Related Experiment Videos
Codependency: a view from women married to alcoholics
1Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.
The International Journal of the Addictions
|April 1, 1988
Summary
The term "codependent" is often applied to wives of alcoholics, but its definition is unclear. This study reveals codependency is socially constructed, not an objective condition, and medicalizes women's identities.
Area of Science:
- Sociology of Health
- Psychology
- Gender Studies
Background:
- The term "codependent" is widely used to describe spouses of alcoholics.
- Significant definitional ambiguity exists regarding the concept of codependency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the social construction of codependency in women married to alcoholics.
- To challenge the notion of codependency as an objective condition.
Main Methods:
- Intensive interviews with women married to alcoholics.
- Analysis of self-labeling and identification processes.
- Examination of retrospective life reinterpretations.
Main Results:
- Wives agreed codependency involves caretaking and association with an alcoholic.
- Disagreement existed on codependency's impact, locus, disease status, longevity, and distinctiveness.
- Self-labeling is guided by rehabilitation personnel through retrospective life interpretations.
Conclusions:
- Codependency is a socially constructed concept, not an objective condition.
- The application of codependency deviantizes women's identities and medicalizes this deviance.
- This perpetuates traditional views of women and pathologizes wives of alcoholics.