Highwatch Farm

A bit of history. In 1940, Bill W., Marty M. and a few others set up a Board to run High Watch Farm in Kent, Connecticut and it was to operate as a “retreat” or “rest house” and they hired Ray C., “a lay psychologist” to manage the facility.

Ray established a “therapeutic” program and patients were charged 2$ a day and Ray’s private patients paid 30$ a week.

What happened is best covered in William White’s book Slaying the Dragon but in short the program soon evolved into seeking the why of alcoholism and they developed a profile of “the alcoholic personality.”

Tensions developed around the shaping of the farm’s identity and the use of an A.A. Therapist at the farm. Also the mixing of “treatment” and “recovery.” In September 1941, Ray C. resigned and the farm abandoned the integration of professionalized therapeutic services and focused instead on spiritual immersion in A.A. literature, stories, and rituals.

However, the myth of the “Alcoholic Personality” carried on and letters pro and con were published in the A.A. Grapevine.

In January 1947, Dr. Silkworth penned an article “Slips and Human Nature.” The article covers 4 pages but the main points are as follows:

“In both professional and lay circles, there is a tendency to label everything that an alcoholic may do as “alcoholic behaviour.” The truth is, it is simply human nature.”

“It is very wrong to consider many of the personality traits observed in liquor addicts as peculiar to the alcoholics. Emotions and mental quirks are classified as symptoms of alcoholism simply because alcoholics have them, yet the same quirks can be found among non­alcoholics too. Actually they are symptoms of mankind.”

He goes on to explain how people with heart disease and diabetes slip away from their programs and yet we don’t proclaim that they have a “diabetic personality” or “cardiac personality.”

Jim B.