Alcohol, Cats, and People

Originally published

• Jellinek, E. M. (1948). Dr. Masserman’s cats. Allied Youth, 17(6), 3,7.

Originally published as "Dr. Masserman’s cats" in the magazine Allied Youth, Jellinek’s article will probably leave a bit of a sour taste in the reader today, as it describes animal experiments in detail. The ethics and history of animal testing is a topic unto itself, one that Jellinek’s article doesn’t cover. Instead, he draws parallels between the behavior of inebriated cats and their human counterparts to get his point across to a wide range of lay readers. 

Jellinek’s pamphlet draws upon Masserman’s scholarly article "Alcohol as a Preventive of Experimental Neuroses," which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol in 1945, a text that Jellinek not only read but probably also edited at that time.

A popular pamphlet, Alcohol, cats and people was republished and reprinted several times, for example by the New Jersey Council on Alcohol Problems in the early 1950s.

Jellinek surmises that there are some facts about inebriety which may be illustrated through experiments with animals even though alcoholic beverages play no role in their lives.

Smart animals as they are, cats in the experiment first refused to drink milk laced with alcohol. Instead, they had to be injected to reach various phases of intoxication. Results showed that intoxication interfered with learned behaviors in reverse order of learning; what was learned last was forgotten first, and what was learned first was forgotten last.  

Cats did choose to drink alcohol-laced milk when faced with a choice of being hungry or suffering pain caused by a slight electric shock. Moreover, they got addicted and refused to drink regular milk, even though they often became apathetic after the effects of alcohol wore off. The happy ending of this nauseating experiment (pun intended) is that when the same cats were retrained not to be afraid, they wouldn’t touch the milk with alcohol; that is, they recovered from their addiction!

Jellinek’s point is that, unlike cats, humans possess intellectual and emotional means to figure out their conflicts and make efforts to resolve them. He concludes: "One of the finest ways of preventing inebriety is to develop the spiritual and intellectual assets of one’s personality and to learn how to utilize them."

The 1951 edition called Of cats and people features a new approach in alcohol education: telling a science-based story with the help of cartoons in a modified comic book. At the end of the pamphlet, he encourages teens to take it home and discuss the topic with their parents.

Geared toward young people, but definitely appeals to everyone, Jellinek’s pamphlet predates social media in showcasing content with cat pictures and teaches about communicating our message too: we can post that cute kitty as long as the image supports the text and calls to action.

The message is clear: "People who have become alcohol addicts should do what the cats did: they must keep away from alcohol." Then he also adds: "Often they need help to do this."

Jellinek’s final advice still resonates after decades: "The problems people meet are far harder than cats’ problems. But of one thing we can be sure: Alcohol doesn’t solve problems for either CATS OR PEOPLE.”