Dipsomania

Dipsomania is a historical term describing a medical condition involving an uncontrollable craving for alcohol. It was used in the 19th century to describe a variety of alcohol-related problems, most of which are most commonly conceptualized today as alcoholism, but it is occasionally still used to describe a particular condition of periodic, compulsive bouts of alcohol intake. The idea of dipsomania is important for its historical role in promoting a disease theory of chronic drunkenness.

History

The term was coined by the German physician Dr. C. W. Hufeland in 1819, when, in a preface to an influential book by German-Russian doctor C. von Brühl-Cramer, he translated Brühl-Cramer's term Trunksucht as dipsomania. Brühl-Cramer classified dipsomania in terms of continuous, remittent, intermittent, periodic and mixed forms, and in his book he discussed its etiology, pathogenesis, sequelae, and treatment options, all influenced by prevailing ideas about the laws of chemistry and concepts of excitability.

Due to the influence of Brühl-Cramer's pioneering work, the term dipsomania became popular in medical circles throughout the nineteenth century. Political scientist Mariana Valverde describes dipsomania as "the most medical" of the many terms used to describe habitual drunkenness in the 19th century. Along with terms such as inebriety, the idea of dipsomania was used as part of an effort of medical professionals and reformers to change attitudes about habitual drunkenness from being a criminally punishable vice to being a medically treatable disease. As historian Roy MacLeod wrote about this dipsomania reform movement, it "illuminates certain features of the gradual transformation taking place in national attitudes towards the prevention and cure of social illnesses during the last quarter of the 19th century."

Although dipsomania was used in a variety of somewhat contradictory ways by different individuals, by the late 19th century the term was usually used to describe a periodic or acute condition, in contrast to chronic drunkenness. In his 1893 book Clinical Lessons on Mental Diseases: The Mental State of Dipsomania, Magnan characterized dipsomania as a crisis lasting from one day to two weeks, and consisted of a rapid and huge ingestion of alcohol or whatever other strong, excitatory liquid was available. Magnan further described dipsomania as solitary alcohol abuse, with loss of all other interests, and these crises recurred at indeterminate intervals, separated by periods when the subject was generally sober.

Over time, the term dipsomania became less common, replaced by newer ideas and terms concerning chronic and acute drunkenness and alcoholism.

Famous dipsomaniacs

• In 1921, John W. Robertson theorized that dipsomania could have been the cause of the mysterious death of writer Edgar Allan Poe.
• Max Reger, German composer
• Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer
• Jonathan Ames, New York writer; self-described "dipsomaniac"; favorite author of Ron Allen (see above)
• Ernest Hemingway, American author
• Meena Kumari, Indian actress
• Joe Mulholland, former Canadian bodybuilder

Examples in fiction

• Sebastian Flyte, a character from the novel Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, memorably and sarcastically describes himself as a dipsomaniac: "If they treat me like a dipsomaniac, they can bloody well have a dipsomaniac." He is later called the same by his brother, and a "dipso" by one of the minor characters
• Captain Archibald Haddock, a good friend of Tintin
• Ramakant Malhotra, a stock character in Surender Mohan Pathak's novels
• James O. Incandenza, a character in Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, described in the novel as having "crippling dipsomania".
• Dwight Carson, a talented writer in The Fountainhead, is turned into a dipsomaniac on the whim of Gail Wynand.

Sources

• Bucknill, John Charles (1879). A Manual of Psychological Medicine: Containing the Lunacy Laws, the Nosology, Aetiology, Statistics, Description, Diagnosis, Pathology, and Treatment of Instanity (Fourth ed.). London: J. & A. Churchill. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• "Poe's Life". The PoeMuseum.