Higher Solutions

Man being reasonable, must get drunk. The best of life is but intoxication, Lord Byron wrote in a description of his character Don Juan.

One aspect of the human condition is an awareness of our vulnerability. Perhaps it is this fearfulness of dying and depression which leads some to seek intoxication.

As individuals we are most clearly vulnerable. We all die. But as a people -- as a planet -- the vulnerability is more fearsome. If we kill the earth, does life end with it?

Is the Don Juan philosophy cited above truly reasonable? Or does intoxication blunt emotion and lead to individual and collective death, rather than "the best of life"?

The prospect of nuclear war seems dimmer these days, in light of Soviet glasnost and perestroika. Walls -- physical and psychological -- are coming down all around us.

One example locally is the 12-member delegation of Soviet narcologists and alcoholism counselors studying this semester at Sullivan County Community College (SCCC) in Loch Sheldrake, and living at Veritas Villa treatment center in Kerhonkson.

A recent four-hour session on February 8 provided an opportunity for the Soviets to explain their views on addictions treatment to students and faculty in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse counseling curriculum at the college.

A more extensive exchange of ideas has been occurring since the team arrived three weeks ago. They will continue to participate in classes and training at SCCC and Veritas Villa for the duration of this semester.

Soviet and American counselors have come to "reason together," in the words of the prophet Isaiah. Their united goal is to identify solutions that work overcome addiction, a problem which transcends political boundaries or walls made with human hands.

Historically, the Soviet approach to treating alcoholism has been pharmacologically and medically oriented, usually taking place in hospitals, in contrast to 12 step self-help groups popular in the U.S. like Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) or Narcotics Anonymous (N.A.)

Recently, however, under the leadership of the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, A.A. meetings have sprung up in the cities of Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and elsewhere. Although total A.A. membership in the Soviet Union is estimated at only about 400, the Russians are finding that the 12 steps work.

The movement was introduced there two years ago by American counselor Julia Stapleton, who was living in adjacent Finland.

At first glance, A.A. might seem inconsistent with the ideals of an officially atheistic nation like the U.S.S.R.

A.A.'s third step toward recovery states: "[We] made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him." And the 11th step states: [We] sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out" (italics in original).

Asked how Soviet atheists who follow these traditions understood God, Dr. Jacov Galprin, the leader of the Moscow delegation, reverently placed his hands -- palms down -- above his head and explained simply: "The higher power is the spirituality that unites us all, and in the face of which we are all brothers and sisters."

Amen, comrade.

The tour by the Soviet addiction experts of treatment and rehabilitation centers in Sullivan and Ulster counties not only helps the causes of science and international understanding. It also reminds us as individuals of our common frailties as humans, and of the compulsions which haunt society.

Let us together seek and obtain all that which is truly "the best of life."

-- Tom Rue, contributing editor

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