In this updated version of his landmark study on alcoholism, George Vaillant returns to the same subjects, but with the perspective gained from fifteen years of further follow-up.

George Vaillant took on the crucial questions of whether alcoholism is a symptom or a disease, whether it is progressive, whether alcoholics differ from others before the onset of their alcoholism, and whether alcoholics can safely drink. Based on an evaluation of more than 600 individuals followed for over forty years, Vaillant’s monumental study offered new and authoritative answers to all of these questions.