This is the 2nd chapter of my book, "REBP--A Simple Psychoanalysis for Anger and Addictions" outlining how the REB Psychoanalysis therapy evolved, (the 1st chapter being my story on how I discovered it):

The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher power of mind will be set free for their own proper work.

– William James, Principles of Psychology (1890)

Psychotherapy is an approach or set of techniques that attempts to help people who are suffering from psychological problems. It is an interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living. As such talk-therapy is usually an integral part of psychotherapy.

Anna O. and Dr. Breuer’s Theory on Hysteria

The systematic approach of talk-therapy to help people suffering from psychological disorder began with the case of Anna O., a patient of the physician Joseph Breuer from 1880 to 1882. Anna O. spent much of her life nursing her ailing father. When she was twenty one years old her father died and she began refusing food, lost the feeling in her hands and feet, developed some paralysis, began having involuntary spasms and even stopped drinking water for sometime. Specialists, when consulted could not find any physical causes for her problems. She also had fairy tale fantasies, dramatic mood swings and made several suicide attempts. Dr. Breuer's diagnosed her as suffering from hysteria, which meant that she had symptoms that appeared to be physical, but were not.

Breuer used to make her comfortable and encouraged her to talk about herself. She would explain her daytime fantasies and other experiences, and felt better afterwards. Once she recalled seeing a woman drink from a glass that a dog had just drunk water from. She expressed her feelings of extreme disgust and then asked for some water. Her symptom of not drinking water disappeared as soon as she remembered its root event, and experienced the strong emotion that would be appropriate for that event. And, her symptoms started disappearing one after the other. Anna O. used to call Br Breuer’s therapy a “talking cure”. She later went on to become Germany’s first woman social worker.

Dr. Breuer theorized that ‘hysteria’ is a result of some traumatic experience, one that cannot be integrated with the person’s understanding of the world. The emotions appropriate to the trauma are not expressed in any direct fashion; these emotions however, do not just evaporate but instead get expressed in behavior that seems abnormal. When the client becomes aware of the meaning of her symptoms, either by simply talking or by being made aware of it by the analyst or therapist, the unexpressed emotions are released and so no longer need to express themselves as symptoms. While talking the client may remember the root event and experience the emotions strongly – crying, laughing aloud, or even expressing it in some other dramatic fashion. Breuer called this ‘catharsis’, from the Greek word for cleansing. In 1992 Breuer published his findings in his book “Studies on Hysteria.” Freud was the co-author of the book.[1]

Psychoanalysis

A decade later, Freud started the first professional talk-therapy, calling it psychoanalysis. In all talk-therapies usually much ‘catharsis’ or cleansing occurs when the client shares his story. In psychoanalysis, in addition, the psychoanalyst analyses what his client says based on a set of theories explaining the meaning of his or her remaining symptoms, to make a diagnosis. In 1908 a group of physicians that regularly met to discuss psychoanalysis formed the "Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society" and in 1910 the “International Psychoanalytical Association” was formed in Nuremberg with Carl Jung as its first president. Psychoanalysis was soon recognized as a scientific discipline and as a therapeutic approach. The next few decades, psychoanalysis being the only recognized therapy, all psychotherapy was referred to as psychoanalysis or analysis.

Oxford Group

In 1908, Dr. Frank Buchman, an ex-Lutheran minister started a revolutionary Christian movement in England based on his understanding of early Christianity. He called it the “First Century Christian Fellowship” which later became famous as the Oxford Group. The program of the Oxford Group consisted of a combination of three psychotherapy approaches – a talk-therapy, a relaxation therapy of meditation, and group therapy. On reading their books I realized that although the Oxford Group program was based on the principles of psychotherapy, it was worded in such a way so as to reconcile its humanistic psychology with the sayings in the Bible. What William James referred to as the “higher power of mind” was for them a personal God within themselves. He was their friend who accompanied them and gave them directions. Buchman called it the living Christ and viewed Him as the “Spirit of Love for all men.” “Sin” for them was ‘anything that keeps us away from this God and from one another.’[2] The psychotherapy in their program enabled them to live a happy and a peaceful life. But, they used this as a bait to fulfill their mission of converting others to the way of Christ. Thus it became a kind of a religious cult and soon folded up. The Oxford Group is a classic example of how psychology and psychotherapy has been used by some people in the past to form their religious cults and religions.

The Oxford Group program consisted of their Four Spiritual Activity Steps: Sharing, Surrender, Restitution and Guidance.[3] “Sharing” was basically sharing or talking over with another person about their life, along with their mistakes and wrongs. This not only brought about a ‘catharsis’ but also enabled them to understand themselves better and also see how their pride and self-centeredness was coming in their way of getting along in harmony with others. “Sin” for them was anything that was an obstacle between them and their God—the “Spirit of Love”—and other people. “Surrender” was the letting go of their “Sin” or self-centeredness which was brought about by the practice of the next two steps. “Restitution” was the restoration of their relationships back to what they had been before getting spoilt or the righting of their wrongs. This was done by acknowledging their faults to the people concerned and to pay back, by apology or in kind if necessary, that which had been taken from them. The understanding they gained from others as a result of it, brought much serenity into their lives. “Guidance” was their daily meditation, wherein they sat for an hour of “quiet time” stilling their minds to receive guidance from within. They also shared about their past defects and the changes in their lives after joining the Oxford Group, to groups of people at their meetings. This not only attracted people to their way of life but also served as a sort of a group therapy for them.

