Psychic battering can be defined as a continual condition of conflict-inducing happenings. In some professions that are high in psychic battering, mechanisms for accommodating battering are reinforced over time and become ingrained into the personality's modus operandi. A police officer can develop a conditioned emotional response which has as a main feature "professional protective emotional suppression (PPES)." Professional protective emotional suppression is a mental process of emotional containment which is necessary to help a person to hold together under psychic battering. Alcoholism is a disease of emotional suppression, treated by cathartic release and resolution of feelings, notions certainly opposite to professional protective emotional suppression. The recovering alcoholic police officer is suffering from the disease of alcoholism and from PPES. In the treatment of alcoholic police officers, police organizations and supervisors within the organizations need to be aware of the recovering officer's needs. Individual or group counseling with a non-psychiatric addiction treatment specialist who understands PPES is highly desirable. (Author/ABL)