Familjen i skuggan av alkoholismen: om medberoendeproblematik ur klass-, kultur- och könsperspektiv

Sammanfattning: The aim of our thesis was to describe how the connection between co-dependent relatives and the alcohol-dependent influences the family into changes in their teamwork. Our purpose was also to answer the following questions: How is it living with an alcoholic? Are there any differences in how men and women feel and behave in their relationship with an alcoholic? Are factors like cultural belonging, genre or social class important for how the co-dependent relatives feels and behaves and handle their co-dependency? To answer these questions we made twelve thematic qualitative interviews with six adult children to alcoholics and six people married to alcoholics. We compared the results of these interviews with earlier research. We also applied System Theory and Goffman's Role Theory, as well as Bourdieu´s Capital and Habitus concept. We believe that co-dependency is a family divergence that is very similar to family disease, but that a change in attitude can trigger recovery. According to the interviews many spouses stand by their alcoholic husbands and do actions that perpetuate the alcoholic dependence and thereby hold back any recovery. The husbands to alcoholic wives were not so tolerant and, consequently, reacted earlier. The result of our study is that social class, cultural factors or genre have no influence in how people feel about the alcoholism in the family and how they reacted to it. They all feel ashamed, guilty and sorry and try to hide the problem from friends and relatives. There are, however, differences in how co-dependent people handle the situation depending on their cultural achievements such as educational achievements, career achievements, social class heritage or lifestyle.