The Four Activity Steps were also called the 5 ‘C’s which are explained in detail in “Soul Surgery”[4] a book popular with the Oxford Group people in the 1920s. This book was their guide book for converting people over to Christ. Confidence and Confession, the first two ‘C’s was the “Sharing” step. In order to get a person to talk about himself, he has to have confidence in the listener. The book gives valuable practical suggestions on gaining his confidence. Among other things it talks about respect or unconditional positive regard, empathy and genuineness—the three qualities that Carl Rogers, the founder of counseling therapy regarded as essential in a psychotherapist. The chapter on Confession also gives some valuable tips on getting the person to talk fully about himself. Conviction, the third ‘C’, is the “Surrender” step, where after the Sharing one feels disgusted with his self-centeredness and defects and is convinced that they must be got rid of. The next ‘C’, “Conversion” is brought about by the Restitution and Guidance Activity-steps. And the final ‘C’, Conservation is brought about by Guidance and Sharing at their group meetings. Although this book was difficult for a non-Christian like me to read, I found the practical suggestions in “Soul Surgery” very helpful.

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers began his career as a theology student. After his trip to China in 1922, for an international Christian conference, he started to doubt his religious convictions. Coincidentally, the Oxford Group was quite popular in China at that time, Frank Buchman, Sam Shoemaker and others having worked extensively for the Oxford Group in China. Soon Rogers left the Seminary and obtained his PhD in Psychology in 1931.

In 1940 Carl Rogers was offered a full professorship at The Ohio State University. In spite of that, psychiatrists refused to accept him as a psychotherapist, as the State of New York in 1927 had made the practice of psychotherapy by non-medical professionals illegal and the American Medical Association had asked its members to stay away from lay-analysts[5]. He rebelled against this by publishing in 1942 his book Counseling and Psychotherapy: Newer Concepts in Practice. In it he coined the term counseling and pioneered the move away from traditional psychoanalysis. He maintained that the client was in a better position than the therapist to understand himself and make his own diagnosis. He suggested that the client, by establishing a relationship with an understanding, accepting therapist, can resolve difficulties and gain the insight necessary to restructure their life. He viewed the role of the therapist as that of a caring helper who listens empathetically. Rogers called it the non-directive therapy but later changed it to client-centered and person-centered psychotherapy.

Today the term “counseling” is used interchangeably with psychotherapy. In the last fifty years a number of psychotherapies, Cognitive, REBT and Gestalt among others, have been developed to address specific needs. Many of them are used in conjunct with person-centered psychotherapy. However none of them seem to have adequately addressed the Emotional Intelligence problem. There seems to be no psychotherapy to directly deal with our emotions, especially anger and hatred. The therapies that have shown some degree of success in dealing with emotional problems require many sessions to be effective. Because of this majority of the clients discontinue their therapy half way through.

Rowland Hazard’s Brief Therapy

During the 1930s a therapy was developed specifically to bring about an emotional rearrangement. It was a brief therapy and did not require many sessions, that people with emotional problems find difficult to attend. However it was practiced under the aegis of a religious organization and failed to get the scientific attention that it deserved. It flourished while it was directed by the physician Robert Smith, also known as Dr. Bob. However later on the therapy remained in the hands of alcoholics and addicts and soon got corrupted, loosing its efficacy.

Rowland Hazard III (Rowland H.), grand son of the founder of the alkali industry in America and a Yale graduate, was a businessman from a prominent Rhode Island family involved in the foundation and executive leadership of a number of well-known companies. Rowland's struggles with alcoholism finally led him to seek consultation with Carl Jung in Switzerland around the year 1930. In spite of undergoing psychoanalysis under him for a number of months Rowland found that he could not quit drinking. Dr. Jung told Rowland that his only hope lay in having what people call ‘vital spiritual experiences.’ A ‘spiritual experience’ is a vague term and is not used by men of science and doctors. So Carl Jung immediately explained to Rowland what he meant by the term ‘vital spiritual experiences’ in a scientific language, “To me these occurrences (spiritual experiences) are phenomena. They appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements. Ideas, emotions and attitudes which were once the guiding forces of the lives of these men are suddenly cast to one side, and a completely new set of conceptions and motives begin to dominate them. In fact, I have been trying to produce some such emotional rearrangement within you. With many individuals the methods which I employed are successful, but I have never been successful with an alcoholic of your description. ”[6]

After a few years Rowland H. joined the Oxford Group. With the help of their program he managed to quit drinking. He added the psychoanalytic tool of inventory writing to the Four Activity Steps of the Oxford Group and with this program helped a number of alcoholics to quit drinking. One of them Ebby Thatcher helped the founder of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement with Rowland’s program. This is the program that I have found to be the most effective psychotherapy for our emotional problems, mood and personality disorders, as well as for addictions. I have called this therapy program as the REB Psychoanalysis or REBP to honor the memory of Rowland, Ebby and Dr Bob and myself.

