ALCOHO ISM Its Psychology and Cure

FREDERICK B. REA

LONDON THE EPWORTH PRESS

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONVERSION (pdf)

CHAPTER SIX

THE SIGNIFICAJJCE OF CONVERSION

I N the previous chapter, while discussing the modus operandi of apolnorpline reference was made to an observation recorded by Lincoln Williams. He had observed that it some times happened, after several days vomithing and nausea, there Occurred * profound personality change in the patient. It is as though suddenly something within the patient breaks down and dissolves. The hard core of inner resistance is no longer there and the patient has now begun to respond to ideas.

During the phase of increased suggestibility apparently brought about by the treatment the patient also becomes Particularly amenable to simple, but forceful psychology, which he would have been quite incapable of accepting before the treatment.

Lincoln Williams follows up this clue in his essay and it appears to lead in a most interesting direction. He notes, for exmnple, that this sudden transformation is not limited to the apomorphine treatment, but occurs in conjunct with other cures as well, He says:

I wonder if all these Various methods, religious conversion, modern Psychotherapy and physical debilitating and aversion treatments, with apomorphine and emetine, and the recent use of antabuse do not, in fact, all have certain common factors. There is the necessity to break down the individual defences utterly, either by Psychologic or physical methods, and in his altered state, implant new concepts and patterns.1

This necessity for a preliminam,y breakdown of the existing per sonality pattern is, he remarks, also fimdaznen to the technique

1 ‘Some Observations on the Recent Advances in the Treatment of AIcohoh BritjthJ of Addiction, Vol. XLVII, No. 2 (July 1950), p. 50.

pg. 92

of the Alcoholics Anonymous Movement. It will be necessary to devote a separate chapter to the story of the work of this, the

most important of recent therapeutic agencies in the cure of alcoholism. In its programme, the first step required of any alcoholic is the recognition that he has come to the end of him self: he is a helpless and defeated man. ‘We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable...' 2

Its founder declared: that the alcoholic’s

'....compulsion must issue from some deep level, it followed that ego-deflation must also go deep, or else there could not be any fundamental release. Apparently religious practice would not touch the alcoholic until his underlying situation was made ready.’ In the Alcoholics Anonymous Movement, therefore, it was generally accepted that an addict had to hit rock-bottom before there was much chance of being able to restore him.

This aspect of personality disruption is not confined to the cure of alcoholics. Williams points out that it seems to enter into the

treatment of various neurotic complaints. Reference has afready been made to the strange effect of the electric shock, or ‘blitz’,

treatment and to the sudden transformation of many patients, rendering them amenable to positive psychological and spiritual counsel. He quotes the following extract from a paper read at a meeting of the PsychiatrIc Section of the Royal Society of Medicine by William Sargent.

During the war the importance of preliminary loss of weight in those who had finally broken down owing to their traumatic experience was obvious and I now wonder whether we pay enough attention in general psychiatry to the therapeutic possibilities of a preliminary physical and psychological breaking down of mental resistance in stronger types of patients, to bring about the accept ance of new attitudes. But I have certainly observed something akin to this process among some of my friends being psycho- analysed. Many seem to be put through a preliminary period of frustration, humiliation, guilt arousal and increasing tension by the therapeutist. They also show a progressive weight loss. They may become rather haggard shadows of their former selves for a

end of text edit...................................................................

‘Alcoholics Anonymous.

94 ALCOHOLISM

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONVERSION

time. Then a CritiCaj stage is reached, often following one abre active experience, when they start to accept doctrinaire inter pretations of symptoms which would have been quite unacceptable to them before. Later they become stable in new beliefs and flourish again.

The quotation concludes with a disturbing sentence:

We are probably seeing the results of other ‘weakening’ methods in the treason trials taking place behind the ‘iron Curtain’ of Europe today.

This is indeed dangerous country and we are in some need of map and compass. It suggests that the Citadel of Man-soul is no longer inviolate. It can be pulled down, stone by stone, by human hands, using a battery of drugs and ‘pressure’ treatments:

it can be rebuilt again in accordance with the blue-prints of an alien architect. In the light of this possibility, Antabuse, apomor phine, leucotomy and other shock treatments cease to be simple aids to therapy and assume the possibility of a more sinister role.

However, by this time men of science are becoming familiar with the fact that every new discovery is a two-edged weapon, a sword to kill or a scalpel to heal this demented world. We must not be dismayed by the possibilities for evil; nevertheless, the dangers must be faced. Medicine, among the arts, has a very great responsibility in showing respect for the sanctity of per sonality. The soul, even of an alcoholic, must be respected and there can be no question of the forcible administration of any of these drugs, unless the patient both understands and accepts the reason for their administration Whether an alcoholic is ever to be regarded as temporarily insane and, therefore, liable to forcible committal to a mental asylum is a difilcuft question to determine:

but in a world where human liberties are treated with such scant respect, we cannot afford to surrender, without challenge, a single stronghold of freedom. Lie-detecting and all similar drugs capable of being used in the unscrupulous service of the law, or the State, must be regarded with the deepest caution and suspicion. At a different level, easy-going resort to hypnotic seances,

especially for purposes of public entertainment, are to be guarded against. The preacher, the evangelist or the political orator must also be reminded that they, too, are treading hallowed ground:

sentially they are in the same dangerous country, the border land between conscious reason and the unconscious depths of tangled motives, explosive urges, strange and poweriW emotions. ‘We wrestle not with flesh and blood. . . but with the hidden

powers of darkness.’ Great preaching or great oratory stirs men

I in the depths of their being with an explosive force that makes possible a reorientation of character. It undoes the power of sin flil habits or entrenched ideas and induces the acceptance of new beliefs and new ways of life.

Wrongly used this gift can do great harm. The evangelist may become a Sorcerer’s Apprentice, releasing by the magic of his oratory forces that he can neither guide nor control. The political spell-binder may become a Hider, conscious of his power but

using it for evil purposes. Aware of these dangers, what is the

preacher to do? Many believe that the only honest thing is to refuse to invade the citadel of his hearers’ emotions or play upon their feelings. Preaching should, they say, appeal only to the reason and should never assail the barrier of the feelings or of the will, Preaching should be factual and impersonal. Can such preaching save the souls of men? Unfortunately, no. It was not thus that Chrysoston or Liddon learned and practised their- craft. The risks and dangers have to be accepted and mitigated by wisdom and restraint but they cannot be avoided. Only heart-stirring preaching can change man in the depths of his being. Great preaching must aim at conversion.

It is at this point that we come face to face with the identity of purpose of preacher and healer in relation to the addictive per sonality. Doctor and pastor are being driven to a position where they discover that each is seeking the same mode of therapy. ‘Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God,’ said Jesus Christ. ‘Except the addict can achieve a conversion experience he cannot be released from the power of his addiction,’ says the psychiatrist. Both are referring to a revolution of the

‘op. cit., p. 66.

John 3