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++++Message 1735. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodixal Lit., Your Life, November

1944

From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/2/2004 9:42:00 AM

Miracles at Work for Alcoholics

What is the secret of the success of Alcoholics Anonymous? A famous writer

gives you his answer

By Arthur Hopkins

In Tagore's Memories he tells of walking along a country road with his mother

when he was a small child. They passed a grotesque drunkard. The boy laughed.

The mother said: "Don't laugh. He, too, is on his way to God."

I had read and heard of the work being done by Alcoholics Anonymous. I vaguely

knew that the helpful service was being offered by former victims of alcohol

who had found a way out.

Marcie, a friend of mine, told me of having lunch with a bank executive friend

and was startled when the strong man told him, with no concealment, that he

had been an alcoholic and had come close to wrecking his career. He was one of

the workers in the Alcoholics Anonymous movement and asked Marcie if he would

like to attend a monthly meeting of the workers. Marcie, having a lively

interest in human service, accepted and later asked me if I would like to go

along. Thus I shall always be indebted to Marcie for a strongly revealing and

rewarding experience.

The prologue had a pleasant but conventional aspect. The host had us to dinner

at the Yale Club. He was an athletic, beaming man who showed no marks of

gutter bruises. He spoke of three ladies joining us for the evening. Presently

they came-three gracious and cultured women, probably in the thirties. It

looked more and more like a patronizing expedition of the Upper Ten to the

Lower Five.

Soon the conversation revealed that the ladies, also free of telltale ravages,

had likewise taken a pounding from John Barleycorn, but had managed to come up

for the final count with John left sprawling and were now prepared to step

back into the ring to second anyone who was ready to give John a battle.

Before the entrée the slumming aspect had disappeared. Here were the

privileged seeking the privilege of helping their own, and their own were

alcoholics.

More revealing than their willingness to discuss openly with strangers their

alcoholic ordeal, was the complete absence of any desire to conceal what

others would think shameful. This unusual freedom from the personal, I was

later to learn at the meeting, is one of the key causes of the great success

of the movement.

On entering the hall where there were several hundred men and women, mostly

graduate alcoholics and aspirants, I looked for the derelicts and defeated and

found none. There was gaiety and loud laughter, which had suffered nothing

from the absence of libations.

A little man, with considerable dental jubilation, called the meeting to

order. After a sullen, disapproving phonograph was prodded into action the

assembly sang the national anthem.

The little man then unwrapped his gleaming teeth from the package of his lips

and asked how many had remained abstinent for three months or longer. A number

raised their hands. The teeth gleamed.

Then the little man told his experience in his life's battle with alcohol.

There was nothing sad, self-pitying or exhibitionist about his recital. It was

rather the report of a persistent and hopeless experiment.

The one thing that he always knew after painful recovery from a devastating

bout was that when he got in shape he would know how to handle liquor like

sane people. Liquor wasn't going to lick him. No, sir! His cure began on the

day he was taken to the AA house and became convinced that he was an alcoholic

and the seductive opponent would best him every time. It was a fight in which

there was no compromise, a fight where the decision was already in. He was

talked to by people who knew his whole experience. They had lived the scenario

from beginning to end.

The little man, with AA guidance, gained his freedom and then became a worker

himself. He found he gained new strength by helping others.

"I never need to take an inventory of myself," he said. "I see myself in every

one I try to help. There it is looking right at me, all my liabilities and my

assets. I was never a religious man. Of course, I believed in God, I suppose,

but I never thought he could do anything about me. Now I know that I never

could have come through without Him. I had to have God's help. I kept asking

for it and got it." Shade of Tagore's mother.

There was a good deal of laughter through the little man's talk. It was the

comedy of identical experience. His hearers understood perfectly.

He then introduced a real estate operator from New Rochelle. Like the little

man he opened his talk by saying: "I am an alcoholic." It was a recital of

years of trying hopelessly to become a moderate drinker. There was obviously

an element of pride involved. He could never admit to himself that alcohol was

his master. As soon as he got into shape he would show alcohol how it ought to

be handled. He must be a good businessman because he managed to survive for

years with banks continuing to trust him.

"Finally," he said, "I wasn't invited to leave my home as some here have put

it. I was kicked out. I put a cot in the back of the office. I used to lie

down about twelve at night so I could wake up before three and knock over a

couple before the bar closed. Then I was awake at eight to be in time for the

bar opening up.

