When you first sobered up how did
you approach alcoholics and did you change
that approach?
Answer
I
took off to cure alcoholics wholesale. It
was twinjet propulsion; difficulties meant
nothing. The vast conceit of my project
never occurred to me. I pressed my assault
for six months; my home was filled with
alcoholics. Harangues with scores produced
not the slightest result. None of them got
it. Disappointingly, my friend of the
kitchen table, who was sicker than I
realized, took little interest in other
alcoholics. This fact may have caused his
endless backslides later on. For I had found
that working with alcoholics had a huge
bearing on my own sobriety. But why wouldn't
any of my new prospects sober up?
Slowly the bugs came to light. Like a
religious crank, I was obsessed with the
idea that everybody must have a "spiritual
experience" just like mine. I'd forgotten
that there were many varieties. So my
brother alcoholics just stared incredulously
or kidded me about my "hot flash." This had
spoiled the potent identification so easy to
get with them. I had turned evangelist.
Clearly the deal had to be streamlined. What
came to me in six minutes might require six
months in others. It was to be learned that
words are things, that one must be prudent.
It was also certain that something ailed the
deflationary technique. It definitely lacked
wallop. Reasoning that the alcoholic's "hex"
or compulsion must issue from some deep
level, it followed that ego deflation must
also go deep or else there couldn't be any
fundamental release. Apparently religious
practice would not touch the alcoholic until
his underlying situation was made ready.
Fortunately, all the tools were right at
hand. You doctors supplied them.
The emphasis was shifted from "sin" to
"sickness" - the "fatal malady," alcoholism.
We quoted doctors that alcoholism was more
lethal than cancer; that it consisted of an
obsession of the mind coupled to increasing
body sensitivity. These were our twin ogres
of madness and death. We leaned heavily on
Dr. Jung's statement of how hopeless the
condition could be and then poured that
devastating dose into every drunk within
range. To modern man science is omnipotent;
it is a god. Hence if science could pass a
death sentence on a drunk, and we placed
that verdict on our alcoholic transmission,
it might shatter him completely. Perhaps he
would then turn to the God of the
theologian, there being no place else to go.
Whatever the truth in this device, it
certainly had practical merit. Immediately
our whole atmosphere changed. Things began
to look up. (Amer. J. Psychiat., Vol.106,
1949)