Anthony de Mello’s Theory

A century after Breuer and Freud proposed their theory on hysteria Anthony de Mello S. J. while directing the therapy at the 1985-86 classes held at the Sadhana Institue in Lonavla, India, proposed an analogous theory. He said:

“If you take a look at the way you have been put together and the way you function you will find that inside your head there is a whole programme, a set of demands about how the world should be, how you should be and what you should want.

“Who is responsible for the programming? Not you.

“It isn’t really you who decided even such basics as your wants and desires and so-called needs; your values, your tastes, your attitudes.

“It was your parents, your society, your culture, your religion, your past experiences who fed the operating instructions into your computer.

“Now, however old you are or wherever you go, your computer goes along with you and is active and operating at each conscious moment of the day, imperiously insisting that its demand be met by life, by people and by you.

“If the demands are met the computer allows you to be peaceful and happy. If they are not met, even though it be through no fault of yours, the computer generates negative emotions that cause you to suffer…

“Then you spend a lot of energy coping with these negative emotions.

“And you generally cope by expending more energy trying to rearrange the world around you so that the demands of your computer are met.

“If that happens you will be granted a measure of precarious peace; precarious because at any moment some trifle (a delayed train, a tape recorder that doesn’t work, a letter that doesn’t arrive — anything) is going to be out of conformity with your computer’s programming and the computer will insist that you become upset again.

“And so you live a pathetic existence, constantly at the mercy of things and people, trying desperately to make them confirm to your computer’s demands, so that you can enjoy the only peace you can ever know, a temporary respite from negative emotions, courtesy of your computer and your programming.”[7]

This theory seems to explain why Carl Jung had said that ideas, attitudes and emotions, all three needed to be changed. Right from childhood we start gathering ideas and beliefs from those around us, especially from those we respect and love. And each one of us develops his own set of beliefs based on which he thinks and feels accordingly. One of the main reasons why each one of us thinks, feels and behaves differently is because the set of ideas and beliefs vary from individual to individual.

The habitual way of perceiving and thinking, the mental set or mind-set, is what is known as attitude. And it is our habitual way of perceiving people, things and events, and not our present thinking, that initiates our emotional responses. In order to bring about an emotional rearrangement, we would have to change our ideas and beliefs that we have gathered in the past, especially the ones that generate troublesome emotions. REBP enables us to look into our self-defeating ideas and beliefs and replaces them with life-enhancing ones.

But Therapy Doesn’t Work!

A number of different psychotherapies have been developed since Carl Rogers pioneered the shift away from psychoanalysis and started the counseling movement. A supportive relationship is essential in all counseling and psychotherapy. However psychotherapists have their own problems, which they can bring into the therapy sessions and hamper the therapeutic relationship. They have their own needs, such as the need for social companionship, for recognition and prestige, for security, for teaching, for being helpful, or the need to solve personal problems. When counselors or therapists bring their needs into the session, as it quite often happens, the therapy is often ineffective. Another major problem is that many therapists tend to be authoritative, which harms the therapeutic relationship.

In the mid-50s the American Psychoanalytic Association conducted a study on 1269 psychoanalytic cases treated by its members. They found that of those originally accepted for treatment barely one in six were cured.[1] For Jeffrey Mason, author of the book Against Therapy, it is clear that with many therapists the therapeutic situation served their needs as much as, or more than, the needs of the so called patients, and for this reason he thought that therapy per se was impossible, that this is why the figures showing the inefficacy of psychoanalysis had to be right. Mason also discusses ‘Sandor Ferenczi’s secret diary’ published in 1985, more than fifty years after his death. Ferenczi, a member of the inner circle of psychoanalysis, too had his doubts about the therapeutic relationship, to the point of even considering a variant, namely ‘mutual analysis,’ in which the patient analyzes the therapist at the same time that the therapist is analyzing the patient.[2]

REBP: A Universal Program for Emotional Learning

REBP is a universal program that can be used by anyone to modulate our emotions, to have balanced emotions and to overcome emotions that debilitate us—‘control our emotions,’ the term I have often used in this book. REBP is so simple that it can be learnt by everyone. A person can teach his friends and acquaintances. Parents and teachers can teach it to their children. And even children, who have learnt it from this book or from others, can teach it to their parents or teachers. And once it is learned, the REBP inventory can be used to confront and help one another when one gets emotionally disturbed or his moods turn sour—when one is controlled by his emotions and can’t think straight.

