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Tfr-:f-I by JULES GRIFFON TI-ifT-BEI Psychiatric researchers now the serious tippler? sarily landing right back in the gutter. say a drunk can drink again Don’t answer that. You may be However, if you’re a booze-fighter wrong. The men in the white coats and have been winning your battle, – without going back to the gutter have been working on this problem, which is admittedly a crucial, possibly you’d better read the rest of this article before bounding gleefully off life-and-death quegtion for several mil- to the corner grog shop… lion drinking Americans and they To drink or not to drink is a ques- Can the “cu!ed” alcoholic ever safe- believe they have finally – come up tion that has plagued mankind ever ly touch another drink? Can the con- with some answers. since Adam discovered he could get a firmed boozer ever hope to taper ofi tU7ith all due respect to Alcoholics happier glow from drinking fermentto ordinary social drinking? Is a Anonymous, the !7CTU and other ed apple juice, and get in less trouble “Thirteenth Step” possible for the dedicated abstinence groups, the latest than he had by nibbling at the raw “arrested” rum-hound? Or is the psychiatric research definitely d.oes fruit that Eve insisted he try. gloomy prospect of total abstinence offer hope that the wino who suc- All sorts of people, from philosothe only salvation for the lush? Is al- ceeds in picking himself up from Skid phers to stew-bums, have argued both coholism a real physical allergy, and Row can once again enjoy a few cock- sides of the alcohol question since the does that one first drink inevitably tails at the Ritz, or even go on a dawn of civilization. One can cite haae to trigger a chain reaction in Saturday night binge, without neces- volumes of authoritative opinions to

T6 REAL

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-T-INTE-:[ st.If’tP support either view, Pro or con. Even Today, in the light of modern One health menace. th;-Bible doesn’t give us much help. science plus the accumulated wisdom But the hard fact temains that some Take your choice: of the ages, we know a lot more about 19.5 million American males and feboth alcohol and human nature than males, or about 10 Per cent of the lVine is a m.ocker, sttong d.tink is did Adam and his immediate de- total population, are what the medicos raging. xx., 1 scendants. But despite the millions of politely call alcohol-dependent-and -Proverbs dollars and the millions of laboratory five per cent, or about 9.7 millions Drink no longer u)ater, bat use 4 man-hours spent on research, the basic are real bottle-nursing alcoholics. little uine lor thy stomacb’s sake and cause and cure of what we call alco- That’s a lot of lushes, brother! We tbine often infirmities. holism still are no more known than spend from 1.1. to 12 billiqn dollars Timothy v., 23 those of the common cold. Learned annually on alcohol, and its consumP’ -I authorities can’t eveo agree on wheth’ tion is constantly on the increase. The Voe to tberu tbat rise uP eailY in er it’s a disease or a state of mind. alcoholic population of New York the morning, tbat tbeY maY lollout ‘S7e drinkers have enfoYed a brief State, to take iust one examPle, is strong d.rink. v., 11 resPite from the pointing finger, since growing by 20,000 annually. -Isaiah the Demon Cigarette has taken the Spurred by statistics on the danger- Drink thy wine utitb a merry heart, spotlight awaY from Poor old John ous upcurve of alcoholism and its ii, 13 Barleycorn as the nation’s Number (continued on page 66) -Ecclesiastes REAL 17

moral ideals but by the cold, business- theories on the nature of “alcohollike realization that there is simply no ism” itself, one constant factor has place nor time for the bumbling come into more and more Prominence drunkard in today’s stepped-up Space in the past decade or so: the ohenom- Age economy. He casls societY_too enal success of Alcoholics Anonymous m-uch. He can no longer be coddled. in rehabilitating thousands of men He has to ga. and women who had been given uP The California State Legislature at as hopeless. this writing is near final passage of Started in Akron, Ohio, in L935 bY a bill grezrtly exPanding and re- a New York stockbroker and an organizing the state’s Alcoholic Re- Akron physician who had licked his habilitation Program. The McAteet own drinking problems by achieving Bill, considered a model for other a spiritual rebirth, AA now numbers states, sets up a special Division of more than 3OO,O0O members through’ Alcoholism under the Department of out the world. As of t963, there were Public Health, and provides increased over 10,000 local AA groups in 80 state financial support for locally-op- countries most of them, of course, erated alcoholic clinics. The long- in the U.S. range plan contemplates “comprehen- AA is self-described as “a fellowsive and