[The meaning of the alcoholic relapse].

The author is concerned with the difficulty for physicians to treat alcoholic patients who relapse. The systemic model is the only approach which allows an insight in the meaning of this recurring disease. The author reports on several studies undertaken in France and relates the various circumstances of relapses. Paradoxically, the relapse may be a positive phenomenon leading to an awareness of the patient regarding his weakness toward alcohol. From that moment on, the alcoholic patient will be able to engage in the direction of a lasting abstinence.