Science Digest. May f 944

Alcoholics Gured by Faith Condensed from The American Journal of Psychiatry

By Harry M. Tiebout, M.D.

. Alcoholics Anonymous is the name of a slough of despond and transported him to applied to a group of ex- alcoholics who, through heights of ecstatic joy and happiness where he a therapeutic program which includes a definite stayed for some hours. This state was then religious element, have successfully combated succeeded by a feeling of peace, serenity and alcoholism. the profound conviction that he was freed from The group stems from the efforts of one the bondage of liquor. man, William Wilson, who in 1934 found an He states that roughly 10 percent enter answer to his drinking problem in a personal Alcoholics Anonymous on the strength of such religious experience. Since then, many an experience. The remaining 90 percent who alcoholics have become sober by using this stay dry achieve the same result by developing approach. slowly and much more gradually the spiritual Alcoholics Anonymous claims a side of their nature through following the various recovery rate of 75 percent of those who really steps in the program already outlined. try their methods. This figure, coupled with their What then is a spiritual awakening? mushroom growth, commands respect and Here the personal experience of Mr. Wilson is demands explanation. again informative. A man of energy, drive and Characteristic of the so-called typical great ability, in his thirties, he found himself alcoholic is that he is completely self-centered, completely bogged down by drink. For at least dominated by feelings of omnipotence, intent on five years he fought without success the maintaining at all costs his feelings of self- downhill process that was going on in him. importance and self-satisfaction. He was desperate, depressed, with all Among problem drinkers these qualities the fight knocked out of him. He was willing to have been described as “defiant individuality” try anything because he knew that the and “grandiosity.” lnwardly the alcoholic books alternative facing him was a state hospital and a no control from man or God. life of permanent insanity. He, the alcoholic, is and must be master of his Suddenly in this agony of spirit, he cried destiny. aloud, “lf there is a God, let Him show himself It is easy to see how the person now.” And with this plea his religious experience possessing the more or less constant presence stafted. He points out, and I think rightfully, that of these character traits, has difficulty in it was not until he became utterly humble that he accepting God and religion. Religion demands could and did turn to God for the help that was that the individual acknowledge the presence of there. a God and so challenges the very nature of the ln other words, in the light of Mr. Wilson’s alcoholic. own experience, a religious or spiritual But if the alcoholic can truly accept the awakening is the act of giving up one’s reliance presence of a Power greater than himself, he on one’s omnipotence. The defiant individuality modifies at least temporarily and possibly no longer defies but accepts help, guidance and permanently his deepest inner structure and control from the outside. And as the individual when he does so without resentment or struggle, relinquishes his negative, aggressive feelings then he is no longer typically alcoholic. toward himself and toward life, he finds himself Wilson states that the success of the overwhelmed by strongly positive ones such as group with any alcoholic depends upon the love, friendliness, peacefulness and pervading degree to which the individual undergoes a contentment, which state is the exact antithesis conversion. His own experience was of the of the former restlessness and irritability. And sweeping, cataclysmic type which lifted him out

the significant fact is that with this new mental sooner or later he would go on another alcoholic state the individual is no longer “driven to drink. spree. He realized that somehow he must cling Further insight into the phenomenon of to the attitudes at the end of the bout. spiritual change came from a patient whose The next day he began his interview with case I now wish to cite. He is a man in his early the statement, “Doc, I’ve got it.” He then went on forties. From a family of wealth and the youngest to report his experience of the previous night. of several children, he was the pampered darling This experience I label for want of a better term, of a neurotic, hypochondriacal mother. “a psychological awakening.” What happened Drinking began in late adolescence, was a sudden flash of understanding about Almost at once he learned to rely on liquor to himself as a person. This occurred around help him meet social situations, and as the years eleven o’clock, and he lay in bed, wide awake rolled o[, this reliance became more until four o’clock in the morning fitting his new pronounced. insights and understanding to his knowledge of He proved to be an exceedingly himself. responsive patient, readily acknowledging his It is not easy to reconstruct the events of alcoholic tendency, and quickly becoming that five hour period, yet those events constitute interested in Alcoholics Anonymous. After about a major experience in the life of that patient a month, he was convinced that he had the which gave him a basic appreciation of himself problem in hand. Within a short time, however, as an alcoholic. Moreover, for the first time, he nipping set in and four months later he returned could see himself as he had always been, and in after some weeks of steady drinking. addition he could sense the sort of person he Again he showed himself responsive to must become if he were to remain sober. interviews, but it now became apparent that Without being aware of it at the time, he had there was a real battle ahead. The traits already switched from a completely egocentric, described reared themselves as insuperable subjective point of view to an objective, mature barriers to therapy. understanding of himself and life. During the weeks that we were ln retrospect, it is apparent that the discussing these obstacles the patient began to patient became aware of his basic egocentricity. nip on the sly and finally went off on a full- For the first time he was able to penetrate fledged spree. As is usual with all alcoholics, as behind the facade of his rationalizations and he sobered up he was filled with remorse, guilt defense reactions and to see that always and a tremendous sense of humility. hitherto he had put himself first. The defiant personality was licked by the He was literally unaware that other souls very excesses of its own behavior and, in that existed except insofar as they affected him. That mood, he was utterly sure he would never take they, too, might have separate existences, another drop. On the third day of his similar yet different from his, just never had recuperation, however, he informed me during taken on the aspect of reality. an interview that I had better do something Now he no longer felt himself the about it, and when I asked him what ” it” referred omnipotent being who viewed the world only in to, he replied, “My old feeling is coming back relation to himself. lnstead, he could see himself over me; I just feel myself closing in from you in relation to the world and could realize that he and all that has just happened.” was but a small fraction of a universe peopled The indifference to his problem, the by many other individuals. He could share life aggressive sureness, the utter lack of any real with others. He had no further need to dominate sense of humility and guilt, all the character and to fight to maintain that domination. He traits which he had come to identify with the could relax and take things easy. frame of mind that led to drinking were returning His new orientation can best be and crowding out the feelings, the thoughts, described in the patient’s own words. As he put almost the sensations which filled him as he it, “Why, Doc, do you know l’ve been a fraud all came out of his drinking bout. He knew that if my life, and I never knew it. I used to think I was these returning feelings again took hold of him interested in people, but that wasn’t really so. I

wasn’t interested in my mother as a person who sometimes. And I feel easier with them, too. was sick. I didn’t realize that she as a person Maybe that’s because I don’t think they’re might be suffering; I only thought what will fighting me, since I don’t feel I’m fighting them. I happen to me when she is gone. People used to now think maybe they can really like me.” point me out as a dutiful son and an example, ln conclusion, it is my belief that and I believed it. But there wasn’t anything to it. I Alcoholics Anonymous relies upon an emotional was just anxious to keep her near, because she force, religion, to achieve an emotional result. lt made me feel better. She never criticized me overthrows a negative, hostile, act of emotions and always made me feel that whatever I did, I and supplants them with a positive set in which was O.K.” the individual no longer need maintain his New insights illuminated his previous defiant individuality, but can live in peace and in relationships with people. With respect to this harmony with the world. point, he remarked, “Do you know, I’m beginning to feel closer to people. I can think of them Source: Science Digest, May 1944