What contribution did Dr.
Carl Jung make to A.A.?
Answer
Few people know that the
first taproot of A.A. hit pay dirt some thirty
years ago in a physicians office. Dr. Carl Jung,
that great pioneer in psychiatry was talking to
an alcoholic patient. This is in effect what
happened:
The patient, a prominent American
businessman, had gone the typical alcoholic
route. He had exhausted the possibilities of
medicine and psychiatry in the United States and
had then come to Dr. Jung as to a court of last
resort. Carl Jung had treated him for a year and
the patient, whom we shall call Mr. R., felt
confident that the hidden springs underneath his
compulsion to drink had been discovered and
removed. Nevertheless, he found himself
intoxicated within a short time after leaving
Dr. Jung's care.
Now he was back, in a state of
black despair. He asked Dr. Jung what the score
was, and he got it. In substance, Dr. Jung said,
"For some time after you came here, I continued
to believe that you might be one of those rare
cases who could make a recovery. But I must now
frankly admit that I have never seen a single
case recover through the psychiatric art where
the neurosis is so severe as yours. Medicine has
done all that it can for you, and that's where
you stand."
Mr. R's depression deepened. He
asked, "Is there no exception, is this really
the end of the line for me?"
"Well," replied the doctor,
"There are some exceptions, a very few. Here and
there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what
are called vital spiritual experiences. They
appear to be in the nature of huge emotional
displacements and rearrangements. Ideas,
emotions and attitudes which were once the
guiding forces of these men are suddenly cast to
one side, and a completely new set of
conceptions and motives begin to dominate them.
In fact, I have been trying to produce some
emotional rearrangement within you. With many
types of neurotics, the methods which I employ
are successful, but I have never been successful
with an alcoholic of your description."
"But," protested the patient,
"I'm a religious man, and I still have faith."
To this Dr. Jung replied,
"Ordinary religious faith isn't enough. What I'm
talking about is a transforming experience, a
conversion experience, if you like. I can only
recommend that you place yourself in the
religious atmosphere of your own choice, that
you recognize your own hopelessness, and that
you cast yourself upon whatever God you think
there is. The lightning of the transforming
experience may then strike you. This you must
try - it is your only way out." So spoke the
great and humble physician.
For the A.A.-to-be, this was a
ten strike. Science had pronounced Mr. R.
virtually hopeless. Dr. Jung's words had struck
him at great depth, producing an immense
deflation of his ego. Deflation at depth is
today a cornerstone principle of A.A. There in
Dr. Jung's office it was first employed on our
behalf.
The patient, Mr. R., chose the
Oxford Groups of that day as his religious
association and atmosphere. Terribly chastened
and almost helpless, he began to be active with
them. To his intense joy and astonishment, the
obsession to drink presently left him.
Returning to
America, Mr. R. came upon an old school friend
of mine, a chronic alcoholic. This friend - whom
we shall call Ebby - was about to be committed
to a State Hospital. At this juncture another
vital ingredient was added to the synthesis. Mr.
R., the alcoholic, began talking to Ebby, also
an alcoholic and a kindred sufferer. This made
for identification at depth, a second cardinal
principle. Over this bridge of identification,
Mr. R. passed Dr. Jung's verdict of how
hopeless, medically and psychiatrically, most
alcoholics were. He then introduced Ebby to the
Oxford Groups where my friend promptly sobered
up. (N.Y. City Med. Soc. Alcsm., April 28, 1958)