integrated local programs, ship of men and women who share subject to Smte Health DePartment their experience, strength, and hope approval, for prevention, treatment with each other, that they may solve and control of alcoholism.” their common problems and help attendant evils of broken lives, broken Research labs are Probing deePlY othets to recover from alcoholism. homes, lost iobs, lost work-hours, into the problem of the Problem The only requirement for membercrime, traffic fatalities and all the rest, drinker. Not long ago, University of ship is a desire to stop drinking. The more and more attention is being paid California scientists sPent 14 adven- primary purpose is to stay sober and of late to finding ways and means to turous days pouring large quantities help other alcoholics achieve sostamp out or at least cut down this of vodka down the not unrecePtive briety.” ancient and costly social blight. gullets of two “volunteers,” recruited \7hile it includes members of all Fortunately, we’ve advanced quite a through an employment office with religions and many of no religion at way and become a bit more mature the guarantee that theY were 100- all, AA’s basic concept is a rcligious since the naive days of little more proof alcoholics. EEG recordings of one in the broadest sense. The alcothan a generation ago, when the tragic the subjects’ brain-waves, while ap- holic, according to the AA Book, must Volstead Act was voted into law with patently in a drunken stuPor, showed start with the First Step: admitting the starry-eyed idea that National that behind their closed eyelids, their that he is “powedess over alcohol, Prohibition, the “noble experiment” brains were “teeming with ideational that his life has become unmanagethat fizzled, would be the cure-all for activity” the antithesis of the sup’ able.” Secondly, he must come to the drunkenness. posed sedative efiect of alcohol. belief that only “a Power greater than I7e’ve also progtessed a mite since – A research team in the VA’s himself” can “restore him to sanity.” the times of the fire-and-brimstone psychopharmacology Research Lab at If the would-be AA doesn’t sintemperance crusaders, when Carrie Sepulvida, California, recently used cerely feel these convictions deep Nation, the terror of bartenders in 70 stray cats in an experiment to de- down inside, he is fooling nobody but the Gay Nineties, used to smash up termine the effects of alcohol on dif’ himself; he has little hope of advancsaloons with an axe. ferent personality types. Both the ing to the Twelfth and final Step, Tod.ay’s more enligbtened refornz- “anxious-withdrawn” and the “out- which is: “Having had a spiritual ers, by and large, no longer insist on going-aggressive” types of kitties wete awakening as the result of these steps, tbrouting out the baby utith tbe batb- quiclily put to sleep bY a moderate we tried to carry this message to alcouater, Frorn banning all booze at tbe dose of grog, while the felines classi- holics, and to practice these principles source, tbe empbasis bas sbilted to- fied as “normal” stayed perfectly alert in all out’afrairs.” utard. erad.icating tbe abuse ol tbe on the same amount, and “often AA’s spectacular success in weaning right to drink. Tbe spotlight is on seemed to take more interest in their several hundred thousand lushes away treating and trying to cure tbe indi- surroundings.” from the bottle and returning them to oidual “alcobolic,” and. tbe immedkte Similar studies are going on all over normal productive lives is a fact that tactical target is to fnd’ oat iust what the country – notablY at Rutgers, can’t be disputed. Admittedly neither makes bim tick, Yale, and several other universities. medicine, psychology, nor organized State, federal and local government It was recently ProPosed that the religion can boast anywhere near such health and welfare agencies, big pri- federal government should Put a spe- a record. vate foundations, universities, medical cial bottle tax on liquor, the revenue However, another indisputable fact and sociological research groups, and to be earmarked for “organized re- is that a gteat many more thousands nationwide indusries-including even search on alcoholism including all its of drinking people, even though they a segment of the liquor industry – aspects,” rcalize their problem and seek help, have teamed up in a concerted and Amid all this furor of concern over shy away from AA because of its determined drive on alcoholism. The the Anti-social Behaviot of the Amer- “cold turkey” insistence on total dbcurrent campaign is sparked not by ican Drunk, and the conflicting stinence, on complete surrender of

66 REAL

