TY - BOOK ID - 77874799 TI - Women with alcoholic husbands : ambivalence and the trap of codependency PY - 1992 SN - 0807860158 9780807860151 0807820288 0807843733 9780807820285 9780807843734 9798890884831 PB - Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, DB - UniCat KW - Alcoholics' spouses KW - Codependency. KW - Alcoholism KW - Codependency, Psychological. KW - Spouses. KW - Spousal Notification KW - Spouse KW - Wife KW - Domestic Partners KW - Husbands KW - Married Persons KW - Wives KW - Domestic Partner KW - Husband KW - Married Person KW - Notification, Spousal KW - Partner, Domestic KW - Partners, Domestic KW - Person, Married KW - Persons, Married KW - Marriage KW - Co-alcoholism KW - Co-dependence (Psychology) KW - Co-dependency KW - Codependence KW - Codependent behavior KW - Psychology, Pathological KW - Alcoholics' wives KW - Spouses KW - Co Dependence, Psychology KW - Co Dependency, Psychology KW - Co-Dependency, Psychological KW - Co-Dependency, Psychology KW - Codependency KW - Codependency, Psychology KW - Psychological Co-Dependence KW - Psychological Co-Dependency KW - Psychological Codependence KW - Psychological Codependency KW - Co Dependency, Psychological KW - Co-Dependence, Psychological KW - Codependence, Psychological KW - Psychological Co Dependence KW - Psychological Co Dependency KW - Psychology Co Dependence KW - Psychology Co Dependency KW - Psychology Co-Dependency KW - Psychology Codependency KW - Interpersonal Relations KW - Substance-Related Disorders KW - Psychology. KW - psychology. KW - Psychology KW - Alcoholics' wives - Psychology. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77874799 AB - In this important new study of women with alcoholic husbands, sociologist Ramona Asher vividly describes the process of coming to terms with a profound crisis in one's private life. Her interviews with more than fifty women, all participants in family treatment programs, enabled Asher to assemble a composite picture of the experiences shared by wives of alcoholics. How they came to see the crisis in their lives, and how they began to recognize their own very mixed emotions--that is the dramatic story Asher presents. The testimony given by these women illustrates the steps each must take to regain hold of her life. The first step, as Asher shows, is confronting "definitional ambivalence"--Figuring out what is happening and deciding what to do about it. Asher argues that the current vogue of using the label "dependent" may actually hinder rather than facilitate emotional health. Because the concept of codependency reinforces the idea that women are compulsively vulnerable to men in need of nurturing, Asher argues that it prompts women to feel incapable of becoming assertive, independent individuals. Led to think of themselves as addicted to their husbands' addiction, the wives of alcoholics may be persuaded that their own problems can't be overcome. Asher shows that they can take command of their lives. Asher's analysis breaks through popular notions about wives of alcoholics and presents a whole new understanding of denial, control, and other so-called symptoms of codependency. Her book raises important questions about how society views women who are married to alcoholics. ER -