The Alcoholic Family

In the article titled “Clinical Validation of Characteristics of the Alcoholic Family”, by Marlene Lindeman and colleagues, the authors discuss the meaning of alcoholism, the defining characteristics of alcoholism and how it effects the family of the alcoholic. According to Lindeman alcoholism is defined as, “a disease that alters intimate relationships within the family and impairs functioning of the nonalcoholic and alcoholic family members”. This article supports the actions that took place in Jeanette’s book, in the way her father, Rex Walls, was a heavy drinker who could not keep a job nor a stable income. Jeanette recalls different times in her life where her father rarely kept a job simply because he did not care for it and got himself
fired or he had trouble with the law (19). His excuse was always that he wanted and needed more time to look for gold to build their glass castle. The behavior that Rex showed, effect his relationship with his family, because he became an unreliable father to his children and his wife. He constantly asserted that he was the man of the household, but he did a poor job of showing it. As the years passed by, Jeanette and her siblings, saw their dream of living in their own glass castle slowly fade away, the more their father fell into his disease.