The subject presented in this book seems to
me to be of paramount importance to those afflicted with alcoholic
addiction.
I say this after many years experience as a Medical
Director of one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and
drug addiction.
There was, therefore, a sense of real satisfaction when I
was asked to contribute a few words on a subject which is covered in such
masterly detail in these pages.
We doctors have realized for a long time that some form
of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics, but its application
presented difficulties beyond our conception. What with our ultramodern
standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not well
equipped to apply the powers of good that lie outside our synthetic
knowledge.
Many years ago, one of the leading contributors to this
book came under our care in this hospital and while here he acquired some ideas
which he put into practical application at once.
Later, he requested the privilege of being allowed to
tell his story to other patients here and with some misgiving, we consented.
The cases we have followed through have been most interesting; in fact, many of
them are amazing. The unselfishness of these men as we have come to know them,
the entire absence of profit motive, and their community spirit, is indeed
inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in this alcoholic field. They
believe in themselves, and still more in the Power which pulls chronic
alcoholics back from the gates of death.
Of course an alcoholic ought to be freed from his
physical craving for liquor, and this often requires
a definite hospital procedure before psychological measures can be of maximum
benefit. We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of
alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the
phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average
temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any
form at all; and once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon
things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult
to solve.
Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices. The message
which can interest and hold these alcoholic people must have depth and weight.
In nearly all cases, their ideals must be grounded in a power greater than
themselves, if they are to recreate their lives.
If any feel that as psychiatrists directing a hospital
for alcoholics we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while
on the firing line, see the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little
children; let the solving of these problems become a part of their daily work,
and even of their sleeping moments, and the most cynical will not wonder that
we have accepted and encouraged this movement. We feel, after many years of
experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more to the
rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among
them.
Men and women drink essentially because they like the
effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit
it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the
false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. They are
restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can again experience the
sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks which they
see others taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again,
as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the
well known stages of a spree, emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not
to drink again. This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can
experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope of his
recovery.
On the other hand and strange as this may seem to those
who do not understand once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person
who seemed doomed who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them,
suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only
effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules.
