C: Okay, let's flip over now to The Doctor's Opinion. We got started a little late tonight, and probably we're going to run on without taking a break, so we don't have to stay too late tonight. But if any of you feel the need to go somewhere, go get you a cup of coffee, or whatever you want to do, as we go along. In The Doctor's Opinion, let's go to roman numeral twenty-four, and we'll start looking at what the problem really is. Here it tells me:
(p. xxiv, par. 3) 'The physician who, at our request, gave us this letter, has been kind enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe -- that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind.'
For the first time in written history, we see reference to the fact that the body of the alcoholic is sickened as well as his mind. Up until this time, most people didn't know what the problem was. Since they didn't know what the problem was, they always tried to apply the wrong solution and the wrong program of action. Very few alcoholics recovered from their disease.
Most people back in the time we're talking about, in the mid-thirties, they said that alcoholism is a matter of will power. They said alcoholism is a lack of moral character. They said that alcoholism is a sin. (You're) just (a) morally no good human being. All the things they referred to were matters of the mind. You know, will power, moral character, sin, no good human being none of those referred to the body at all. It's no wonder that people never came up with what the proper solution is.
The interesting fact, too, is that all those names put on the alcoholic and all those reasons for drinking were always put on us by people who either did not drink or people who could drink safely. They're the ones who said it was a matter of will power. They're the ones who said it's moral character.
They're the ones who said it's sin. We never did say. And we probably didn't care, we just kept right on drinking. But it was people who did not have the disease that tried to determine what the disease is. They knew nothing about the disease. Therefore, every time they tried to identify the problem, they had the wrong diagnosis. For the first time in written history, we see reference to the fact that the body of the alcoholic is sickened as well as the mind.
J: I like to compare that to something in our time. In the present day, where we were with alcoholism in 1935 is where we are today with cancer. Many people very hastily will say we are looking for the solution to cancer. But really the researcher is trying find out: what is cancer? What is the problem? The solution we can discover, if we find out: how it works, what is it?
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