ORIGIN OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
There’s an early AA history that precedes the AA history written in the book “Alcoholics Anonymous?” That earlier history began when a man named Rowland Hazard who was from a wealthy New York Textile family and a “chronic alcoholic” of the most hopeless description, visited Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). After already having visited several famous medical and psychiatric doctors in the United States without success, Rowland was referred to Sigmund Freud, a psychiatrist in Vienna, Austria. But, by the time Rowland arrived in Vienna, Hitler’s Gestapo was burning Sigmund’s books and he was preparing a move to England so he referred Rowland to another famous psychiatrist named Carl Gustav Jung who practiced in Zurich, Switzerland. Carl agreed to accept Rowland as his patient, but only after forewarning him that he (CGJ) had never before successfully treated a chronic alcoholic like him!
From the beginning of modern science (approximately 1730), medical doctors, psychologists and psychiatric doctors were of “like” opinion that chronic alcoholism was not treatable and they furthermore had no diagnosis for it or chronic drug addiction. After CGJ treated Rowland for a period of time he released him from his care, but RH only made it to Paris before he was drunk again and so he returned to Switzerland. CGJ told him, “Rowland you are going to die from your alcoholism, I have never yet seen an alcoholic of your description recover!” Rowland said, “Oh doctor is there no hope?” CGJ said, “I suggest you check yourself into an insane asylum, a monastery or hire a body guard to watch you 24 hours a day because if you continue to drink alcohol it will kill you!” But, before you go, I’m going to go “outside” of my profession and tell you what I believe is your correct diagnosis, “Your alcoholism is, but a symptom of a greater malady; that malady is spirit disharmony, it’s a soul sickness and the solution for it is to have a spiritual awakening. Although I’ve heard of such phenomenon whereby people experience a complete psychic change, I have never yet documented such a case and I do not know how to affect such a thing.”
Rowland returned to New York City desperate to buy a spiritual awakening and was directed to Dr. Samuel Shoemaker’s Episcopal Church at Gramercy Park, NY where Frank Buchman and the New York Oxford Group were meeting. When Rowland inquired of them, “Do you know how to have a spiritual awakening?” The OG members answered, “Yes,” we have a program of action and if it’s honestly followed, it can affect a spiritual awakening.
The Great Depression was still going on so Rowland paid some of the OG members to come with him to his father’s farm at Manchester, Vermont, he worked their steps, had a spirit awakening and got sober. The O.G.’s Sixth Step was: Continued work with others. Rowland heard the State of Vermont was about to sentence a man named Eby Thatcher to a life stay at their mental hospital for alcoholic insanity so Rowland and the OG members went to court and asked them to assign Eby to their custody. Eby worked the O.G. Steps and he too had a spiritual awakening. At that time, Rowland and Eby decided to work as volunteers at the soup kitchen at Brooklyn, NY and see if they could work the O.G. steps with the homeless people passing through there? It was while they worked at the soup kitchen that Eby said to Rowland, “I heard Bill Wilson’s alcoholism is getting really bad so I’m going to call on him.” This is where the book “Alcoholics Anonymous,” begins its history; when Eby Thatcher called on Bill Wilson. But, the history of AA most likely began when Rowland Hazard visited Carl Gustav Jung and discovered the “correct” diagnosis for alcoholism that was later used in Bill Wilson’s book “Alcoholics Anonymous.”
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