Spirit Against Spirit: How Carl Jung Inspired the Founding of AA

The origins of addiction therapy and its divergence from traditional therapy methods can be traced back to psychoanalysis and its founders, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Jung plays an especially important role, having treated a man unsuccessfully for alcoholism who would later meet Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) founder Bill Wilson. Both Freud and Jung would report frustration and lack of success in their attempts to treat addiction, particularly alcoholism, with current psychoanalytic methods, at that time in their infancy. 

In Jung’s case, he was visited by a wealthy American businessman and stockbroker in 1930 named Rowland Hazard for treatment of chronic alcoholism. Upon conclusion of treatment, Hazard immediately relapsed, and Jung was forced to give Hazard a grim medical assessment that he was ’psychologically and medically hopeless’ and that current scientific methods and medicine could not treat him. As harsh as this sounds, it was not untrue as talk therapy itself was in its infancy and addiction therapy especially not yet created, so there were truly no medical answers. Jung being the insightful and progressive thinker that he was, added a caveat that Hazard’s only remaining chance was to achieve a ‘vital spiritual experience’ that would completely reorganise his psyche. To achieve this he advised Hazard to place himself in a spiritual or religious environment. 

Hazard promptly joined ’The Oxford Group,’ a Christian spiritual movement popular at that time, where he met Ebby Tatcher, also an alcoholic and shared Jung’s suggestion of using a spiritual awakening to achieve sobriety. Ebby passed this advice onto his good friend Bill W, also a chronic alcoholic and one of AA’s founders, who promptly and famously had a spiritual awakening himself at Town’s Hospital; six months later AA was formed! 

26 years later, Bill W would write to Jung thanking him for his role in the formation of AA, which up until that point Jung was totally unaware that his former patient Hazard had been involved in or even that he had achieved sobriety at all. Jung quickly responded that he was very pleased to hear that his former patient had recovered and even more so that his work had inspired the creation of AA. He finished his letter with the famous Latin phrase ‘ spiritus contra spritum’ or ‘spirit against spirit.’ 

So how is all of this relevant to treating addiction today? Well it remains the case that modern psychological methods are famously ineffective at treating addiction. Whilst it can be difficult to assess the effectiveness of AA and other twelve-step programs as they do not keep statistics, they are generally considered to be more effective than conventional therapy, and unlike conventional therapy, are totally free. This is quite an achievement, as we learn more about the mind and have made great inroads into our ability to treat and identify mental disorders, a system developed in the 1930s by two Christian recovering alcoholics is still widely regarded as the most effective treatment for addiction.

Now, when Bill W and the founders of AA developed the AA program, their foundation later became based on 12 steps, which were designed to create a spiritual awakening in the same way that Jung had tried and failed to do so with Hazard. Jung admitted to having tried to ignite a spiritual awakening in Hazard, though acknowledged he could not force it through psychoanalysis, the patient had to wish to do so of their own free will and in a manner that resonated with them. Thus being Christians, the individuals chose Christian groups of their own liking and this had the desired effect. They would later acknowledge that any religious or spiritual program would suffice, they did not need to be Christians, thus opening treatment to the world. The values that were instilled in them through their spiritual awakening were of accountability and personal responsibility, community, service to others and making amends (apologising). The ‘service to others’ component inspired them in their mission to devote their lives to helping other addicts get well, in which they have been enormously successful to this day. 

Addiction is something that is tragically misunderstood despite it being one of the most prevalent psychological concerns of today. I believe it is very important that we understand the history of treating addicts and also the lessons of past medical and psychological successes and failures. As Jung demonstrated in his failed treatment of Hazard, a failure can be turned into an opportunity for growth depending on how it is received; this same process applies during addiction treatment when a patient relapses. They can either view relapse as a failure and excuse their continued use, or learn lessons from the parts that worked for them and the parts that failed, which ultimately lead them back to their addiction. 

If you walk into any rehab centre today, you would be very likely to encounter some level of inspiration from AA and the 12 step program, in fact, most centres will require attendance of at least one daily AA or NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting, usually two a day! Whilst AOD rehab centres are notoriously expensive, AA and NA group meetings are free and run by recovering addicts. This is the secret sauce of the program; it is run by people who have been through addiction, who continue to work on themselves and show up to meetings. It is not run by medical or psychological professionals and they do not market themselves or accept large donations of any kind. There is no profit motive for the program, and yet it exists in almost every city in the world. If you are located in any medium or above sized city, there is likely a meeting going on today in your local area, maybe multiple, and if that isn’t available, then there are meetings occurring online at every hour of the day somewhere in the world! 

Some people find attending meetings, particularly as a beginner intimidating or they have a preference for individual therapy. This certainly can still work although I would argue that keeping in mind the tried and tested methods of 12 step programs, along with current scientific evidence and methods, can assist the individual to achieve and maintain sobriety. It is also my anecdotal observation that addicts coming to recovery are very adverse to the spiritual component of the program. The founders of AA noted this and described addiction as a ’spiritual sickness ’; the person was usually disconnected not only from spirituality but also from humanity in general, usually being very isolated. Their assessment would be that this aversion to spirituality was part of the problem. Whether true or not, I have seen individuals get well without having a radical shift in their views on religion. It is enough to accept the ‘environment’ or ‘humanity’ or even ‘family’ as the basis for the spiritual basis of the program. 

As with all therapy, there is no one size fits all, and so working out how the individual can fit into and make use of the program to achieve sobriety is the most critical role an addiction therapist can play in their patient’s recovery. Exactly as Jung inspired Hazard to find a pathway to achieve sobriety without telling him exactly where, when and how to do it; the therapist can guide their patient using their knowledge of the twelve steps with current scientific and medical principles to help them achieve their goal of living a fulfilled and meaningful life free of the sickness of addiction.