He tried cures. He tried will power, but always ended up seeing himself in the

bar mirror. He found AA. He knew for the first time that he was an alcoholic

and could never beat it. It was the end of alcohol or the end of him. New

challenge and new pride were awakened.

"Of course when I got off the stuff I began looking at myself to try and find

out what was wrong with me. It must have been more than appetite. Then I

discovered one of my troubles was intolerance. I couldn't bear to be crossed

by anyone. If, in putting through a deal, I thought someone was trying to pull

something I got mad and told them to go to hell, and, of course, I was so mad

I had to have a drink and then I was off again-once for five weeks in a

hospital with a fractured hip.

"One time, after I had been going fine, I blew up again, tore up the contract,

threw it on the floor. There was four hundred bucks in it for me, but to hell

with it. Nobody was going to make a monkey out of me. I stormed out of the

place, but this time I didn't go to a bar. I thought it over and wondered how

I could straighten myself out.

I always hated to apologize to anyone-knowing I'd been wrong only made it

harder. But finally I had to get square with myself, so I called the fellow

up. I said to him: `I'm sorry about that blow-up. I'm an alcoholic and

sometimes I lose my head. I don't want you to think I care about the money.

That's not why I'm calling you. I want you to forgive me.' The man said: `You

know, I've been trying to figure out why I blew up. Come on over and let's

straighten it out.' We did. My fee wasn't due for thirty days, but he gave me

the check then. In the old days it would have ended that way. I'd have tied

the bag on good.

"Soon after AA got hold of me my wife came to me and said: `Why don't you come

home?' I said: `Do you mean it?' `Of course, come on.'

"When I got home, I said: `I don't suppose I could get a drink around here.'

My wife said: `Sure.' She brought me a bottle of beer. The next day I had a

bottle of beer. That night I slept for the first time without drugs. I slept

because I was at peace.

"They tell us around here we can call it anything we like-God, Divine Power

or-well, I call it God. I never believed much, but I know that without God I'm

nothing. That time I blew up I knew I wasn't going to drink because I had

asked God that morning to help me." Shade of Tagore's mother.

I am an alcoholic," began the next speaker. He looked like a football coach.

He was a merchant from New Jersey. His drinking began young and industriously

in the West. As a traveling man he found it convenient to have supplies

constantly at hand by carrying three or four spares in his bag.

His experience was much as the others-releases and relapses, treatments,

sanitariums, lost money, lost business, lost home, lost family.

"In one hospital there was a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the closet. I drank

it to within one inch of the bottom, then turned on my face. When the nurse

came in I asked her to rub my back as I was in such pain. She found the nearly

empty bottle, refilled it and rubbed my back. When she had gone I helped

myself from the refill. Later she told me I had been drinking refuse. Doctors

and nurses had washed their hands in it. Wounds had been cleaned with it.

"After AA I got my family back and am in business again. I then tried helping

others, but I didn't have much success until I finally realized that I was

looking down on them. Now I know that I am only made strong by what I can give

others. I need them as much as they need me. Like the others I wasn't

religious, but I now say boldly and reverently it was God and only God.

Without Him I was helpless." Shade of Tagore's mother.

For a time, the writer was disturbed by people who had obviously been freed

saying emphatically: "I am an alcoholic." It seemed a false and harmful

affirmation.

Thinking back on what the traveling man had said about his feeling of

superiority once he had progressed beyond the other victims, it occurred to me

that a professed alcoholic might easily be more helpful than one who thinks of

himself only as a former alcoholic. Maybe it is better to stay right in the

lodge with the others with never a suggestion of superiority. Perhaps negative

affirmations for the purpose of closer brotherhood have a positive effect with

no injury to the affirmer.

And now the little chairman got up to introduce a product of his own

helpfulness.

One day a telephone call had come from the AA office for him to go to a Long

Island address from which a call for help had come. It was for a woman, so the

little man made sure first that her husband was at home. He called and the

good work was begun. And now, with pride, he presented her.

She was Mary, a darling woman in her late twenties, with shining face,

scoffing eyes and the wide, warm smile of Erin. She looked at the microphone

and laughed. "When I used to see one of those things I thought I was Lily

Pons."