one’s former bibulous waYs. This is mentally, socially, vocationally,- and He paid alimony for his first fambasii with AA; it’s a foregone conclu- physically, as abstinent ex-alcoholics.” ily, which he felt was just. He dehope to follow the irlote that the rePort deals with scribed his drinking as definitely -and can’t sion that you changing in pattern during the program arc wasting Your time, “non-pathological” drinking. fti: .rnlJss yo., give up drinking entirely, ,.r.”rri that ei-patients who returned course of therapy. He now drinks for good and all. to compulsiae drinkiog, or got into ,about once a week and never expe’ A’nd now, to further comPlicate the self-desiructive predicaments again by riences any compusion to drink picture, comes a scholady team of top- their drinkingr were not counted as more. However he occasionally feels ievel osvchiatric researchers from the “successes,” like drinking when he feels de- Unioe’rsity of Cincinnati College of The sampling on which the studY pressed over finances. He felt that Medicine, with the news that their was based consisted of 32 male alco” the Clinic had helped him to see his study defrnitely shows that some alco- holics discharged as “imptoved” from problems and work them out. holiis can be cated-rather than the Cincinnati Alcoholism Clinic dutmerely “arrested”which is all that ing L962-63; all these Patients were The next case was a bit more corn- AA ilaims to do. In other words, seen for 10 or more PsychotheraPY plicated, and went deeper into the there is a “Thirteenth SteP.” sessions and had been discharged at roots of the subject’s drinking: The quasi-mYstical belief that no least one year. recovered alcoholic can ever agaln (The sample was drawn from a Case No. 2. This 3O-year-old take a drink safely without hitting the total of 252 dischatged patients. Not white male mechanic had drunk skids was challenged by Drs. E. Man- included were patients discharged heavily for L0 years. He felt that sell Pattison, E. B. HeadleY, L. A’ from treatment less than one year be- his alcoholism had started when he Gottschalk and G. C. Gleser, in a re- fore the follow-up study because was a lonely teen-ager in the Army. Dort Dresented to the 121st Annual checkups had indicated -that “the He went A\7OL to marry his fi- M.”tii-,g of the American Psychiatric probabitity of loss of abstinence is ancee, and thereafter was plagued Association in New York a few highest during the first six months by guilt and shame over his desermonths ago. (The first three named after discharge, and that after the tion and anget at his wife for are M.D.’s; the fourth a Ph’D. Dr’ first year, adjustment appears fairly seducing him away from A*y Pattison, who read the rePort, is now stabilized.” ). duty. For the past six years he had a Research Fellow of the National Complicated scales were set uP to been unable to work steadily be- Institute of Mental Health in Wash- assess the vadous asPects of physical cause of his heavy drinking, and ington). health, interpersonal health, and vo- matital quarreling had led to their their block-busting research paPer, cational health, from interview data; separation at the time he came to modestly entitled The Relation of a “drinking scale score” was devised the Clinic. He was depressed and Drinkiig Patterns to Ottet’all Healtb to reflect drinking quantity, behavior, suicidal. in Successfully Treated. Alcobolics, and consequences. As the study pro- He was first seen individually was based on a Painstaking and gressed, the followup sample was di- and then jointly with his wife for thorough followuP study of 32 Pa’ vided into three groups: abstinent, a total of 20 interviews. He and his tients at the Alcoholism Clinic, Divi- normal drinkers, and pathological wife felt that they had learned to sion of Mental Health, Cincinnati drinkers. Some improvement was talk to each other and resolve long- Health Department. The implication, found in all three grouPs; the abstin’ harbored grudges. He had always of course, is that the 32 men Picked ent and the normal drinkers naturally felt inhibited but now felt able to at random for studY are tYPical of had improved more than those who express himself. Although he had many thousands more, both men and had returned to pathological tippling. stopped drinking for a short while, women. From the mass of data accumulated, he and his wife tried drinking to- “An uttested, assumption,” the doc- the following case rePorts, among gether at f.amily gatherings, and he tors said in their preamble, “is tbat others, were cited as typical of. pa’ found that he now experienced no tbe sacc essfully rebabilitated’ alcobolic tients who had returned to normal compulsion to continue drinking, calt neoer drink again, and. tbat he is ddnking: nor did he find that drinking was not successlully rehabilitated il he is desired or needed as a problemstill using alcobol, A clinical lePoft Case No. 1. This 36-year-old solving measure. by Davies in 1962 on the return to white male machinist had drunk normal drinking by eight addictive al- heavily since he was a teen-ager. Now comes a aase