Fr. Bill Wigmore
CEO of Austin Recovery

In January 1961, a set of letters was exchanged between Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and the eminent, Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung. Wilson wrote first, telling Jung of the providential chain of events that had led to the formation of A.A. and of the crucial role Jung, unknowingly, had played in the fellowship’s birth. Jung had diagnosed a wealthy alcoholic patient of his, by the name of Rowland Hazard, as clinically “hopeless.” He told his distraught patient that he was unlikely to benefit from any further psychoanalytic treatment and that his only chance for recovery now lay in his achieving “a spiritual or religious experience – in short, a genuine conversion.” Upon his return to New York, Rowland joined the Oxford Group “an evangelical movement,” then known as “a First Century Christian Fellowship.” The group had already sobered up other alcoholics through its radical, spiritual practices that Wilson later codified into the 12 Steps of A.A . Rowland found his sobriety through the Group and then helped Ebby Thatcher, who in turn carried the spiritual message of recovery to his old drinking buddy Bill Wilson. The rest, as they say, is history.

A new book titled, “The War of the God’s in Addiction” has just been published. Written by Jungian therapist David E. Schoen, it explores and brilliantly analyzes Jung’s written response to Bill W. His new book is “must reading” for any therapist working with addicted patients and unafraid to go where angels often fear to tread. Schoen notes that Jung penned his response just a few short months before he died and candidly admitted to Wilson his initial hesitancy to share with Rowland the full nature of his beliefs regarding his patient’s condition. Jung had feared for his professional reputation but said he was now willing to share his views with Wilson because of his “descent and honest letter” and because of the enlightened point of view Bill’s letter had expressed. Jung then laid out the facts as he saw them. He said that Rowland’s “craving for alcohol, was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.” Then he added a footnote referencing Psalm 42: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”

Jung went on to tell Bill the three paths that he believed could lead an alcoholic such as Rowland to wholeness and recovery. He said, “You might be led to that goal by an act of grace (#1) or through a personal and honest contact with friends (#2), or through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism (#3).” Jung then warned his reader of the great spiritual battle that he knew lay ahead for Rowland or for anyone seeking escape from addiction. “An ordinary man, not protected by an action from above and isolated in society, cannot resist the power of evil, which is very aptly called the Devil…. You see, ‘alcohol’ in Latin is spiritus, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum (spirit fighting against spirits).”

The author then follows Jung’s thought deep into the psychic black hole from which few addicts escape without divine help. He sees the addict as being taken hostage at the level of his soul by what he calls, “the Archetypal Shadow / Archetypal Evil.” Schoen takes his readers on a journey into the hopeless psyche of the truly addicted and ultimately affirms Jung’s belief that only God has the power to overcome the all-pervading evil power that is addiction. As a strong 12 Step proponent, Schoen connects Jung’ three way path with the very same healing elements an addict finds on his12-Step recovery journey. The “act of grace” appears when the addict hits bottom and a fundamental shift occurs in his ordinary ego consciousness. Realizing through the felt psychic shock and pain of Step One - that he cannot save himself - his ego is “relativized in relation to the Self;” or, as Steps Two and Three bluntly put it, the ego is finally ready to turn to God for its source of help.

The second way Jung saw recovery possible was through “personal and honest contact with friends.” Schoen describes this as “the fellowship aspect of A.A.” He notes that, “What strikes most people about an A.A. meeting is the level of direct, honest, and personal sharing that goes on in the most loving and non-judgmental way. The loneliness, alienation, and self-loathing of most alcoholics, finds in the fellowship of A.A. a level of acceptance and caring and friendship never experienced before.”

The third way to recovery Jung said is “through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism.” This is achieved, Schoen points out, by “working the Twelve Steps, having a sponsor, and reading the literature, especially the Big Book of A.A. This is also one of the avenues he (Jung) sees as available to achieve the ‘union with God’ that leads to the successful arresting of addiction.”

Over my many years in the field, I’ve watched thousands of addicts die from the wounds inflicted by chronic alcohol and drug addiction. But it’s also been my privilege to watch thousands of others recover by following the spiritual path Jung helped blaze many years ago. To call the battle of addiction “spiritual warfare” is to name it rightly. An addict battles with forces that are truly diabolic and far beyond his ability to withstand. Without God’s help, as the Big Book says, “… it is too much for us.” David Schoen gives his readers a long awaited, psychic map that can point sufferers toward recovery and away from the very gates of hell. This is a service to the addiction treatment field for which he rightly deserves our thanks and his book deserves to be widely read.