Stopping the Mental Argument to Surrender the Ego – John D.

About This Speaker Tape

A Catholic priest's life becomes a series of failed sanitariums and psychiatric labels—hopeless neurotic manic depressive schizophrenic—as he attempts to outrun a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. He navigates the prohibition era with bootleg liquor and a 'rationalizing mind' that keeps a door open for future drinking eventually hitting a bottom that involves shock treatments at the Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane. The turning point arrives not through the church or medicine but through a chance encounter with the Big Book and the humbling realization that he is a 'poor devil' among other drunks.

He trades the vanity of the priesthood for the kinship of the rooms discovering that sobriety requires a threefold rehabilitation of mind body and soul.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction to the purpose of sharing a qualification and the role of humor in recovery.
• 3:15 Early fear of alcoholism due to his father's history and the decision to abstain for only one year.
• 6:40 The New York City 'pamphlets' and the first highball during the end of prohibition.
• 10:12 First sanitarium stay in St. Louis and the 'hopeless neurotic' diagnosis.
• 15:30 The 'honey' of a letter from the Bishop sending him to the northern wilds of Wisconsin.
• 18:45 Laughter: The Gladstone bag filled with bottles and the trip to the Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane.
• 23:10 The 'bottom' and the realization that alcohol is the primary problem.
• 27:50 Discovering the Big Book in a patient's home during a sick call.
• 32:15 The struggle with vanity and the first meeting where he was 'hooked' as a new member.
• 37:40 Discussion on the threefold character of the disease: mind, body, and soul.
• 42:10 The failure of professionals to treat alcoholics by using fear instead of confidence.