historY that You coholics was follewed bY a furor of Although he worked steadily, his can quote to your bartender friends, drinking became a compulsive daily for their edification: -published Protests of disbeliefs. “subsequently Pattison reviewed the routine. His job was threatened and Case No. 3, This 38-Year-old evaluative literature on alcoholism his marriage disrupted. He was seen white bartender had been a heavY treatment, and found seven clinical in individual therapy in the Clinic drinker all his life. He had drifted reports which described groups _ of for over two years, during which to various odd iobs and eventuallY triated alcoholics who had returned to time he worked out the divorce landed in jail subsequent to public some degree of successful drinking. from his first wife and remamied. intoxication aod rnarital quarrels. “In thi light of these clinical find- He was interviewed two years after He was divorced at the time he termination. came to the Clinic on court Probaings, this study was designed to test thi hypothesis that successfully treat- He was happy with his new wife tion. He was seen for 28 interviews, ed alcoholics who eo,gage in non- and young children, but wished that but he is uncertain that the Clinic pathological drinking are as healthy he could provide more for them. was of much helP. He feels that his

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severe drinking was due to his and were now working together to of tremendous value in helping him marital problems. develop a stable emotional and fi- to understand himself. However, he rVhen interviewed 20 months af- nancial mariage situation. He still believed that his very active particiter termination he was happily re- drank occasionally, usually on the pation in Alcoholics Anonymous married, had two steady jobs, had week ends, only at home, and with- was the main thing that kept him saved a substantial sum for a house, out any feelings of compulsivity. sober. His wife was a leader in the and was a contented family man. He thought that he might be tempt- Al-Anon movement. Although he Although a bartender, hi never ed to drink more than he ought, if enjoyed his sobriety, he was plagued drank except at home, and never he was at a tavern with his buddies, by many neurotic traits which ingot intoxicated. He used pseudo- because they would pressure him. tedered with effective social funcmasculine defenses, was nervous, So he only drank at home. He has tioning, and his wife sheltered him. and overtly aggressive. Nevertheless been working successfully for the He remained very dependent and he and his family both agreed that first time in his life, and has stable could neither assert himself nor alcohol was no longer a problern. family relationships. handle ruge without developing psychosomatic symptoms. And as ‘for the man in the gray “It is evident,” the medicos comflannel suit: mented, “that none of these men re- The next case reflected similar emoceived any long-term reconstructive tional crippling, in a mar. who was Case Na. 4. This 26-year-old type of psychotherapy. In fact there desperately hanging onto his sobriety white insurance salesman had been was little change in tetms of per- as a life-preserver: a compulsive drinker since age 17. sonality dynamics. The same may also His marriage had been stormy and be said for most of the normal drink- Case Na. 5, This 39-yearold he accused his wife of running ers reported in previous clinical white technician had always felt inaround with his drinking partners. studies. adequate and yet angry that supe- He had had many arrests ahd came “There are those, of course, who riors did not give his adequate to the Clinic on court probation. will immediately claim that men such recognition. He had started drink- He and his wife were seen jointly as these were not tdy addictive alco- ing five years previously over diffiifor 15 interviews, but they did not holics or subject to compulsive drink- culties on the job. As the drinking feel that it was of any help. They ing. However by their own admission, increased he almost had a nervous admitted that they had psychiatric by our measuring methods, and by breakdown, but instead drank himproblems, but he felt that he want- clinical standards, these men were self to oblivion. He was on the ed to be told what to do rather apparently as much addictive alco- verge of losing his job and was in than just examine his life. holics as those who were now ab- legal difficulties when he came to Ilowever, since attending the stinent and those who continued the Clinic. He tested the therapist Clinic a dramatic change had oc- pathological drinking. Likewise, the several times by coming to the curred: the couple had reconciled other clinical reports indicate that the Clinic drunk. $7hen he found that normal drinkers did nor 4ppear to he was still accepted, he stopped differ from other popuiations of ad- drinking and had been abstinent for dictive alcoholics.” two years. The research report then went into At follow-up 19 months after various possible exPlanations of the discharge, he was working steadily successful readiustment these men had and his family adiustment was made. Then the doctors turned their good. However he had many anxiety ProlaiiloDl 8rdt. $ad b, lhousn& ol Drivatc invaslitato?s and dalacllv!a. tada ot HEIW SOLID 8f,Onzt, lor lll.lhr. wc.]