So Mary was off to a great howl. She told the list of almost identical steps

everything-sessions with priests, promises, pledges, treatments.

"But I hid bottles all over the house, even on the roof. Once when I needed it

real bad the bottle on the roof was gone. Maybe some poor devil needed it

worse than I did, but it was hard to see it that way at the time.

"I went to Sanitarium, too." The place had been mentioned twice before and

each time had raised a great laugh. "And, of course, like the others I tried a

psychiatrist. After he talked for some time I asked him if he drank. He said

that if he took two drinks it made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't take

two drinks without losing his stomach and there he was trying to tell me how

to handle liquor."

Perhaps Mary there touched one of the cardinal reasons for the success of the

AA movement. Their applicants soon learn that they have nothing to explain.

They are talking to experts who have gone all the way down the road, have lain

in every pitfall and tried every false exit. They cannot be shocked or

deceived.

"Finally," said Mary, "I landed in that lovely resort on the river, Bellevue,

and what I saw there in two days left nothing but the bottle.

"At last my husband gave up. He said there was nothing for us but a divorce.

When we were in court someone asked us why we didn't try AA. So we telephoned,

and the little man came. They asked me to the house on Twenty-fourth Street. I

went and as soon as I was in the place I knew this was it. They talked to me

some about God. I was raised in a convent school and that wasn't hard to take.

Well, it worked. There's nothing more to say except that five weeks ago I had

a baby." There were applause and cheers for Mary.

"When I came out of the ether the doctor said to me: `Never lose your sense of

humor, Mary. When you were still under you said: "What's all this talk about

no atheists in foxholes? I guess you won't find any in delivery rooms,

either."' From what my husband tells me you won't find any in the corridor."

Mary was a joyful benediction. She filled the place with a sense of blessing.

I doubt if there were any atheists there either.

The words of a sainted woman spoken nearly a hundred years ago had come true.

Drunkards, with the help of fellow victims, had found God. Whatever the pain

to themselves and their loved ones the journey was worth it. Perhaps in no

other way would they have found God. It seemed to one present that God was

nearer in that hall than He had ever been before, that the God long accepted

by the head had moved into the heart and only there can God's banners truly

fly.

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++++Message 1736. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Traditions Question

From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/2/2004 1:12:00 PM

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The data below is historical info on the development of the Traditions. I could not find anything to spell out what went into determining their sequence.

Arthur

*The history of the Twelve Traditions constructed from the following sources*

Steps and Twelve Traditions

AACOA AA

Comes of Age

BW-FH Bill

W by Francis Hartigan

BW-RT Bill

W by Robert Thompson

DBGO Dr

Bob and the Good Oldtimers

Service Conference (report)

GTBT Grateful

to Have Been There by Nell Wing

Gv Grapevine

LOH The

PIO Pass

SM AA

*1942:* Correspondence from groups gave

early signals of a need to develop guidelines to help with group problems that

occurred repeatedly. Basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions emerged from this

correspondence and the principles defined in the Foreword to the 1st

Ed. Big Book. (AACOA 187, 192-193, 198, 204, PIO 305-306, LOH 154)

*1945: *Apr, Earl T, pioneer member and

founder of AA in Chicago (whose story is _He

Sold Himself Short_), suggested that Bill codify the Traditions and write

essays on them for the Gv. Initially, the Twelve Traditions were qualified as

_Twelve Points to Assure Our Future_. (AACOA 22, 203, GTBT 54-55, 77, SM S8,

PIO 306, LOH 20-24)

Aug, the Gv

carried Bill's first Traditions article (titled _Modesty One Plank for Good

Public Relations_)

setting the ground work for his campaign for the Traditions. The July Gv had

an

article by member C.H.K. of Lansing, MI about the Washingtonians. Bill used

*1946: *Apr, the Gv carried the article _Twelve Suggested Points for AA

Tradition_. These would later be called the long form of the Traditions.

(AACOA viii, 96,

203, LOH 20, 154, Gv)

*1947: *Jun, the _AA Preamble_ first appeared in the Gv. It

was written by Tom Y, Grapevine's first editor.