The REBP inventory is a powerful psychoanalytical aid that has proved its efficacy in the treatment of one of the most complicated personality disorders—substance use disorder, such as alcoholism and drug addiction. As such, it can also be used by psychotherapists as a part of their therapy, especially in cases of mood and personality disorders, where conventional therapies are ineffective. By analyzing themselves with REBP, therapists would also be helped in overcoming their need to be authoritative and their other needs, thus improving the therapeutic relationship with their clients. People in the 12 Step fellowships can also use it as a part of their 12 Step program to help their members; and also to confront and help each other in their daily interactions.

REBP begins with a sharing session, which is aided by a written inventory. The inventory can be written on our own, or one can be guided through it by another person or a counselor. The REBP inventory helps us to control our anger and overcome resentments. Then, we share it with another person to sort out the resentments that might still linger in spite of writing the inventory, and to discuss how we can set right the problems that our past anger may have caused in our relationships and other areas of our lives. We have the choice of sharing our inventory with either the person who has guided us in writing our inventory or some other person whom we can trust and confide in. The inventory has been explained in Chapter Five and the details of the sharing process in Chapter Six. After the sharing session, we learn a meditation technique, which is explained in Chapter Seven, that helps us in reducing our fears. The REBP inventory can be used in our daily lives whenever we get angry, or when our lives start becoming unmanageable. The way to use the inventory and meditation in our daily lives is explained in Chapter Eight. Chapter Three has been written for those following the 12 Step programs, such as AA and NA. It explains why they need to start with the inventory as soon as possible to get relief from their specific problem. Others can, if they wish, skip the chapter and go on to Chapter Four where we discuss the connection between the neurophysiological aspects of emotions and the REBP.

When we are prey to our emotions, it becomes difficult for us to think clearly and we tend to make mistakes, we say inappropriate things, our judgment falters and we make irresponsible decisions. The result is that our relationships suffer and our life starts becoming unmanageable. REBP helps us to calm our raging emotions. It thus also helps us to become reasonable, and improves our attitude and relationships with others. Saint Thomas Aquinas believed that everyone has the potentiality to act in a reasoned way, which would lead to a moral life; there was, for him, no difference between being rational and being moral.[3] REBP helps us to be more rational and lead a moral life.

An Analysis of AA & NA by Rajiv B (ex-RD/Representative of Narcotics Anonymous, India Region)

© 2008 Rajiv Bhole

I have been helping many addicts and alcoholics with the original AA program for a number of years now. The original program is a highly effective therapy that can be completed in just a few hours. What could have been the reasons for changing it into the 12 Steps and what had gone wrong with the 12 Step programs were questions that bothered me for a long time. For only in knowing the mistakes committed over the years, can they be corrected. After much research on the subject, the following is my analysis of what went wrong with the 12 Step programs.

We have discussed in Chapter 2 about the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung and Rowland H. Dr. Jung had informed Rowland that the solution to his alcohol addiction problem lay in bringing about some huge emotional displacements and rearrangement in him. And also, that the occurrences or phenomena that appear to be in the nature of huge emotional displacements and rearrangements are called “vital spiritual experiences” in general, by the common men. A few years later, Rowland joined the spiritual fellowship of the Oxford Group. By following Oxford Group’s Four Activity Steps of Sharing, Surrender, Restitution and Guidance or by adding the meditation/guidance and the restitution steps to the psychoanalysis he had already undergone with Carl Jung, Rowland was able to quit drinking. Rowland added the psychoanalytical tool of writing an inventory to the Sharing step of the Activity-Steps and started helping alcoholics that came to the Oxford Group in New York for help.

In the summer of 1934 Ebby Thacher was on the verge of commitment to the Vermont Asylum for the Insane on account of his drinking. Rowland and fellow recovered alcoholics Shep Cornell and Cebra Graves sought out Ebby and shared with him their Oxford Group recovery experiences. Rowland helped Ebby recover with their Four Step program. By late 1934, William G Wilson (Bill W.), a drinking buddy of Ebby, was on the verge of total alcoholic collapse. In December while Bill was just two or three days sober, Ebby paid a visit to him in hospital and took him through their four-step program[1]. Since then Bill started staying sober in the Oxford Group.

Bill tried to help other alcoholics to recover in New York, without any success till he met Dr Robert H. Smith (Dr. Bob), while on a visit to Akron Ohio. After Ebby took Bill through their four step program, Bill seems to have had a reaction to the belladonna cure (belladonna and morphine in high dose causes hallucination) that he was being administered. And Bill believed the white light mountain-top experience he had had was God appearing to him[2]. The hallucination might have also made him forget about the four steps Ebby had taken him through. This may have been the reason that Bill was unable to help the alcoholics. Dr Bob, already an Oxford Group member, got the opportunity to confide and share his past with someone and make the restitutions, which he had been unable to do till he met Bill. This helped Dr. Bob to get sober in June 1935.

