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)