Aug, in his Gv

Traditions essay _Last Seven Years Have Made AA

Self-Supporting_, Bill wrote 'Two years ago the trustees set

aside, out of AA book funds, a sum which enabled my wife and me to pay off the

mortgage on our home and make some needed improvements. The Foundation also

granted Dr. Bob and me each a royalty of 10% on the book Alcoholics Anonymous,

our only income from AA sources. We are both very comfortable and deeply

grateful.''

Dec, the Gv

carried a notice that an important new 48 page pamphlet _AA Traditions_ was

sent to each group and

that enough copies were available for each member to have one free of charge.

*1949: *As plans for the 1st Int'l Convention were under way, Earl T suggested

to Bill that the _Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition_

would benefit from revision and shortening. (AACOA says 1947). Bill, with

Earl's help, set out to develop the short form of the Traditions. (AACOA 213,

GTBT 55,

Nov, the short

form of the Twelve Traditions was first printed in the Gv. The entire issue

was

Convention. Two wording changes were subsequently made to the initial version:

'primary spiritual aim'' was changed to 'primary

purpose'' in Tradition Six, and 'principles above

personalities'' was changed to 'principles before

personalities'' in Tradition Twelve. (LOH 96)

*1950: *Jul, AA's 15th anniversary and 1st Int'l Convention at Cleveland, OH

(est. 3,000 attendees). Registration was $1.50 per person. (AACOA 213,

BW-RT 308, PIO 338). The Twelve Traditions were adopted unanimously by the

attendees by standing vote. (AACOA 43, LOH 121, PIO 338)

*1953: *Jun, the book Twelve

Steps and Twelve Traditions was published. Bill W. described the work as 'This

small volume is strictly a textbook which explains AA's 24 basic

principles and their application, in detail and with great care.'' Bill

was helped in its writing by Betty L and Tom P. Jack Alexander also helped

with

through AA groups, and a $2.75 edition distributed through Harper &

Brothers for sale in commercial bookstores. (AACOA ix, 219, PIO 354-356)

*1955:* AA's 15th anniversary and 2nd Int'l Convention at St Louis, MO. On Jul

3, by resolution, Bill W and its old-timers turned over the

stewardship of the AA society to the movement. The Conference became the

Guardian of the Traditions and voice of the group conscience of the entire

Fellowship. The resolution was unanimously adopted by the Convention by

acclamation and by the GSC by formal resolution and vote. (AACOA ix, 47-48,

223-228)

that 'No change in Article 12 of the [Conference] Charter or in AA Tradition

or in the Twelve Steps of AA may be made with less than the written consent of

three-quarters of the AA groups.'' (SM S87)

*1958:* the GSC passed an advisory action

'the GSC recognize the original use of the word `honest'

before `desire to stop drinking' and its deletion from the

Traditions as part of the evolution of the AA movement. Any change to be left

to the discretion of AA Publishing, Inc.'' This advisory action is worded

in a manner that can give the erroneous impression of a change to the wording

of Tradition Three. It actually involved removing the word 'honest''

from 'honest desire to stop drinking'' in the AA Preamble in the Gv_. _It also

led to changing the wording of

the Preamble from 'AA has no dues or fees'' to 'There are no

dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own

contributions.'' The changes were approved by the General Service Board in

the summer of 1958 (www.aagrapevine.org also _Best

of the Grapevine_, vol.1, 274-275)

*Third Tradition Story (Two items that often are erroneously

intermingled)*

*1937: *On the AA calendar of 'year

two,'' the spirit of Tradition Three emerged. A member asked to be

admitted who frankly described himself to the 'oldest'' member as

'the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than

alcoholism.'' The 'addiction'' was 'sex deviate.'' (Note:

info provided by David S from an audiotape of Bill W at an open meeting of the

1968 GSC. See also the pamphlet _The

Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous_, P-53, pg 30). Guidance came form

Dr Bob (the oldest member in Akron) asking, 'What would the Master

do?'' The member was admitted and plunged into 12th Step work.

(DBGO 240-241 12&12 141-142) Note: this story is often erroneously

intermingled with an incident that occurred eight years later in 1945 at the

41st

St clubhouse in NYC (described next).

would later author _Living Sober_)

from the 41st St clubhouse. Bill persuaded the group to take in a

black man who was an ex-convict with bleach-blond hair, wearing women's

clothing and makeup. The man also admitted to being a 'dope fiend.''