Dr. Bob and Bill then started helping other alcoholics in Akron and New York. In February 1937 when Bill visited Akron he found that about 12 alcoholics had started staying sober. Nine months later over 40 alcoholics had sobered up. Seeing the progression of recoveries they realized that a “chain reaction” had started and “Conceivably it could one day circle the whole world….” Bill thought of setting up a chain of profit-making hospitals, paid missionaries, fund raising and writing a book to carry the message of recovery to other cities and countries. So they had a meeting with 18 members to discuss the matter. It was a long, hard fought session. But together, Dr. Bob and Bill were able to persuade the others and the majority agreed to the whole package.[3]

As we can see, their first thoughts were on setting up hospitals rather than starting an organization or a fellowship. The reason for this must have been the fact that their program for treatment of alcoholics was giving good results when practiced in hospitals, but not otherwise. In Akron, where hospitalization of an alcoholic was a must[4], nearly forty alcoholics had recovered, while in New York Bill had been able to help barely a handful. In Akron, after taking their four-step program in the hospital, they used to meet in Christian fellowship at the Oxford Group meetings while in New York they had their meetings, after 1937, at Bill’s house. After taking the program as long as they met each other regularly, it did not make any difference to them where the meetings were held.

Also, if their program were to start at a hospital, seeing its results the medical community would have soon given it the recognition it deserved. With the recognition, other hospitals would also start helping alcoholics with their program. And soon alcoholics all over the world would start recovering. This must have been the reason even Dr Bob, who placed high value in the principle of “service with no strings attached,” must have supported Bill in his idea to start profit-making hospitals. It must have been the best possible way to help alcoholics all over the world, for “Though it never came to pass, it was an idea that was to intrigue Dr. Bob for a few years”[5].

One of their main worries had been that the program they had discovered to treat alcoholics might, over the years, get garbled and twisted out of shape. And if that happened then alcoholics would again find it very difficult to recover. Had they been able to start their hospitals, the hospital documentation, records and research papers would have seen to it that their program did not get garbled. But now that the hospital idea had been dropped, it was vitally important to see to it that their program remained intact. This was one of the main reasons for writing their book.

Around March 1938 they started writing their book “Alcoholics Anonymous” (Big Book). A March 1938 document found in the AA archives says, among other things, “by following four steps we most of us have a religious experience.”[6] These four steps must have been the Four Activity Steps of the Oxford Group, for they had all been following these steps till then. The inventory that they used was, after all, but a written tool to aid in the sharing step. Or the four steps could have been the steps of inventory, sharing, amend and quiet-time that Bill had taken when his friend Ebby visited him in the hospital.[7] Taking these steps was their treatment program which brought about a spiritual experience—a huge emotional displacements and rearrangement as Car Jung called it.

In a 1953 Grapevine article, Bill added to these four steps the first step of admitting that we were licked and powerless over alcohol and another step of helping other alcoholics and called it the ‘six precepts’ or the ‘six step word-of-mouth program’ that they had used before their book was written. In it he also says that this six-step program was changed into the 12 Step program while writing the Big Book.[8]

However the first step does not seem to have been a part of their original program. When anyone comes to us asking for help if we ask him to admit that he is powerless, it is humiliating him. Asking anyone to do so, right in the beginning, is a deterrent to proper counseling. And today, AA’s Step One has become one of the biggest obstacles to a person trying to take the 12 Steps. This was not how they practiced their program before the 12 Steps were written can be seen from the following story found in Dr Bob’s biography book.

In 1937 a recovered alcoholic brought 32 year old Bob E. to see Dr Bob. Bob E. stood trying to hide his shivering hands while Dr Bob asked him if he was really serious and told him that he was headed for either death, an asylum or jail, if he didn’t stop drinking. Then, Bob E narrates, “Dr. Bob said there wasn’t any question about my being an alcoholic, that I needed help or I wouldn’t be there. He said I was chemically constituted different from the average individual, that I was allergic to alcohol. He stayed away from the spiritual angle. It was put to me on the basis of the fellowship, and what he later called moral psychology.” After which Dr Bob got Bob E. admitted into a hospital.[9]

When an alcoholic came to them for help they did not wait for him to ask, for they knew how very difficult it is for an alcoholic to ask for help. Instead they would ask him if he needed any help. Even if he merely nodded his head in reply, it meant that he was asking for help but was finding it difficult to ask. And they would help him with their four steps. Asking for help means that he has admitted that he doesn’t have the power to solve his problems, that getting some more power, or getting empowered, could make him solve his problem, and that he has made a decision to find that power. For only after he finds that power could he turn his life and will over to that power. So they would get him sober and at once take him through the inventory, sharing and the rest of the step to enable him to find the power to help him stay sober. They did not need the first three steps of the 12 Step program; when an alcoholic came to them seeking a way out, it meant that he has already taken these first three steps and they would directly take him through the inventory and the rest of the steps, as I have explained in the previous chapters. We can also see that in the original program they didn’t threaten a newcomer with God and spirituality till they got him treated and did their inventory and sharing.

