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)
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