. ll.X rctip.ld, clinical microscope on the otber side attacks and psychosomatic symp- Irh. l..ti.r Lar. C.o rlll 1.0. C..d, lr.’0 C.0.0.’i 7.q!lr. f!.00 d.po.lt. of the picture: ex-drinkers who had toms. He frequently felt depressed flC€ WIIX oXDtR OrltY…Comol.l. c.t lot cl Pollc.. OllftllY. Equl9manl continued to stay off the booze-but and asked the interviewer directly PoUCE E0UTPMENT 80. Dspt. 3247 who were not doing so well in other for help. He had intense feelings of 6311 Yrcca St,, Dopt. 3247 departments of life: inadequacy, and although he was performing well on the job he had Case No. 5. This 56-year-old continuing difficulties with his suwhite salesman had been a comPul- periors. HEAR sive drinker since age 18. He had WHISPEREI) STCRET asthma and stuttered. Although And here was another fellow who c0t{vERsATt0Ns deeply attached to his mother, he wasn’t exactly to be envied simply was angry with her for her over- because he was able to lay ofi the …thtu SOUD WALLS , conscientious religious principles. grog: He was continually plagued by guilt Iow rlth onllmry natr,l.lt you can 0r6lly Case No. 7. This 48-year-old make-a Sup8r Dlrectlonal Mlks that ampllflos feelings, and still has dfficulty ex’ sound 1,0q, tlmos. YES, YoU Ctt rCrulUY lEm collvEns Trolls Tlllu wttts a Blocr pressing his anger. He was treated white public servant had been lwlY, Usod by lntelllg€ncs aSerts. So slmple to in the Clinic for about five years drinking at an increasing pace over make, that you wlll b€ uslnS your Super Dlroctional MlIe 15 minutss aftsr you obtaln th. ordlnary store materials. Easy lnstructlons. with both individual and grouP the past five yeats until he drank psychotherapy. Although he had continually on the job. He was on ortr ll.oo from, SOUND WAVE, Dept. 3247 been abstinent for two years, he suspension when he came to the 7551 Melrose, Hollywood 46, Calif. continually feared a relapse. Clinic. He was seen for 12 inter- He believed that the Clinic was views during which he stopped 68 REAL

drinking, and he had remained ab’ So there it is. The Cincinnati re’ cured by “will power” by “pulling search, summed uP, has shown that – compulsive yourself together.” The stinent f.or 19 months. He felt that the Clinic sessions were of some sorne alcoholics, successfully treated alcoholic can no more lay off the help, but he felt that most imPor’ in the Clinic by ordinary methods of bottle by “will power” than can a tanily he uanted. to stoP drinking. psychotherap/, have achieved a nor’ man suffering from a cold simply On interview 14 months after mal adjustment to life and are now make up his mind that he’s going to dicharge, he was highlY defensive able to indulge in social drinking stop coughing and sneezing. The quesand used overt Paranoid defenses. without disastrous effects. Conversely, tion is, does the alcoholic have a defi- He grossly denied any difficulties in some alcoholics, similady treated, who nite physical dis’ease that can be diaghave remained strictly off the bottle- nosed and trqated as such-or is it any sector of life. Yet his defensive needs led to a furtive type of exist- including at least one who attends AA that his total charactet, his personalence, continually covering the tracks meetings reguarly bdoe not made ity, is maladjusted and needs renovat- such an adjustment, and remain rid- ing? of his past difficulties, and maintaining a rigid self-concealment den by tensions and anxieties; the Dr. E. M. Jellinek, in his authoriwhich Ieft little room for any social only achievement they can Point to tative review Tbe Disease Concept of interaction. is that they don’t drink any more. Alcoholism (Hillhouse Press, New The AA reply, of course, would be Ifaven, 1960), points out that around The psychiatric research team srun- that those who have successfuly re- 1!40, the phrase “new approach to med up its findings: turned to normal drinking were not alcoholism” was coined, and that in rcal dyed-in-the-bourbon alcoholics in the past 25 yeats we have come a “The conclusion to be drawn from the first place they were simPly long way from the old days when the these two groups of clinical reports is “heavy drinkers.”