April 12 in A.A. History

In 1946, at the regular meeting of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Association, three papers on alcoholism were presented, two of which were discussed.
    The first paper [right: 1st page], “The Problem of Alcoholism,” by Dr. Baldwin L. Keyes, began with the statement:

    The enormity of the problem presented by alcoholism staggers the imagination.… It has been shown that the cost of care for alcoholism in one year in the United States far exceeds $12,000,000 [~$140 million in 2025]… and exceeds two thirds of the cost of care of all bodily ills.

    The second paper [right: 1st page], “The Conditioned Reflex Treatment of Alcoholism,” by Dr. Walter L. Voegtlin, reported on the results of a specific aversion therapy that achieved a total abstinence rate of 51.5% for four or more years in a study of 1,526 patients conducted “before the war [World War II].”

    The third paper [far right: 1st page], “Alcoholics Anonymous,” by Dr. C. Nelson Davis, posed the question:

    “How does it [A.A.] work?” I do not know, nor have I heard a satisfactory explanation.

    Dr. Davis also briefly described six of the many mechanisms that make up “a composite of many fundamental principles of medicine, psychiatry, and religion,” as follows.

(1) Acceptance of alcoholism as a disease.…
(2) Friendship.…
(3) Personal contact.…
(4) Group therapy in open meetings.…
(5) Individual psychotherapy in closed meetings.…
(6) Stimulation of the ego.…

    Finally, he summarized the personal experiences of three members of the original A.A. group in Philadelphia:

    These members gave convincing and graphic accounts of their experiences in recovery achieved in connection with their associations in Alcoholics Anonymous. In its simplest form, the therapeutic situation includes (a) admission of alcoholism; (b) personality analysis and catharsis; (c) adjustment of personal relations; (d) dependence on some higher power, and (e) working with other alcoholic patients.

[Left:Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry Society Transactions, Vol. 57, where these papers can be found.]