Denial in alcohology, along a pass of what denial is not
Alcoholic patient is often dreaded thanks to the repetition of his conducts, with reference to the traditional “who’s been drinking, will drink again”. He is also being limited to a presupposed dishonesty, or reduced to his difficulties to talk about his disturbances, his confusion or even simply to his reluctance to talk about himself. Too quickly, one’s may shut the patient up to the generic “in denial”. The situation of to be taking care of person will be considered in this paper through possible difficulties to communicate and/or difficulties to count on the support of language, since there are various neurocognitive additional symptoms (neglect, anosognosia, apathy...) or psychodynamic signs (of apsychognosy, alexithymia, mind-reading impairment of the theory of mind), thus resulting into even more negative limitations than the useful edges of the classical concept of denial found in alcohology field. After reviewing the diversity of what forms denial can reveal, what ways it may take, the text will consider the functions of this negation (in French denegation), with the accent put on focusing denial in the alcohology field as a negation, rather than a denial. The aim of this theoretical review is to suggest to caregivers to compose with it and to take it into account, rather than to fight against it. At least, and to balance the reflection, the question of caregivers’ denial, or negation, will be considered as an accurate, even prevailing, alternative key for analysis.