- The AA book,(Al’ drunkard was considered simply a nothat the criterion of abstinence is only cobolics Anonymous, AA World Ser- good bum who could snap out of it if one of several variables which are vices, Inc., New York, 1935; second he really wanted to. relevant to assessing the outcome of and revised edition 1955), goes fully The AA view, oft repeated, is that treatment of alcoholics. The presence into this aspect, stating flatly: alcoholism is “an obsession of the of normal drinking subsequent to “S7e have seen the truth demon- mind coupled with an allergy of the therapy does not need to imPly that strated again and again: Once an al- body.” This is the “disease” conceptthese patients are less well-adjusted or coholic, alutays an alcobolic. Com- but AA takes no stock in cure by psy- Iess successfully treated than those chotherapy, auto-suggestion, or medimencing to drink after a period of cal drugs. patients who are abstinent. Nor does sobriety, we are in a short time as it follow that the Patient who is ab- bad off as ever. If we are planning to It is AA’s dedicated belief that true alcoholism can only be alleviated stinent has necessarily achieved a re- stop drinking, there must be no reser- the disease not cured but its symptoms turn to normal living or adiust- vation of any kind, nor any lurking ment. . . notion that someday we will be im- arrested by deeply felt spiritual – specifically experience, ” by complete “The current research was not de- mune to alcohol.” the will of God. And AA signed to €valuate the effiicacy of surrender to treatment, but rather to conduct a -The cincinnati researchers, how- has a strong argumert in the fact that controlted design r*ai”rr-“,iri” r”i h””t found that on the basis of this approach has uorked. for thou- :l:f’ various personality tests plus physical sands of people after everything else come of treated ,r.rnrii.J.^ftr. rrJinsl of this study .”i**:i,.rx ;xi#,T:?ur:::^fr[:]:d:Tff; had failed. The proof of the pudding, says AA, is in the eating. clinical rePorts tn” -to.l1:-,11t:noAt: it”*py, *”ri o, itifierZu Irom other do tetrrn to normal drinkine. The addictive “‘,-: Medicos on the other hand, while drinkers’ giving full credit to AA’s fine work, characeristics of th”r”Iiffiir.r’r”main to be determined, as well as the The controversy is an old one, and do not believe that all alcoholics will feasons for their type of outcome. we could go around in semantic necessarily respond to the same sort Thus these findings io tot necessarily circles. Just what jo arr alcoholic? If a _ of spiritual therapy. Further, the docimply a change In treatment philoi- man, drinks lr9av-ily but .continues to tors look toward caring the disease, opili. handle himself okay,- o-r if he lays- ofi or disorder, by renovating the indi- ‘..i{o*”r”r, it does call into question and then returns and doesn’t get into vidual’s entire personality. For that matter, AA likewise insists on a basic the ass.rmption that abstinence is al- trouble, then AA wo{{ say- he was personality change: with the proviso, wuys a.{rririt” of successful therapy, “not a true alcoholic.” on the other urrd it alio calls into question tirat hand, if he is “cured” of-dtinking, however, at which many doctors balk, abstinence should always be the goal later feverts to it, and lands back in that tbe rebabilitated. person rnust Ve would aigue .the gutter then he is an alcoholic. neaer drink again, of successful therapy. – ^a’condition of treat- Somehow this sort of reasoning seems Perhaps it would be well to state that abstinence as ment is a prescdption which should like putting the cart before the horse. at this point that neither this writer nor this magazine have anything but be used by^the therapist with discre- one -primary aim. of today’s readmiration for the great work dooe tion, as with any oiher therapuetic search is to determine whether the by Alcoholic Anonymous, and for the maneuver and that the goals of trsat- condition we call “alcoholism” is an phenomenal recoveries made by thoument, whethet abstinlnce, psycho- actua! specific 4.iea1e, or a personality sociai rehabilitation, or charaiterolo- disordei-which is not quite- the sands of its members. Neither are \ye gical changes, are goals which must same. Fortunately,- today, we have urging abstainers to go back to drink- 6e determi”ned witi’ each individual more or less discarded the old view of ing, nor trying to give them excuses patient.” drunkenness as a moral vice, to be to do so. ‘We are metely Presenting REAL 69

