From vice to disease? The concepts of dipsomania and inebriety, 1860-1908

In the second half of the nineteenth century medical professionals attempted to change official attitudes and policies towards habitual drunkenness. One of their central contentions was that many cases of habitual drunkenness were caused by a medical condition called dipsomania or inebriety. The resulting reform served as a model for fundamental shifts in social and penal policy. Existing accounts of the inebriate reform assume that it was aimed at all habitual drunkards and that the main thrust of the reform was to medicalize the problem. As a close reading of the inebriety reformers' discourse shows, however, the reform was aimed only at those who were irresponsible and inefficient, as well as habitually drunk, and its main thrust was to 'moralize' this problem. This argument has important implications for our understanding of the 'medicalization' deviance and social control. It suggests that 'medicalization' did not, as is often assumed, entail a radical attack upon personal liberty. It also implies chat late Victorian medical discourse on crime was more diverse and subtle than has hitherto been realized.