When asked what to do about it, Bill posed the question, 'did you say he

was a drunk?'' When answered, 'yes'' Bill replied, 'well

I think that's all we can ask.'' The man disappeared shortly after.

(BW-FH 8, PIO 317-318) Anecdotal accounts erroneously say that this individual

went on to become one of the best 12th Steppers in NY. This

story is often erroneously intermingled with that of a 1937 incident

('year two'' on the AA calendar) involving an Akron member that is

discussed in the Tradition Three essay in the 12&12 (pgs 141-142).

*The Order of the Traditions*

The order of

the Traditions was defined in April 1946 and I cannot find anything that

influenced

the sequence in which they were written.

The April 1946

Grapevine article states:

Almost any A.A. can tell you what

our group problems are. Fundamentally they have to do with our relations, one

with the other, and with the world outside. They involve relations of the A.A.

to his group, the relation of his group to Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole,

and

the place of Alcoholics Anonymous in that troubled sea called Modern Society,

relevant is the problem of our basic structure and our attitude toward those

ever pressing questions of leadership, money and authority. The future may

well

regard our public relations. Our final destiny will surely hang upon what we

presently decide to do with these danger-fraught issues!

Now comes the crux of our

discussion. It is this: Have we yet acquired sufficient experience to state

clear-cut policies on these, our chief concerns? Can we now declare general

principles which could grow into vital traditions--traditions sustained in

the heart of each A.A. by his own deep conviction and by the common consent of

his fellows? That is the question. Though full answer to all our perplexities

may never be found, I'm sure we have come at last to a vantage point whence we

can discern the main outlines of a body of tradition; which, God willing, can

stand as an effective guard against all the ravages of time and circumstance.

Acting upon the persistent urge of

old A.A. friends, and upon the conviction that general agreement and consent

between our members is now possible, I shall venture to place in words these

suggestions for _An

Alcoholics Anonymous Tradition of Relations_--_Twelve Points to Assure Our

Future._

sequence of the Gv essays that Bill wrote do not follow the sequence of the

Traditions until December 1947 through November 1948 when he wrote an essay

for

AA Comes of Age).

His

essays from August 1945 to November 1947 were:

Plank for Good Public Relations - Aug 1945

'Rules''

Dangerous but Unity Vital - Sep 1945

The Book Is

Born - Oct 1945

A Tradition Born

of Our Anonymity - Jan 1946

Our Anonymity

Is Both Inspiration and Safety - Mar 1946

Twelve

Suggested Points for AA Tradition - Apr 1946

Money - May 1946

Policy on Gift

Funds - Jun 1946

The Individual

in Relation to AA as a Group - Jul 1946

Who Is a Member

of Alcoholics Anonymous - Aug 1946

Will AA Ever

Have a Personal Government - Jan 1947

Dangers in

Linking AA to Other Projects - Mar 1947

Clubs in AA -

Apr 1947

Hospitalization: One Great Need - May 1947

Lack of Money

Proved AA Boon - Jun 1947

Last Seven

Years Have Made AA Self-Supporting - Aug 1947

Traditions

Stressed in Memphis Talk - Oct 1947

Incorporations:

Their Use and Misuse - Nov 1947

The above

period of time was also when Bill was going through some of the worst of his

episodes of depression.

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">

10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">

-----

(Bill) [mailto:wlash@avaya.com]

*Sent:* Wednesday, March 31, 2004

1:35 PM

AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

*Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers]

Traditions Question

12.0pt;">

Does anyone know why the Twelve Traditions are in the order

that they are in? Thanks!

12.0pt;">

Just Love,

Barefoot Bill

12.0pt;">

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++++Message 1737. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Alan Guiness/A Members Eye View of

AA

From: mlibby . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/3/2004 1:06:00 AM

His name was Allen McGuiness (deceased) and I believe he was from Southern

California. I love the pamphlet and have memorized a large chunk of it because

it is, in my opinion, the most beautiful expression of what AA is that I have

ever read. I'll send you separately a 15 minute excerpt from the pamphlet that

I recite daily on my way to work.

You can go to xa-speakers.org and search for "Allen" and you'll find a series

of five talks he gave in Brentwood, California back in 1968 called "AA

Workshop" or something to that effect. Tremendous....very much in line with A

Member's Eye View.

