“Anyone concerned with treating drinking problems must find that his patients often tell him more than is in the textbooks. Each tells a different story, but there are also repeated patterns. Much of the varied experience that is recounted can be interpreted as the patient’s astute observation of the alcohol dependence syndrome - a condition certainly far better described by the average alcoholic than in any book.”
“Routine clinical questions may impose a pattern on patients’ accounts, and patients may themselves organize their uncertain recall of events in terms of expectations given to them.”