The role of the spouse in both the etiology and the maintenance of alcoholism has been focussed on by theoreticians of various persuasions, including psychoanalytic, behavioral, sociological and family systems. These models, focussing on individual and interactional components of alcoholism, have generated a variety of treatment interventions which involve the spouse in the treatment process. At least three case reports and three controlled studies of concurrent (spouses both in separate therapies) therapy for the alcoholic and spouse have suggested that this approach improves treatment outcome over individual approaches. Numerous reports of conjoint (spouses meeting together with a therapist) treatment (five case studies, five controlled studies) have also found spouse involved treatment to be more effective than individual treatment. A behavioral systems model of alcoholism treatment is discussed. In this model, a functional analysis of drinking behavior breaks down antecedents and consequences of drinking into individual components, spouse components and marital components. Treatment then focuses on each of these aspects sequentially. Each phase of treatment is described in detail. Case illustrations are provided, and a planned controlled evaluation is briefly described. (Author/BMW)