You can download those and learn a significant amount more about this man

through his sharing... He got sober in the early 1950's, went out shortly

thereafter, but came back. Thank God.

Mike

From: burt reynolds

To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 5:05 PM

Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Alan Guiness/A Members Eye View of AA

Does anyone know anything about the man whose speech became the pamphlet

"A Member's Eye View of AA"?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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++++Message 1738. . . . . . . . . . . . Sam Shoemaker Obituary (1964)

From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/5/2004 8:08:00 AM

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January 1964 AA Grapevine

In Memory of Dr. Sam

by Bill

ON Thursday, October 31, 1963 Dr. Sam Shoemaker, the great Episcopal clergyman

few without whose ministration AA could never have been born in the first

place - nor prospered since.

From his teaching, Dr. Bob and I absorbed most of the principles that were

later embodied in the Twelve Steps of AA. Our ideas of self-examination,

acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harms done and working

with others came straight from Sam. Therefore he gave to us the concrete

knowledge of what we could do about our illness; he passed to us the spiritual

keys by which so many of us have since been liberated.

We who in AA's early time were privileged to fall under the spell of his

inspiration can never be the same again.

We shall bless Sam's memory forever.

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++++Message 1739. . . . . . . . . . . . Significant April Dates in AA History

- Revised

From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/6/2004 3:55:00 AM

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April 1:

1966 - Sister Ignatia died at the age of 77. She worked with Dr. Bob in

treating many early AA members at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron.

1984 - 12 Coconuts Group, Kapiolani Park, Waikiki, Hawaii, was founded.

[22]

April 3:

April 4:

who helped start the first AA group in St. Louis, had died at age 62.

April 7:

1941 - Ruth Hock reported there were 1,500 letters asking for help, as a

result of the Saturday Evening Post Article by Jack Alexander.

April 10:

1939 - The first ten copies of the Big Book arrived at the office Bill shared

with Hank Parkhurst in Newark, New Jersey.

April 11:

1938 - Alcoholic Foundation held its first meeting.

1939 - Marty Mann attended her first meeting a the home of Bill and Lois

Wilson in Brooklyn.

1941 - Bill and Lois Wilson moved into their new home, Stepping Stones.

April 12:

1942 - The Windsor Daily Star in Ontario, Canada, reported that over 400 AA's

attended a testimonial dinner for Dr. Bob.

April 16:

1940 - A sober Rollie Helmsley caught the only opening day no-hitter in

baseball history since 1909.

1973 - Dr. Jack Norris Chairman of the AA General Service Board, presented

President Richard Nixon with the one-millionth copy of the Big Book at the

White House.

April 17:

1941 - 2nd group in Los Angeles, the "Hole in the Ground Group" was formed.

April 19:

1940 - First AA group in Little Rock, Arkansas, was formed.

April 22:

1940 - Bill Wilson transferred his Works Publishing Stock to the Alcoholic

Foundation. The date on which Hank Parkhurst transferred his stock is

uncertain. See: Yahoo! Groups : AAHistoryLovers Messages : Message 75 of 1732

[23]

April 23:

Wilson insisted on them for Dr. Bob and Anne.

April 24:

1989 - Dr. Leonard Strong died. He was Bill's brother-in-law and an AA

Trustee.

April 25:

1951 - AA's first General Service Conference was held.

April 26:

1939 - Bill & Lois Wilson moved in with Hank Parkhurst after the bank

foreclosed on 182 Clinton St. This was the first of over 50 moves before they

acquired Stepping Stones.

April 30:

1989 - The film "My Name is Bill W.," a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation,

was broadcast at 9 p.m. on ABC TV.

Other April events for which we have no specific dates:

1940 - The "Texas Preamble" used to open meetings in Texas, was written by

Larry J. of Houston. See:

Yahoo! Groups : AAHistoryLovers Messages : Message 841 of 1732 [24]

1940 - The first AA pamphlet was published, entitled simply: "AA."

1958 - The word "honest" was dropped from "an honest desire to top drinking,"

in the AA Preamble.

1960 - Bill Wilson refused to be on the cover of Time Magazine.

1988 - Cybil C., the first woman member in Los Angeles and archivist, died.

