U.S. Exporting Spiritual Tyranny (2)

[Guest guest]

Last year Jack Trimpey informed that, " I know that by 1975, the U.S. Navy

was the single largest purchaser of The Big Book. " With that in mind, let

me continue to quote from the March-April issue of the magazine,

" Alcoholism " ; the entire issue was dedicated to " A Salute to the Military. "

We learned that Navy treatment was founded in coercion from the beginning,

Captain Zuska himself using the term " enforced. " The following quotes come

from an article titled " Of Myths and Neanderthals " by Captain Steve

Chappell, the commanding officer of the school which trains navy CDC's:

" My purpose is to address a potpourri of what I consider to be myths in the

field of alcoholism recovery perpetuated by neanderthal thinking.

Contrary to one of the existing myths of treatment, much of what happens in

the US Navy treatment programs is transferrable to the civilian world. In

fact, many civilian EAP programs and treatment centers are based on some

variant of the Navy's program.

The Navy became involved in alcoholism treatment in 1965 with the opening of

the treatment service at the Naval Hospital, Long Beach, CA. The Naval

Alcoholism Recovery and Training Center in San Diego has been in the

business of alcoholism treatment, training, and prevention since 1973 and, I

feel, has a wealth of valuable information applicable to the civilian

treatment community.

People only commence recovery in a treatment center; they get well in AA.

Counselors, especially non-alcoholics, need to see the well side of their

patients, not just the sick side they see in treatment. Recovering

alcoholic counselors need to attend Al-Anon to learn how to let go of their

patients with love and to understand how the disease of alcoholism really

affects the family.

Fourth Myth: This involves the spiritual aspect of AA and NA. There are

numerous alcoholism and drug addiction recovery centers/hospitals which

regard clergy, ministers and priests as visitors and not as professional

members of the recovery team. Here at our facility, our eleven-year

experience has shown a very real need for a spiritual program, as well as a

need to have clergy on the staff. Our two chaplains have proved invaluable

both in our treatment program and our training department. They not only

function in a traditional chaplain's role and fill in as group counselors as

needed but, most importantly they conduct spirituality workshops for the

recovering alcoholics. Another prime task is to conduct outreach work in

the community, particularly in the area of educating fellow clergy on the

disease of alcoholism.

The world-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung, in his treatment of Ebby T.

finally realized that standard psychiatric therapy could not cure

alcoholism. Dr. Jung came to believe that 'vital spiritual experiences'

were the only hope for the treatment of alcoholics.

I am by no means preaching church or organized religion, but I am preaching

the need for a deep involvement in a spiritually-based program. For

alcoholism counselors who have not read the Big Book, AA Comes of Age, or

Dr. Bob and the Oldtimers, I strongly recommend that you do now. Not

reading them and working in this field is akin to being an MD without ever

having read Grey's Anatomy.

Step to the head of the neanderthal line with your bag of myths if you

really believe that it is you, the counselor, your facility, or your

counselling degree that gets people sober and keeps them sober.

Finally-Closing Thoughts: AA and the Big Book talk about sharing strengths,

hopes and experiences. That is what I have intended to do in this

article--to share the strengths, hopes and experiences of the Naval Alcohol

Rehabilitation and Training Center at San Diego. I do not, nor can I, speak

for the other Navy treatment centers, nor would I expect them to agree with

everything I have said. But I do know, and can unequivocally state, that AA

and spirituality are the foundation for the Navy treatment program. "

The next quotes come from an article titled " The Toughest School in the

Country " by Lt. C. , Public Affairs Officer:

" Emblazoned on the classroom entrance of the Institute in Substance Abuse

Studies (ISAS) is the motto, 'Through this door pass the world's finest

Alcoholism Treatment Specialists. "

Since 1974, the Training Department of the Naval Alcohol Rehabilitation

Center (ARC), San Diego, has graduated over 600 paraprofessional alcoholism

counselors. Course attendees have included service men and women from the

Navy, Army, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard as well as Department of Defense

civilian employees. Military and civilian personnel come to ISAS from

England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

ARC's staff includes health care professionals and paraprofessional

alcoholism counselors. Most are ISAS graduates, including the commanding

officer, Captain F. Chappell, and the executive officer, Commander

Sid Schneider. Captain Chappell assumed command in September 1983, when he

graduated from ISAS as an alcohol treatment intern (ATI).

