the couple
"aided and abetted each other" in their continuing alcohol consumption. In a second where both spouses
had been drinkers and where abstinence came earlier
for the husband, the wife felt personally rejected and
renounced by her husband when he stopped drinking.
She had encouraged him to drink and never expressed
disapproval. In addition to his wife's pressure to
drink, the husband was urged to drink by his father--
also an alcoholic---during his recovery. Thus, in some
families other family members--alcoholic or not--
can actually make it difficult to stop drinking. I have
found this to be very much the case in former
Yugoslavia also where wider cultural patterns so
firmly support a positive value toward heavy drinking---
especially among men--such that the pressures
to drink within and without the family can be extremely
compelling