There is another way

I first encountered Jean-Claude in 1976 during a meeting organised by Le Comité de Défense contre l'Alcoolisme (national antialcoholism defence committee). The meeting comprised doctors, lawyers, social workers, and representatives from ex-alcoholics organisations, all concerned with the problem of alcohol. The end result had been rather disappointing and, as we left, Jean-Claude invited me to accompany him the following Wednesday to his Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. I had never heard of AA, and immediately accepted his offer.

I had just completed a study on sclerosing oesophageal varices and demonstrated that it had no effect on a patient's survival. After that I began to pay attention to the patients who had an alcohol problem. I noticed that this attention caused many of them to reduce or even stop the intake …