Reflecting back on his experiences in ISAS, Captain Chappell said, 'The

school was personally--not from an academic standpoint, but personally--the

toughest thing I've ever done, without exception. I can think of nothing

else--not flight training, survival school--nothing, nothing else relates to

ISAS. And I wouldn't trade the experience for all the money that somebody

could pay me. "

Now I will return to the article, " AA 12th-Steps the Armed Services " , by

Captain ph J. Zuska, from which I quoted in my previous post:

" At this time, about 15 percent of the patients voluntarily sought admission

and the remainder were ordered in by their commanders. However, we signed a

policy directive on 1 March 1982 which declared alcoholism to be a 'disease,

illness, or condition' and directed that treatment and education programs be

initiated throughout the armed forces. Senator Harold (D) Iowa,

chairman of the Special Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Narcotics,

conducted a series of hearings on drug dependence and alcoholism in the

military which undoubtedly motivated the services to examine their problems.

All the above served to spur a crescendo of interest in alcoholism as a

treatable illness that causes suffering and needless waste of resources.

I noted just before my retirement that an exciting phenomenon was taking

place. As patients left our Center, I would later learn that many of them

had started AA meetings in such out-of-the-way places as Rota, Spain; Adak,

AK; Guam; Japan; and Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands. We placed small

flags on a wall map whenever we learned of one of these " drydocks " springing

up and soon there were many of them. It was obvious that a chain reaction

of health was occurring. Sailors and officers were sharing their new-found

sobriety with others and many individuals were recovering all over the

world. "

Now I will add one final quote from this March-April issue of the Magazine,

" Alcoholism. " It comes from the introductory article, " Salute to the

Military. " Considering what you have read so far, imagine the gall of them

using the word, " recommendation " :

" The military has the hammer, a recommendation not followed can bring

adverse results--reduction in pay, reduction in rank and restrictions. As a

result, they are able to get results. The military's level of success with

clients in maintaining sobriety or staying clean meets and exceeds that of

any program in the private sector. 'We are over-aggressive perhaps in

putting people in treatment' one military counselor told us. 'About five

percent are returned to their companies without being treated, but we hold

that it is better you are here by mistake than not here by mistake.' "

I will close this post with two short questions to the military and then a

quote from C.S. : If you have the hammer, then why must you rape their

souls? Why must you expropriate the earnings of my arduous labor to finance

the exporting of your spiritual tyranny to other countries?

" Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims

may be the most oppressive...but those who torment us for our own good will

torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own

conscience...Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult...To be

'cured' against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as

disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age

of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles,

and domestic animals. But to be punished, however severely, because we have

deserved it, because we 'ought to have known better', is to be treated as a

human person made in God's image...And when they are wicked the Humanitarian

theory of punishment will put in their hands a finer instrument of tyranny

than wickedness ever had before...The new Nero will approach us with the

silky manners of a doctor, and though all will be in fact as compulsory as

the tunica molesta or field or Tyburn, all will go on within the

unemotional therapeutic sphere where words like 'right' and 'wrong' or

'freedom' and 'slavery' are never heard...Even if the treatment is painful,

even if it is life-long, even if it is fatal, that will be only a

regrettable accident; the intention was purely therapeutic...But because

they are 'treatment, not punishment, they can be criticized only by

fellow-experts and on technical grounds, never by mem as men and on grounds

of justice...But we ought long ago to have learned our lesson. We should be

too old now to be deceived by those humane pretensions which have served to

usher in every cruelty of the revolutionary period in which we live. These

are the 'precious balms' which will 'break our heads'. "

C.S.

" The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment "

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