Introduction -- The utilitarian ethic and the cult of self-control: from temperance to alcoholism -- Pub-going and desire -- Blue-collar men's life stories and alcoholism -- The A-clinic: a study of explanatory models in practice -- A technique of desire: the A-guild -- Alcoholism as a culture-bound syndrome -- Notes toward a cultural theory of alcoholism -- Theoretical appendix: social meaning, social norms, and the desiring subject
