There is a Solution (Continued)
J: He's told us the solution. He's going to tell us the same thing over again, really, in the next few pages, to reinforce his point. He's going to use a story about Rowland H. who went to see Dr. Carl Jung. This is where the origin of Step Two came from. He tells us. This story gives us a lot. It tells us where this thing came from, and where it begins. That's the way you tell a drunk. He just told you what the solution was, a spiritual experience.
This story is going to tell you the same thing. It will--he'll reinforce it with another--he's taking a different approach to say the same thing. That's the way you talk to a drunk. You tell a drunk what you're going to tell him first. (laughter) Then you tell him what you want to tell him. Then you tell him what you told him, and he gets it. (laughter) He's saying the same thing two or three different ways.
He tells the story of: (p. 26, par. 2) 'A certain American business man had ability, good sense, and high character.' This was Rowland Hazzard. (p. 26, par. 2) 'For years he had floundered from one sanitarium to another.'
Rowland came from a prominent family in Vermont, too. Then: (p. 26, par. 2) 'He had consulted the best known American psychiatrists. Then he had gone to Europe, placing himself in the care of a celebrated physician (the psychiatrist, Dr. Jung)... '
This guy was alcoholic. His family had money, and on top of that they had a great family too. My family didn't send me to Europe. (laughter) Okay.
C: Sent you to Cincinnati.
J: That's right. Then he had gone to Europe. Okay, Dr. Carl Jung, remember at that time was one of the greatest psychiatrist of his time. He was--this was a brilliant man, one of the best in the world.
(p. 26, par. 2) ' ... who prescribed for him. Though experience had made him skeptical, he finished his treatment with unusual confidence. His physical and mental condition were unusually good. Above all, he believed he had acquired such a profound knowledge of the inner workings of his mind and it's hidden springs that relapse was unthinkable.'
Now, he didn't go over there for a twenty-eight day treatment program. Rowland stayed in Dr. Carl Jung's treatment, with Dr. Carl Jung for one year. (p. 26, par. 2-5; p. 27, par. 1-5)
'Nevertheless, he was drunk in a short time. More baffling still, he could give himself no satisfactory explanation for his fall.
'So he returned to this doctor, whom he admired, and asked him point-blank why he could not recover. He wished above all things to regain self-control. He seemed quite rational and well-balanced with respect to other problems. Yet he had no control whatever over alcohol. Why was this?'
'He begged the doctor to tell him the whole truth, and he got it. In the doctor's judgment he was utterly hopeless; he could never regain his position in society and he would have to place himself under lock and key or hire a bodyguard if he expected to live long. That was a great physician's opinion.'
'But this man still lives, and is a free man. He does not need a bodyguard nor is he confined. He can go anywhere on this earth where other free men may go (top of p. 27) without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude.
'Some of our alcoholic readers may think they can do without spiritual help. Let us tell you the rest of the conversation our friend had with his doctor.'
'The doctor said: "You have the mind of a chronic alcoholic. I have never seen one single case recover, where that state of mind existed to the extent that it does in you." Our friend felt as though the gates of hell had closed on him with a clang.'
'He said to the doctor, "Is there no exception?'
'" Yea," replied the doctor, "there la. Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times.' Remember, Dr. Carl Jung was a psychiatrist which deals with the mind. He had at his disposal all the knowledge at that time of the human mind. He told Rowland, he said, within my realm of understanding, of my knowledge, I can't help you.
This man is a very humble man to say, I cannot help you, but there is help. Another area of human life is the spiritual life. Psychiatrists know nothing about this. He deals with the mind. Spiritual-theologian. and other people deal in that area. We have specialists on the body, specialists on the mind, and specialists on the spirit.
Dr. Carl Jung was able to admit that within the mind, I don't have the skills to help you, but there is help over in the spiritual realm. In fact he says alcoholics' recoveries have been occurring since early times. You know, alcoholics have been getting sober, probably, in spiritual programs in a church or something, every once in a while, since the beginning of time.
But Dr. Carl Jung saw this, and he took it from those people and gave it to Rowland. He said, I can't help you. (p. 27, par. 5) 'Here and there, once in a while, alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences. To me these occurrences are phenomena. The appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions, and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them. In fact, I have been trying to produce some such emotional
rearrangement within you. With many individuals the methods which I employed are successful, but I have never been successful with an alcoholic of your description."*'
