The term codependence replaced an earlier term, coalcoholism, in the early 1970s and achieved widespread acceptance among the general public during the 1980s. Both terms point to problematic beliefs and behaviors that family members of chemically dependent people tend to have in common, although the term codependence broadens the concept to cover a wider range of family dysfunctions than chemical dependence alone.

A rather large nonscientific literature has developed on the topic of codependence. Much of it is couched in terms of the need to deal with injuries to emotions sustained during childhood—that is, to heal the wounds of the "inner child," a term popularized by John Bradshaw.

Despite the current popularity of codependence, awareness that one person's alcoholism affects everyone in the family is not new. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (1939; 1976) described the experience of family members of alcoholics in the following manner:

We have...