Some notes on the new paradigmatic environment of "natural remission" studies in alcohol research.

ABSTRACT

With the broad shift from the alcoholism paradigm to the new public health paradigm in "alcohol science" in general and alcohol epidemiology in particular, research on natural remission has grown in scientific interest. The phenomenon itself has moved from the status of a rare and anomalous occurrence (in the alcoholism paradigm's lens) toward the status of a conventional and expected outcome for "heavy" drinking. A broadening conception of the problem domain properly comprehended by alcohol studies has further highlighted the apparent ubiquity of change in drinking behavior. However, this widening orbit of problematization is not fully accounted for, we argue, by substantive developments in either the survey-research or the Ledermann-model sources of "alcohol science"'s paradigmatic transformation--and a dialectical source of the change is suggested. The new paradigmatic environment also harbors an important shift in the moral orientation of alcohol research--from the alcoholism paradigm's focus on the rescue and protection of the alcoholic to the public health paradigm's focus on the reduction of alcohol-related consequences for the public. The new paradigmatic environment poses new risks for natural remission researchers as well as the renewed challenge to focus research enterprises on the production of meaningful new knowledge.