January
23, 1961
Professor, Dr. C. G. Jung
Kusnacht-Zurich
Seestrasse 228
Switzerland
My dear Dr. Jung:
This letter of great appreciation has been very long
overdue.
May I first introduce myself as Bill W., a co-founder of
the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous. Though you have
surely heard of us, I doubt if you are aware that a
certain conversation you once had with one of your
patients, a Mr. Roland H., back in the early 1930s, did
play a critical role in the founding of our Fellowship.
Though Roland H. has long since passed away, the
recollection of his remarkable experience while under
treatment by you has definitely become part of AA
history. Our remembrance of Roland H.'s statements about
his experience with you is as follows:
Having exhausted other means of recovery from his
alcoholism, it was about 1931 that he became your
patient. I believe that he remained under your care for
perhaps a year. His admiration for you was boundless,
and he left you with a feeling of much confidence.
To his great consternation, he soon relapsed into
intoxication. Certain that you were his "court of
last resort," he again returned to your care. Then
followed the conversation between you that was to become
the first link in the chain of events that led to the
founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.
My recollection of his account of that conversation is
this: First of all, you frankly told him of his
hopelessness, so far as any further medical or
psychiatric treatment might be concerned. This candid
and humble statement of yours was beyond a doubt the
first foundation stone upon which our Society has since
been built.
Coming from you, one he so trusted and admired, the
impact upon him was immense.
When he asked you if there was any other hope, you told
him that there might be, provided he could become the
subject of a spiritual or religious experience -- in
short, a genuine conversion. You pointed out how such an
experience, if brought about, might remotivate him when
nothing else could. But you did caution, though, that
while such experiences had sometimes brought recovery to
alcoholics, they were, nonetheless, comparatively rare.
You recommended that he place himself in a religious
atmosphere and hope for the best. This I believe was the
substance of your advice.
Shortly thereafter, Mr. H. joined the Oxford Group, an
evangelical movement then at the height of its success
in Europe, and one with which you are doubtless
familiar. You will remember their large emphasis upon
the principles of self-survey, confession, restitution,
and the giving of oneself in service to others. They
strongly stressed meditation and prayer. In these
surroundings, Roland H. did find a conversion experience
that released him for the time being from his compulsion
to drink.
Returning to New York, he became very active with the
"O.G." here, then led by an Episcopal
clergyman, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. Dr. Shoemaker had been
one of the founders of that movement, and his was a
powerful personality that carried immense sincerity and
conviction.
At this time (1932-34), the Oxford Group had already
sobered a number of alcoholics, and Roland, feeling that
he could especially identify with these sufferers,
addressed himself to the help of still others. One of
these chanced to be an old schoolmate of mine, named
Edwin T. [Ebby]. He had been threatened with commitment
to an institution, but Mr. H. and another ex-alcoholic
"O.G." member procured his parole, and helped
to bring about his sobriety.
Meanwhile, I had run the course of alcoholism and was
threatened with commitment myself. Fortunately, I had
fallen under the care of a physician -- a Dr. William D.
Silkworth -- who was wonderfully capable of
understanding alcoholics. But just as you had given up
on Roland, so had he given me up. It was his theory that
alcoholism had two components -- an obsession that
compelled the sufferer to drink against his will and
interest, and some sort of metabolism difficulty which
he then called an allergy. The alcoholic's compulsion
guaranteed that the alcoholic's drinking would go on,
and the allergy made sure that the sufferer would
finally deteriorate, go insane, or die. Though I had
been one of the few he had thought it possible to help,
he was finally obliged to tell me of my hopelessness; I,
too, would have to be locked up. To me, this was a
shattering blow. Just as Roland had been made ready for
his conversion experience by you, so had my wonderful
friend Dr. Silkworth prepared me.
Hearing of my plight, my friend Edwin T. came to see me
at my home, where I was drinking. By then, it was
November 1934. I had long marked my friend Edwin for a
hopeless case. Yet here he was in a very evident state
of "release," which could by no means be
accounted for by his mere association for a very short
time with the Oxford Group. Yet this obvious state of
release, as distinguished from the usual depression, was
tremendously convincing. Because he was a kindred
sufferer, he could unquestionably communicate with me at
great depth. I knew at once I must find an experience
like his, or die.
Again I returned to Dr. Silkworth's care, where I could
be once more sobered and so gain a clearer view of my
friend's experience of release, and of Roland H.'s
approach to him.
Clear once more of alcohol, I found myself terribly
depressed. This seemed to be caused by my inability to
gain the slightest faith. Edwin T. again visited me and
repeated the simple Oxford Group formulas. Soon after he
left me, I became even more depressed. In utter despair,
I cried out, "If there be a God, will he show
himself." There immediately came to me an
illumination of enormous impact and dimension, something
which I have since tried to describe in the book Alcoholics
Anonymous and also in AA Comes of Age, basic
texts which I am sending to you.
My release from the alcohol obsession was immediate. At
once, I knew I was a free man.
Shortly following my experience, my friend Edwin came to
the hospital, bringing me a copy of William James's Varieties
of Religious Experience. This book gave me the
realization that most conversion experiences, whatever
their variety, do have a common denominator of ego
collapse at depth. The individual faces an impossible
dilemma. In my case, the dilemma had been created by my
compulsive drinking, and the deep feeling of
hopelessness had been vastly deepened still more by my
alcoholic friend when he acquainted me with your verdict
of hopelessness respecting Roland H.
In the wake of my spiritual experience, there came a
vision of a society of alcoholics, each identifying with
and transmitting his experience to the next --
chain-style. If each sufferer were to carry the news of
scientific hopelessness of alcoholism to each new
prospect, he might be able to lay every newcomer wide
open to a transforming spiritual experience. This
concept proved to be the foundation of such success as
Alcoholics Anonymous has since achieved. This has made
conversion experience -- nearly every variety reported
by James -- available on an almost wholesale basis. Our
sustained recoveries over the last quarter-century
number about 300,000. In America and through the world,
there are today 8,000 AA groups. [In 1994, worldwide
membership is estimated to be over 2,000,000; number of
groups, over 87,300.]
So to you, to Dr. Shoemaker of the Oxford Group, to
William James, and to my own physician, Dr. Silkworth,
we of AA owe this tremendous benefaction. As you will
now clearly see, this astonishing chain of events
actually started long ago in your consulting room, and
it was directly founded upon your own humility and deep
perception.
Very many thoughtful AAs are students of your writings.
Because of your conviction that man is something more
than intellect, emotion, and two dollars' worth of
chemicals, you have especially endeared yourself to us.
How our Society grew, developed its Traditions for
unity, and structured its functioning, will be seen in
the texts and pamphlet material that I am sending you.
You will also be interested to learn that, in addition
to the "spiritual experience," many AAs report
a great variety of psychic phenomena, the cumulative
weight of which is very considerable. Other members have
-- following their recovery in AA -- been much helped by
your practitioners. A few have been intrigued by the I
Ching and your remarkable introduction to that work.
Please be certain that your place in the affection, and
in the history, of our Fellowship is like no other.
Gratefully yours,
William G. W--.
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