Abstract
A new public, official, and scientific discourse on alcohol has developed in the last 20 years. This discourse can he distinguished from previous concerns with “alcoholism” and “alcoholics,” first of all, by the key terms it uses to name the problems. The new focus is on “alcohol problems,” “alcohol-related problems” or “alcohol abuse.” The paper examines several significant examples of the new discourse with an interest in what, in fact, is being talked about and referred to by the terms. Like other observers of alcohol writing, this paper reports: that key terms have been defined vaguely and used ambiguously; that statements which sound authoritative and factual are often guesses, opinions, and ideology; and that different authorities use the central terms in wildly different ways.
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