June 1945

Chicago Doctor Cites A.A. A.A. was the recipient of another high& significant endorsement from meaka1 circles in an an’icle by Dr. D.6. Rotman, M.D., Director of the Psychiatric Institute of the Municipa/ Coun: Chicago, published in the March 10 issue of The Journal of the Amekan Medical Association.

The Article is entitled, Alcoho/ism, A Social Disease. Thatpart of i?in which reference is made to A.A. is rephted below

Whatever alcoholism is or is not, Heretofore, we of the profession have can be said to be best embodied in the its universality makes it something of the treated the alcoholic addict by constantly words of Strecker (13); “The skilled people, and its partial solution can very keeping before him the mirror of his therapist is strictly impersonal, objective properly be expected to come from the Present and ultimate degradation. This and unemotional and from the very people. What other explanation do we was obviously a negative attack. beginning must decline to deal with have of the phenomenal growth of the Alcoholics Anonymous courageously anything but the mature segment of the Alcoholics Anonymous? This organization reverses this process by pointing out that personality of his patient, no matter how in a short period of ten years has good citizenship and social decency can minute that segment may happen to be.” embraced over 12,000 ex-alcoholic be arrived at and sustained by ex- By thus refusing him a narcissistic addicts. Although we must agree with its alcoholic addicts. Who are the mentors of bargain the therapist in many instances leaders in giving religion the most of the the Alcoholics Anonymous movement? succeeds only in alienating the alcoholic credit for the success of this movement, They are not Olympiads. Indeed, they addict from his therapist. I think we must look deeper if we are to are of the common clay of sinners and understand its real worth. Those of us sufferers: the ex-alcoholic addicts No Limit to Growth who have repeatedly witnessed the themselves. It is not tenable for these failure of the purely religious approach, tutors to explain to their pupils how it is Group psychotherapy is all the that is the alcoholic addict’s pledge to his possible to refrain from drinking if the vogue today. Its rationale and efficacy clergyman, and the failure of treatment of mentors do not continue to refrain was never better demonstrated than in alcoholic addicts in secular institutions, themselves. By this maneuver a solid this mass movement known as must indeed be skeptical as to the foundation to the movement is already Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics efficacy of the purely religious program. set up. It may also be that the doctors Anonymous is dynamic and its Truly, Alcoholics Anonymous has used and the therapeutists have been too potentialities for healthy contagion are religion, but what it has actually done is stem in their attitude toward the alcoholic limitless. It has the spread power of the to implement the best principles of addicts and have driven them to the chain letter. By its extreme efforts to modern mental hygiene simultaneously. bosoms of their fellow alcoholic addicts. arrive at nondenominationalism it has Its approach has been entirely positive. This stentorian stand of our profession evolved a naive and beatific level of

thinking in which the Deity is pictured as In 1932, two years before the his vista regarding alcoholism. Only when an energy source. The profile of that movement was crystallized, Meyer (14) we ceased looking on venereal disease deity is flexible to meet any individual’s anticipated such a mass effort in the as venereal diseases per se and began need. Borrowing heavily from William following words:”A great share of the to look on them as social diseases did James, Alcoholics Anonymous has work, therefore, lies in a better we as doctors make real progress in the agreed that the acceptance of this understanding of the social as well as venereal problems. Working under this energy source need not be immediate or individual resources of satisfaction for the large canopy does not mean that we lose spontaneous or even emotional. By so patient. Much of this work of adjustment our identity as doctors. The greatest doing Alcoholics Anonymous has is carried on upon a strongly advances in specific chemotherapy as far eliminated the pyrotechnics and pitfalls individualizing basis; but even then, in as venereal diseases are concerned usually attendant on the sawdust trail the end, there will always be persons have come recently when we have type. of conversion. Above all it has who do best when treated in groups, with acknowledged the total situation. It is eliminated the devil from its scheme of the help of a sense of belonging, and only when we as doctors begin to see things. Any one who has seen a case of being accepted, and of sharing the the whole problem that we can make our alcoholic hallucinosis and has seen the common convictions, whether they be maximum contribution. We cannot but look of terror in the eyes of persons religions or some kind of mystery, and an agree with the forthright and frank suffering from the effects of alcohol open treatment turning to the facts as statement of Carlson(l5), who honestly squirming under the fancied found, and as they are, either under an says “As I see it it is too complex for the machinations of the devil and his cohorts intimate patient-physician relationship or can appreciate the subtle therapeutic biological and medical disciplines.” The a more socialized and open survey and proper approach to the problem is shift of this simple deletion. utilization of assets and recognition of exemplified in the pioneering efforts of specific difficulties.” Cooperation Needed the Yale projects of the Research Council on Problems of Alcoholism, Broader Vista Opened wherein all facets of the problems are What the Alcoholics Anonymous movement needs is a closer cooperation under scientific investigation and wherein Can the doctor alone solve the particular stress is placed on the biologic, with the medical profession, and what the problem of alcoholism? The answer is medical profession needs even more is a psychologic, sociologic, anthropologic definitely no! More and more because of closer cooperation with Alcoholics and religious aspects. To these efforts the many aspects in the problem, which Anonymous. As time goes on the the American medical profession should I have only attempted to highlight, we Alcoholics Anonymous movement could lend its best support. must come to the inexorable conclusion stand for a more rigorous bookkeeping that alcoholism is a social disease and (13) Strecker: Chronic Alcohdism, p.15. system in its credit and debit ledger, i.e., that at best the doctor can be busy with of its successes and failures. It must only a segment of the problem. As a (14) Meyer, Adolph: Alcohol as a Psychiatric cultivate a stronger capacity for corollary to this conclusion we must not Problem, in Emerson, H, and others: Alcohol and autocriticism if it is to steer clear of an allow the doctor to become pessimistic of Man: The Effects of Alcohol on Man in Health and unrealistic optimism which could easily Disease, New York, Macmillan Company, 1932, pp. his role. Indeed it should spur him On to 299 and 300. cause the movement to disintegrate into added effort. The medical man has an (15) Carlson, A.J.: The Alcohol Problem: Possible a species of Coueism. excellent precedent for, a broadening of Lines 01 Useful Research. Quarterly J. Stud. on Alcohol 2: 672-676 (March) 1942.