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++++Message 1740. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodical Lit., REad, March 1945

From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/7/2004 7:15:00 AM

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Do You Drink Too Much?

A Professor of Psychology Tells Why PeopleDrink - and Offers Advice

By Peter J. Hampton

The moderate drinker avoids getting drunk. He does not seek intoxication. He

uses alcoholic beverages because he likes their taste and enjoys their

soothing effects. Occasionally he uses them also as a means of allaying

irritation and assuaging minor pains. Alcohol is not a necessity for the

moderate drinker. It constitutes only a small item in his budget.

More than half of the approximately 40,000,000 users of alcoholic beverages in

the United States fall into this category. They can take it or leave it alone,

for they have complete control over their drinking. This, more than anything

else, distinguishes the moderate from the habitual or intemperate drinker.

The habitual drinker uses alcohol almost every day but in view of his health

and tolerance for alcoholic beverages, he does not as a rule develop any

alcoholic disease. He indulges in alcohol for the lift he gets from it.

Alcohol breaks down his reserve and removes his inhibitions, and thus gives

him a chance to work up enthusiasm for social activities and self-expression.

Alcohol aids him, also, in covering up any neurotic faults he may have.

A credit manger for a retail store claims that drinking makes him a better

social companion and at the same time gives him a feeling of importance. "when

drinking," he says "I feel like 'a big shot' and have no worries."

An inspector of machine parts puts it this way: "Because of my backward and

timid nature, especially when I have to meet people, I take a few drinks to

bolster me up. I feel as though the only time I can assert myself is when I am

half drunk. I honestly believe that my being shy, timid, and having an

inferiority complex is the main reason for my drinking."

Unlike many of the 7,000,000 habitual drinkers, this inspector of machine

parts knows why he drinks. Knowing, he can help himself.

The neurotic drinker has to overcome his fear of people and things before he

can regain control over alcohol. The pleadings and prayers of others have no

effect on him. It is only when he shakes off his juvenile thinking and begins

to realize that peace, contentment, relaxation and happiness come from within

himself, and not from the inside of a beer glass, that he is on his way to

recovery from the bondage of liquor.

The remaining 3,000,000 users of alcoholic beverages in the United States,

grouped under intemperate drinkers, include the normal excessive drinkers,

symptomatic drinkers, stupid drinkers and alcoholic addicts. Recklessness,

exuberance and mistaken good fellowship are usually to blame for the

overindulgence of excessive drinkers. Many are individuals of high alcoholic

tolerance who could stop, but do not merely because there seems to be no

reason to do so.

The symptomatic drinkers are those individuals whose excessive drinking is the

result of a disturbed mental state. They may suffer from hysteria,

neurasthenia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, paranoia or manic depressive

psychosis. Their drinking is only one of the many debilitating symptoms of

their psychoneurotic or psy-chotic state.

Here is the story of a retail salesman who may be classified as a symptomatic

drinker:

"As nearly as I can remember," the salesman told me, "I began to drink heavily

in 1927. My average consumption of liquor per day then was two pints of hard

stuff. In 1930, I had my first bout with delirium tremens and was

hospitalized. When I got out, I resumed my drinking. During the next few years

I was under a doctor's care three or four times. In 1937 I married, more to

escape the family and be able to drink in peace than anything else....

"The courts got tired of seeing me and I was probated and sent to a mental

hospital. I stayed for thirty days and then got out on probation. Two months

later I was back at the hospital. This time I was placed in the strong ward

for incurables where I spent the next thirteen months. Thirty days after I was

let out, I was drunk once more. My wife got fed up with me and divorced me.

"My trips to the hospital continued, sometimes for delirium tremens, sometimes

for epileptic convulsions. Finally in September, 1943, I joined Alcoholics

Anonymous. I had my last drink on October 3, 1943, and haven't had the

slightest urge to drink since."

Our friend, of course, is far from saved, even though he has joined Alcoholics

Anonymous and has been sober for more than a year. A psychiatric examination

shows that he has the symptomatology of paranoia, psychasthenia and

schizophrenia, and, by his own admission, he has had epileptic convulsions.

His drinking is therefore symptomatic and not causative, and unless the cause

of his psychotic tendencies can be removed or ameliorated, he will at some

future time relapse into inebriety.