In the original program whenever anybody came asking for help with his drinking problem, he was asked to get admitted into a hospital and after he was sober for a couple of days or so, he would be taken through the inventory and sharing steps. In 1951 Sister Mary Ignatia submitted a paper about the five day treatment program she and Dr. Bob had devised in 1941 for the alcoholics admitted to St Thomas Hospital. In it she writes that on his third day there the alcoholic was taken through his inventory. And that after sharing his inventory the alcoholic, with self-knowledge, was asked to admit the truth “I am an alcoholic”.[10] And in the eight years, i.e. 2922 days that he worked at St Thomas Hospital Dr Bob took 4800 alcoholics through the Steps. This is how the steps were taken in the early years of AA.

While writing the Big Book their original program was changed into the 12 Step Program. The word God had been conspicuously absent in their original four-step program. Also Bill had used the word God just once, in the last of their original six precepts—“We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts.” The 12 Steps now had God in every other step instead. Also the new concept of “turning one’s will and life over to God” was incorporated in the 12 Steps. This totally changed the program. Thus in writing the Big Book itself, the original program had got garbled or twisted beyond recognition.

Bill said that he added the extra steps to make the program more airtight. He didn’t want the readers to wiggle out anywhere. This, to me, seemed to be too flimsy a reason to change a program that worked, and which was so simple and easy to understand. So I looked around to find what the real reason could have been. After seventy years we cannot positively ascertain why the program was changed but can only surmise from circumstantial evidence.

By 1938 the Oxford Group had started getting bad publicity, its founder Frank Buchman being viewed as a Nazi supporter. Sam Shoemaker had asked the Oxford Group Office to vacate the Cavalry Church premises in New York[11]. In those days there were no AA meetings. The original hundred members used to mostly attend Oxford Group meetings. The Catholic Church was also threatening some of the catholic members with excommunication if they attended Oxford Group meetings. So AA wanted to separate from the Oxford Group; the New York group had already separated from the Oxford Group. So this may have been one of the reasons to change the four step program, which was basically the Oxford Group program, into the 12 Steps.

Also, for the survival and growth of AA they must have seen that they would need the support and backing of the powerful Church and religious organizations of America. None of the four steps of the Oxford Group has the word God in them. By adding the word God in every other Step they made their program more appealing to the religious organizations. Incorporating the idea of turning one’s will and life over to God in their program helped them to get the support from Christian Churches of the various denominations. Even the Catholics, who were totally against the Oxford Group, started supporting them after they converted the same Oxford Group program into the 12 Step program.

The only real evidence for why a simple psychotherapy was changed into a religious program seems to be this legal technicality. But the sources are from the internet which can often contain erroneous data. But they seemed authentic to me, as the sites are concerning psychotherapy and an explanation of why Carl Rogers went on to introduce counseling in the USA. In 1926 the State of New York, where the Big Book was published, had passed a law making the practice of analysis (psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and psychological counselling were all referred to as analysis in those days) by lay persons illegal.[12] The inventory, sharing and restitution steps of their six precepts were “We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins.”, “We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence.” and “We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking.”[13] This is nothing but psychotherapy or counselling. Also in a 1953 Grapevine article Bill wrote that some of the original members wanted it (Big Book) to be a purely psychological book[14]. This would mean that their therapy for alcoholics was psychological counselling or psychotherapy. If they had written their book asking alcoholics, who were lay persons, to practice this psychotherapy of theirs then they could have had problems with the Law. So to avoid any legal problems they might have added the word God into the sharing step, wording it as “Admitted to God, ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” and added the extra God-steps in the 12 Step program, thus converting their original psychotherapy program into the 12 Steps religious or spiritual program. This, to me, looks like the most likely reason for changing their program into the 12 Step program.

Although their original program got outlined as the 12 Steps, the Big Book still contained many of the directions on the things that an alcoholic needed to do in order to recover. So when the Big Book was published the members must have found it a great asset in taking other members through the Steps. But the precise directions are difficult to find in the book, unless a person has himself been taken through the steps. As long as the original members were around they might have been able to point them out to the newcomers but today, after such a long time, the precise directions are extremely difficult to find—it took me over twelve years of searching to find them. After a few years Dr Bob had realized that the Big Book was too complicated for many newcomers and he got the Akron, Ohio Group to publish pamphlets to present “The Recovery Program” in its most basic terms[15].

AA had found a way for alcoholics to stop drinking and recover. Their way for alcoholics to stop drinking was to take the 12 Steps. So if any alcoholic really wanted to stop drinking—had an honest desire to stop drinking—he would definitely be ready to take the steps. The requirement for membership as stated in the foreword to the Big Book is an honest desire to stop drinking. And on pg. 55 in the book says, that one could join them (AA) only if they were willing to diligently search within (for their Higher Power). This was done by taking all the Steps to awaken one’s spirit or to have a spiritual awakening. So in many parts of America, alcoholics could come to AA meetings only after taking all the Steps.[16] This requirement for membership eliminated the need for them to judge whether the newcomer was an alcoholic or not, as it is next to impossible to differentiate between an alcoholic, a hard drinkers and a continuous hard drinker.

