What is
meant by mental obsession and the obsessional
character of alcoholism?
Answer
Well, as I understand it,
we are all born with the freedom of choice. The
degree of this varies from person to person, and
from area to area in our lives. In the case of
neurotic people, our instincts take on certain
patterns and directions, sometimes so compulsive
they cannot be broken by any ordinary effort of
the will. The alcoholic's compulsion to drink is
like that.
As a smoker, for example, I have
a deeply ingrained habit - I'm almost an addict.
But I do not think that this habit is an actual
obsession. Doubtless it could be broken by an
act of my own will. If badly enough hurt, I
could in all probability give up tobacco. Should
smoking repeatedly land me in Bellevue Hospital,
I doubt that I would make the trip many times
before quitting. But with my alcoholism, well,
that was something else again. No amount of
desire to stop, no amount of punishment, could
enable me to quit. What was once a habit of
drinking became an obsession of drinking -
genuine lunacy.
Perhaps a little
more should be said about the obsession
character of alcoholism. When our fellowship was
about three years old some of us called on Dr.
Lawrence Kolb, then Assistant Surgeon General of
the United States. He said that our report of
progress had given him his first hope for
alcoholics in general. Not long before, the U.S.
Public Health Department had thought of trying
to do something about the alcoholic situation.
After a careful survey of the obsession
character of our malady, this had been given up.
Indeed, Dr. Koib felt that dope addicts had a
far better chance. Accordingly, the government
had built a hospital for their treatment at
Lexington, Kentucky. But for alcoholics - well,
there simply wasn't any use at all, so he
thought.
Nevertheless, many people still
go on insisting that the alcoholic is not a sick
man - that he is simply weak or willful, and
sinful. Even today we often hear the remark
"That drunk could get well if he wanted to."
There is no doubt, too, that the
deeply obsession character of the alcoholic's
drinking is obscured by the fact that drinking
is a socially acceptable custom. By contrast,
stealing, or let us say shop-lifting, is not.
Practically everybody has heard of that form of
lunacy known as kleptomania. Oftentimes
kleptomaniacs are splendid people in all other
respects. Yet they are under an absolute
compulsion to steal - just for the kick. A
kleptomaniac enters a store and pockets a piece
of merchandise. He is arrested and lands in the
police station. The judge gives him a jail term.
He is stigmatized and humiliated. Just like the
alcoholic, he swears that never, never will he
do this again.
On his release from the jail, he
wanders down the street past a department store.
Unaccountably he is drawn inside. He sees, for
example, a red tin fire truck, a child's toy. He
instantly forgets all about his misery in the
jail. He begins to rationalize. He says, "Well,
this little fire engine is of no real value. The
store won't miss it." So he pockets the toy, the
store detective collars him, he is right back in
the clink. Everybody recognizes this type of
stealing as sheer lunacy.
Now, let's compare this behavior
with that of an alcoholic. He, too, has landed
in jail. He has already lost family and friends.
He suffers heavy stigma and guilt. He has been
physically tortured by his hangover. Like the
kleptomaniac he swears that he will never get
into this fix again. Perhaps he actually knows
that he is an alcoholic. He may understand just
what that means and may be fully aware of what
the fearful risk of that first drink is.
Upon his release from jail, the
alcoholic behaves just like the kleptomaniac. He
passes a bar and at the first temptation may
say, "No, I must not go inside there; liquor is
not for me." But when he arrives at the next
drinking place, he is gripped by a
rationalization. Perhaps he says, "Well, one
beer won't hurt me. After all, beer isn't
liquor." Completely unmindful of his recent
miseries, he steps inside. He takes that fatal
first drink. The following day, the police have
him again. His fellow citizens continue to say
that he is weak or willful. Actually he is just
as crazy as the kleptomaniac ever was. At this
stage, his free will in regard to alcoholism has
evaporated. He cannot very well be held
accountable for his behavior. (The N.C.C.A.
'Blue Book', Vol. 12, 1960)