Stupid drinkers are the feeble-minded individuals who drink because they

cannot resist temptation and because they cannot rise to any higher form or

recreation than the passive one of intoxication. These are the unfortunate

individuals who, because of their low intelligence, cannot foresee the

consequences of their actions.

Finally, the alcoholic addict is a person with an uncontrollable craving for

alcohol. The outstanding criterion is the inability to break with the habit.

Alcohol serves the purpose of creating an artificial social and personal

adjustment.

A woman inspector at a watch-case factory tells this story: "At the time I

started to be a heavy drinker, I had become very discouraged, not having a

husband and a home of my own in which to rear my daughter. All the men I came

in contact with were heavy drinkers and I drank with them. I thought at the

time most men liked a woman who drank with them. I drank because my marriage

had been a failure."

A bond dealer adds: "It was difficult to live with myself. I was not an

upstanding citizen. I could not understand myself. I drank because of the

threat of divorce and because I was losing custody of my baby son."

From a social point of view, only the 3,000,000 intemperate drinkers

constitute a serious problem to society. The symptomatic drinkers and the

stupid drinkers, when detected, are as a rule hospitalized in state

institutions, with the result that society manages to keep them harmless. The

normal excessive drinkers, although troublesome at times, usually contain

themselves sufficiently to avoid being public hazards. The most pernicious and

the most dangerous of intemperate drinkers are the alcoholic addicts.

Unable to control their drinking, they will go to almost any length to satisfy

their craving for liquor. Although many of these people are likable and

intelligent, they often become dangerous to themselves and to others. Their

main difficulty lies in their absence of deep emotional responses, their

inability to profit from experience, and their disregard of social mores.

Between alcoholic sprees, they behave like perfectly normal people.

The inability of alcoholic addicts to profit from experience makes them

especially liable to asocial and antisocial deeds. The following excerpts,

taken from autobiographical sketches of alcoholic addicts in my files,

illustrate the point.

A district manager for a business concern writes: "When I was in high school,

I worked afternoons and Saturdays at a shoe store for $7 per week. Finding

that having money in my pocket all the time added to my popularity, I soon

began a system of petty thievery at the store."

A woman running a rooming house writes: "I gradually came to the point where

drink was the first thing in my mind. I would lie, steal and deceive to get

it. I became a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I treated my mother awful while under

the influence of liquor, but would do anything for her when sober. The same

thing with my daughter. I even thought of suicide to end the disgrace I was

causing my mother and daughter."

Within the last ten years, a group of alcoholic addicts, known as Alcoholics

Anonymous, have instituted a program of cure which has led many of these

people back to sobriety. In a recent study of the personality structure of

alcoholic addicts, I had an opportunity to question several hundred members of

Alcoholics Anonymous as to why they became heavy drinkers.

Many of the reasons offered are good reasons, but not necessarily the real

ones, for, like most other people, alcoholic addicts are past masters of the

art of rationalization. However, the consistency found in the statements

reveals a common trend which points to escape as perhaps the most fundamental

reason for excessive drinking.

The alcoholic addict may try to escape from himself. Drink makes him gay,

lively and happy. He forgets about his emotional immaturity, his feelings of

insecurity. He becomes noisy, even boisterous and defiant. He feels like "a

big shot" with no worries.

Instead of trying to escape from himself, the alcohol addict may try to escape

from other people. He may drink to escape the nagging of his wife, the

pettiness of domestic and business relations. Disappointed in his social and

financial ambitions, he may drink to escape all social responsibilities. He

may become depressed and morose and hides from people.

A manager for a construction company says: "I was unable to secure the

financial and social position I desired. I had an adolescent viewpoint-refused

to accept things as they were. I tried to find continued escape through

alcohol and hide my frustration."

Finally, the alcoholic addict may try to escape from the environment in which

he finds himself. He may use alcohol as a means to overcome the fears, worries

and anxieties brought on by the real world or as a straight defense mechanism

to substitute phantasy for all reality.

An advertising copywriter explains: "I used my first wife's desertion as an

excuse to drink. But I believe it was an effort to escape from all reality. I

drank because of boredom, frustration, anger and the weather."

A stenographer says: "I sought to find temporary escape from reality. Mother's

illness, which steadily grew worse until she was finally committed to a mental

hospital for senile dementia, made my life drab and miserable. I drank to