From 1944 till 1955 Bill suffered from depressions which he believed were perpetuated by his own failure to work the A.A. Steps.[17] Now, would a person who is himself not working the Steps, like the requirement for membership to be one which called on him to work all the 12 Steps? No, obviously. In 1946 Bill W. made a set of rules, The 12 Traditions of AA, which the whole fellowship was to follow. The new requirement for membership in the 12 Traditions was merely a desire to stop drinking. In AA’s book on the Traditions, the chapter on the requirement for membership says that any ‘serious drinker’ can become a member of AA and that they can become members of AA by merely saying “I am a member” and no one can stop them.[18] With this change anybody who wished to stop drinking, even social drinkers, could become members of AA. And many of them did become members of AA as can be seen from the following.

AA’s book on the Steps and Traditions, written in 1952 states that already ‘young people who were scarcely more than potential alcoholics’ had started joining AA.[19] It must be remembered that potential alcoholics are not alcoholics. The 2^nd Edition of the Big Book was published in 1955 with a section of 12 Stories of such drinkers entitled “They Stopped in Time.” In an interview at that time Bill W. said “Now we’re getting cases whose drinking is merely become a menacing nuisance, and we're glad for them.” and "Half the people coming into A.A. today are in this group, and the members of this new class immediately identify with each other. Otherwise we couldn't keep them."[20]

Such drinkers, hard drinkers and even continuous hard drinkers, who are often heavier drinkers than alcoholics[21], can stop drinking without taking the Steps, whereas an alcoholic cannot. When such drinkers who have been members for a long time, start identifying themselves as alcoholics at AA meetings, the alcoholics at the meeting, believing them to be alcoholics, try to do the things they did in order to stop drinking—taking the Steps, if at all, only after staying sober for a long time, months or maybe years. And without the Steps, the alcoholics soon start drinking again while such drinkers stay sober. After a few attempts these alcoholics leave AA while the other drinkers continue being members. When such a scenario continues, after a few years such drinkers, the non-alcoholic members, would be in the majority. After fifty years, there would hardly be any alcoholics left in AA, except the ones who keep going back to their drinking but still keep coming back. No wonder that in its fifty years of existence in India, AA has been able to help barely ten to twenty thousand of the sixty two million alcoholics in our country.

As AA began to grow, it started becoming an organization. Till then their only aim was to help alcoholics recover. Now that they had created an organization they had to see that it did not collapse. The Twelve Traditions are made to save the AA organization and not to help the suffering alcoholics. Members who don’t work their steps rely on AA meetings to recover and are afraid that if there were no AA or its meetings, they would start using again. This fear is express by Bill, who was himself not working the steps, in the long form of Tradition One, “Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterwards.” Any spiritual organization that demands that its members keep the welfare of their organization ahead of their own welfare is what is known as a religious cult. Thus we can see how the 12 Traditions of AA transformed their organization, which was formed to help alcoholics, into a cult. A number of books and articles have been written about AA being a cult[22]. The rest of the traditions are the rules to ensure AA’s welfare and to see to it that their unity is maintained so that AA does not disintegrate.

With the traditions, AA’s welfare—its name, image, property and prestige—soon became the most important thing for its members. If its name or image was spoilt then the public, doctors, clergy and judges—and the 12 Step programs depend on these people to send newcomers to them—would stop sending them newcomers and AA would stop growing and decay. So the traditions made it obligatory for its members to project a good image of AA to others; and to suppress anything that would give AA bad publicity. Their literature has been cleverly written to suppress the facts that could be harmful to AA. Over the year, researchers have pin-pointed a number of inaccuracies contained in the "official" AA literature, but the AA World Services Office has as yet refused to correct their literature[23].

Maintaining the image and credibility of any organization depends to a great extent on its public relation policy and good publicity. And the 12 Traditions are rules for relating to others and among themselves. The most startling thing in the traditions that struck me was that the primary purpose of AA is not to help suffering alcoholics but to publicize their message so that it gets carried to them—“Each AA group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic/addict who still suffers.” And their message is that “Anyone, any addict or alcoholic, can loose the desire to use alcohol or their substance and find a better way to live in AA/NA.” This is a rather misleading message. For although everyone can recover in AA/NA, the fact is that most of them cannot or do not recover. Various studies show that more than 80% of the alcoholics who try AA start drinking within a year. In India I would think, more than at least 95% go back out, as the 1989 result of AA’s own triennial-survey shows.[24]

However it must be remembered that I am looking at the traditions and the way they are practiced today. In the 1940s while Dr Bob was still alive and the most members were still working their Steps, the message to them meant “the message of the way to recovery” i.e. the 12 Steps;[25] only when they had taken a person through all the Steps, did it mean that they had carried the message to him.