here the latest findings of high-level Connecticut, in an address to the 20th d.rink becotnes a oice. psychiatric research, by men who are Anniversary convention of AA in St. “In our day, the hard reality is just as dedicated to eradicating alco- Louis, told the assembled recovered that most Americans drink because holism as are the AA groups. alcoholics: “You cannot afford to they like to and want to. For t2 There is not exactly a feud between wear haloes simply because.you have out of 13 of -them, alcohol will never AA and the psycho-therapists (it is achieved sobriety!” be a problem, and we cannot impose an AA.tenet not to engage in contro- Dr. Tiebout, as vice-chairman of the abstinence on them as a moral necesversy), but there is ahasic difference Connecticut Commission on Alco- sity.” in approach. The Cincinnati research- holism and one of the first medical ers, in their report, pointed out that authorities to endorse the AA pro- So, the argument goes ,round and psychiatrists in the past have in gen- gram back in the late 30’s, was en- round. Perhaps one approach to some eral shied away from treating alco- titled to speak with authority. He answers is acceptance of the fact that holics, due partly to the various head- earnestly reminded the AA’ers that all alcoholics are not the same, and aches involved, and partly to the “ego control will continue to be a cannot be treated as such with any pronounced lack of success. Dr. Patti- problem if you hope to remain sober.” success. Each one is an individual. AA son acknowledged this frankly and Citing 10 years of research into the may be the answer for many excessive at the same time took a crack – at problem of “ego reduction” among dtinkers; for many others, it may not; AA-when he said: alcoholics, the doctor cautioned that they may do better with standard “In part, due to psychiatric abdica- “a return of the full-fledged ego can psychotherapy. Still others may lift tion, lay groups have taken the lead happen at any time.” themselves by their own boot-straps. in reatment, but not without detri- “Years of sobriety,” he said, “are But it does no constructive good to ment to scientifically conceived Eeat- no insurance against its resurgence. say that you’te not a “real alcoholic” ment programs.” No AA, regardless of his veteran if., after a long period of abstinence, status, can ever relax his guard against you find you can safely take it or This is not the first time the differ- the encroachments of ‘a reviving ego.” leave it alone. ence between AA and orthodox psy- Dr. Tiebout gave credit to AA for Dr. S. E. Bird of Mt. Sinai Hoschotherapy have been pinpointed. stressing the concept of “surrender.” pital, Los Angeles, not long ago told Back in L955, a noted psychiatrist, Dr. “The function of this concept is a meeting of the Southern California Harry M. Tiebout, of Greenwich, clear,” he said. “It produces a stop- Psychiatric Society: ping of the runaway ego by causing “Alcoholism is a massive problem. the individual to say, ‘I quit, I give The extent of our knowledge at presup my headstrong ways. I’ve learned ent is extremely limited. There is a my lesson. Very often, for the first tendency to think of all alcoholism as time in that individual’s adult career, the same thing-and it isn’t.’ he has encountered the necessary dis- Meantime, research work, to procipline which halts him in his head- vide the basic rnaterial on which long pace.” theories can be built and more effec- The Connecticut psychiatrist didn’t tive approaches devised, goes on in go directly into the business of total many directions. A UCLA research abstinence but his point was that psychologist, David Greiner, issued an – giving up of liquor, but not the mere appeal the other day for LOO men control of the headstrong, selfish, self- with prison records, who have solved destructive ego in all its aspects their drinking problem through AA, should be the target of any therapy. to volunteer as guinea pigs in a deep- On the subject of total abstinence, probing personality study. the Rev. Christopher M. McElroy, “S7e know that AA works, but not O.Carm., of Oakland, New Jersey, why,” Greiner said. “something about spiritual director of the Matt Talbot AA changes lives effects what we Legion, a Catholic temperance group, call a conversion -reaction. \fe want recently wrote to the editor of to find out what it is.” America: A novel idea was proposed recently “.. . Many consider that Alcoholics to a convention of top college and Anonymous is the answer to the prob- university administrators, by Ira H. lem (of destructive drinking). And Cisin, a ITashington research sociolcertainly, although this organization ogist. He proposed that courses in has reached only 300,000 of the “basic bourbon,” introduction to marmore than five million alcohlics, it is tinis,” and “sipping Scotch” should much more effective than pills or the be given at the college level that pledge. I am afraid, however, that for – how American youth should be taught the general run of people, anti-alco- to drink without going overboard. holism movements are doomed to fail- “Drinking can be dangerous,” Cisin ure when they forsake the virtue of said, “and the young deserve to be temperance and accentuate abstinence. instructed in its uses, iust as they are For tben abstinence becomes a posi- taught how to swim and drive a car.” tioe oirtue, and. tbe taking of one Maybe he has something there. I

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