By Charles Fox who is a professor of psychology at Worcester State University in Massachusetts.
“From Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual-aid fellowship with more than 2 million members worldwide. It strives to help members ‘stay sober and other alcoholics achieve sobriety’. Despite the fact that studies of its efficacy have been inconsistent, AA has had a significant and long-term effect on the culture of the United States and one of its founders was among Time magazine’s most important people of the 20th century.
One little-known aspect of the history of this enormously popular therapy, and a testament to the interdisciplinary nature of health and wellness, is the influence of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.
AA was founded in 1935 by William Wilson (Bill W) and Robert Smith (Dr Bob) in Akron, Ohio. Years later, Wilson wrote to Jung acknowledging his ‘critical role in the founding of our Fellowship’. Jung’s unusual influence came largely through his unsuccessful treatment of Rowland Hazard, an investment banker and former state senator from Rhode Island who, in the late 1920s, found himself slipping ever deeper into uncontrollable drinking. In Wilson’s words, Hazard had ‘exhausted other means of recovery from his alcoholism’ when he consulted Jung.