According to the author, in Australia, men drink alcohol as a
mark of masculinity, and women take care of drinking men as a part
of normative femininity. And while research on alcoholics and
alcoholism is common, very few studies consider the lives of the
women who are married to alcoholics. Here, Zajdow details and
explores the lives of such women who belong to Al-Anon, where they
may share their experiences and offer their stories in a
nonthreatening and supportive environment. The author presents the
narratives of these women in the context of her analysis of the
self-help group to demonstrate how people construct and reconstruct
their lives as coherent stories about themselves, and to show how
these self-stories can be changed and reconceptualized within the
context of the group. Unique in its examination of self-stories
offered within a self-help group, this book challenges sociological
knowledge about the way these mutual-aid groups operate as
communities of interest and help.
Zajdow begins by laying the groundwork through a discussion of
the professional and lay discourses on women's relationships to
alcoholic men. She then provides the basis for using self-stories
to examine a group of people, the individuals in the group, and the
behavior of the group in general. A history of Al-Anon as a
self-help group is also detailed, and the author compares the
Australian meetings to meetings in other parts of the world. The
stories themselves are then examined and discussed in terms of how
they relate to group processes and individual change through
Al-Anon. Tracing the way that these women move from a place of
despair to one of hope and meaningful change, this also represents
a sociological exploration of gender, families, and
communities.
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