the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by tak-
ing a few drinks—drinks which they see others taking with
impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again,
as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving develops,
they pass through the well-known stages of a spree, emerg-
ing remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again.
This is repeated over and over, and unless this person can
experience an entire psychic change there is very little hope
of his recovery.

On the other hand—and strange as this may seem to those
who do not understand—once a psychic change has occurred,
the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so
many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly
finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol,
the only effort necessary being that required to follow a
few simple rules.

Men have cried out to me in sincere and despairing ap-
peal: "Doctor, I cannot go on like this! I have everything
to live for! I must stop, but I cannot! You must help me!"

Faced with this problem, if a doctor is honest with him-
self, he must sometimes feel his own inadequacy. Although
he gives all that is in him, it often is not enough. One feels
that something more than human power is needed to pro-
duce the essential psychic change. Though the aggregate
of recoveries resulting from psychiatric effort is consider-
able, we physicians must admit we have made little
impression upon the problem as a whole. Many types do
not respond to the ordinary psychological approach.

I do not hold with those who believe that alcoholism is
entirely a problem of mental control. I have had many
men who had, for example, worked a period of months on
some problem or business deal which was to be settled on
a certain date, favorably to them. They took a drink a day
or so prior to the date, and then the phenomenon of craving
at once became paramount to all other interests so that the