly joining forces to restrict alcohol and educate the public.
- Statistics on national drink bills, pauperism and mortality suggest alcohol imposes enormous financial and human costs on society.
- Life assurance figures and military experiments indicate that abstainers live longer and perform better than drinkers, even moderate ones.
“If the state does not soon control the liquor traffic, the liquor traffic will control the state.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This early 20th‑century classic, *The Psychology of Alcoholism* by George Barton Cutten, opens with a calm, scientific look at a problem that still feels very familiar. Rather than preaching, the book asks what alcohol actually does to the mind and emotions, and how those changes ripple out through families, workplaces, and entire nations.
You’ll hear George Trumbull Ladd praise the work as having “considerable scientific value” and stressing that alcoholism is a “physical, mental, and moral disease.” From there, Cutten sets out his aim: to explain the mental changes caused by the continuous and excessive use of alcohol, grounding everything in the condition of the brain and nervous system. The episode lays out the scale of the issue with stark statistics.
You get figures on national drink bills, the cost to hospitals and poorhouses, and the chilling estimate that “the total cost of alcohol to the United States, directly and indirectly, cannot be less than $3,000,000,000 per year.” He highlights how alcohol shows up in crime, pauperism, disease, and early death, quoting experts who link huge portions of mortality and poverty directly to drinking. There’s also a strong focus on changing attitudes.
Physicians move from prescribing alcohol for nearly every illness to becoming “the greatest enemy of alcohol.” Big employers, railways, armies, and even life assurance companies are cited as quietly proving that abstainers live longer, work better, and cost less.
As Lord Rosebery warns, “If the state does not soon control the liquor traffic, the liquor traffic will control the state.” For anyone interested in how psychology, medicine, economics, and social reform came together around alcohol, this opening chapter offers a clear, sometimes blunt foundation: alcohol isn’t just a bad habit, it reshapes minds, lives, and societies. How might these early observations still speak to your own views on drinking today?
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