Medicine: Signposts to Alcoholism

The patient came into the Yale Plan Clinic a jittery sack. The night before, for the 14th time in six years, he had been arrested for drunkenness. Obsessed by the idea that he had killed his brother (who had caught pneumonia while looking after him), he was in a suicidal mood. Medical Director Dr. Giorgio Lolli skipped preliminaries and applied emergency treatment: relieving the patient's sense of guilt. Said Dr. Lolli, 15 minutes later: "He came in a bum and went out a person. I think he'll come back this afternoon—sober." (He did.)...

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