Brief article – G. Alan Marlatt: 1941–2011
From the vantage point of 2011, it is difficult to appreciate just how far ahead of his time Alan Marlatt was. He was doing federally funded research on alcohol treatment before the founding of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He was a model and mentor encouraging psychologists to get involved in addiction treatment at a time when it had even less academic status, and colleagues asked, “Why would you ever want to work on that?
No one ever gets better!” His was a voice for humane treatment in an era when the norm was harsh authoritarian, often punitive measures that could be considered malpractice in the treatment of nearly any other disorder.