My thesis is that femininity is constructed as abstinent, in particular, as abstinent from public, productive labour and from the active expression of desire/pleasure. Further, that the enforcement of women's abstinence through psychiatric, psychological and sociological discourses on femininity ensures the means of patriarchal expression. Women's inabstinence, therefore, poses a threat to patriarchal expression, and insofar as patriarchy is realised through patriarchal expression, to the stability of patriarchal society. Women's drunken inabstinence, however, provides only a temporary, individualised and often self-destructive omen of the threat. My fieldwork focuses on the processes and experiences through which women come to be administered as `alcoholic'/`problem drinkers'. My meetings and discussions with alcohol and drug agency workers and with women administratively defined as `alcoholic'/`problem drinkers' explicated the processes of the social control of all women in terms of the containment and privatisation of their active collective pursuit of pleasure. Drunken women's struggle against the strictures of femininity expresses the beginnings of a threat to patriarchy; however, insofar as the characteristics of femininity itself are `drunken' in their demands for dependency, patriarchal accessibility and a dislocation from public/productive activity, drunkenness as a critique of patriarchy is self-defeating. The challenge to patriarchy comes only in women's sober, collective refusal to abstain from passion.

Bibliography: leaves 540-587 / xxii, 587 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, 1988

The hermeneutic phenomenological study interprets the lived experience of female alcohol dependence. Literature reveals that past research into alcohol dependence has generally used male subjects that formed the standard for theories, and treatment, of alcohol dependence. Researchers realised that alcohol dependent women differ significantly from their male counterparts, leading to an increase in exploratory studies of female alcohol dependence. However, these studies only provided a description of the disorder. How female alcohol dependents experience their disorder and how it makes sense to them has been largely ignored. The philosophy of Martin Heidegger provided the framework for collection, analysis and interpretation of data. Analysis revealed four life-worlds: „The Disheartened One‟, „The Ambivalent Player, „The Contemplator‟ and „The Covert Chauvinist‟. A lived experience typology of female alcohol dependence was proposed, namely „The Condemned‟, „The Utopian‟ and „The Realist‟. Implications of the findings on treatment and recommendations for future research are discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The hermeneutic phenomenological study interprets the lived experience of female alcohol dependence. Literature reveals that past research into alcohol dependence has generally used male subjects that formed the standard for theories, and treatment, of alcohol dependence. Researchers realised that alcohol dependent women differ significantly from their male counterparts, leading to an increase in exploratory studies of female alcohol dependence. However, these studies only provided a description of the disorder. How female alcohol dependents experience their disorder and how it makes sense to them has been largely ignored. The philosophy of Martin Heidegger provided the framework for collection, analysis and interpretation of data. Analysis revealed four life-worlds: „The Disheartened One‟, „The Ambivalent Player, „The Contemplator‟ and „The Covert Chauvinist‟. A lived experience typology of female alcohol dependence was proposed, namely „The Condemned‟, „The Utopian‟ and „The Realist‟. Implications of the findings on treatment and recommendations for future research are discussed. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)