The 12 Step programs have a clever public relation policy where by they promote their program, not by advertisements but by attraction. The way they achieve this today is by getting their members who have managed to stay away from their addiction for some length of time, to do free service work for them. These members hold meetings for the public where they paint a rosy picture of their program for them; they try their best to see to it that the public does not find out that most of those who join their program do not recover. Or, they personally go and meet professionals, doctors, judges and priests among others, who are in a position to send people to their programs and convince them to send people to their program. There being no known treatment or cure for alcoholics and addicts, the gullible people send thousands of newcomers to their meetings. Some of them go to hospitals, treatment centers and correctional institutions and hold meetings for the addicts and alcoholics there. Having never seen others like themselves staying clean and sober, they get carried away by the talks given by these members and start attending their meetings, little suspecting that most of those who attend the meetings are unable to recover.

Their head office and board of trustees also have liaison with national and international bodies working in the same field, in order to further carry their message. The money to finance their service work comes mostly from the sale of literature. AA as well as NA, each makes eight to ten million dollars a year from their publications. But much of it is spent by their head office, board of trustees or World Board to carry the message. Some of them regularly fly all over the world in five-star luxury, to oversee and train the groups all over the world on doing service work, while individual members and groups undergo hardship, often spending four or more days in crowded trains spending their own money, to do their free service work.

Dr Bob and the pioneers of AA around Ohio had regarded the Traditions as too unwieldy[26]—not easy to manage, handle or use. In 1948 Dr Bob was diagnosed with cancer and his health started deteriorating after his wife’s death the following year. Already a trend towards over-organization and centralization of power at AA’s headquarters had started. Dr. Bob had initiated with the trustees a program of gradual decentralization of headquarters so that most of the problems of relations and the responsibility of 'carrying the message' may be gradually assumed by local and regional groups and committees functioning autonomously. Dr. Bob felt that, after his death, there would be changes within A.A. in which A.A. would be professionalized and no longer "kept simple."[27] And this is exactly what seems to have happened and AA got shackled by the fetters of organization and the corroding effect of political procedures.

In NA too the same scenario was repeated. They wrote their book “Narcotics Anonymous” (Basic Text) 30 years after their fellowship was founded in 1953. It was a book written by the members themselves, arriving at a group conscience after much deliberation and many years of heated debates and discussion. They had learnt from their own experience as well as that of AA about the 12 Traditions and service work. In the Basic Text they had clearly defined that Narcotics Anonymous is addicts who had joined together to stop using, and that “All else is not NA”, including the service boards and committees, and that “None of them (service committees) has the power to rule, censor, decide or dictate.”

While publishing the Basic Text, these two sentences in inverted commas had been conveniently omitted by NA’s head office or World Board. After an uproar from the fellowship and the Literature Committee, the two sentences returned in the Second Edition of the book only to be removed again in the Third. This removing the sentences from the book, putting them back in, continued for five years till finally the sentences got removed from the book for good, making it easy for their head office and board of trustees to rule, censor, decide and dictate to the groups. The NA groups seem to have lost the autonomy and freedom that they once had. The Trustees have custody of the funds contributed by Groups and derived from the sale of NA books.

It seems that Dr. Bob never approved of the traditions. For, Bill’s autobiography states that in July 1950 AA held its First International Convention, where the Traditions were adopted as a part of the A.A. doctrine and the next day Dr Bob gave his farewell talk[28]. Dr Bob’s autobiography does not inform us that the Traditions were adopted the day before Dr. Bob’s last talk but says, “It was not until 1950 and Dr. Bob’s last appearance at a large A.A. gathering—the First International Convention, in Cleveland—that he agreed to confirm the Twelve Traditions.” [29] Four months later Dr. Bob passed away.

Another problem with the Traditions is that, they compel members to share only about God and their religious program. The members cannot talk about other means of helping alcoholics or addicts at their meetings. If alcoholics were able to recover by other means, say medical or nutritional therapy, then they would no longer need AA. And that would not be in the welfare of AA, for then AA might even close down. So if members were to follow their traditions, it would become their duty to suppress such a therapy, so that alcoholics don’t come to know about it. And a couple of decades later this is exactly what happened. In 1965 Bill had discovered that most alcoholics suffer from depression because of hypoglycemia, which leads them to start drinking again. He also found that over 70% of alcoholics get better by taking Vitamin B3, niacin, and a controlled diet. He was so excited about the discovery that he enthusiastically started sharing about it at meetings and by letters. However the traditions were used to curb this. He went on to write three papers about Vitamin B3 for the medical profession, the last one distributed posthumously[30].

After Bill’s death, his wife, Lois, wrote about his hopes to the researcher-physicians who were to carry on his work: her letter to Bill's psychiatrist friends was published in a pamphlet, The Vitamin B Therapy: A 3rd Communication to AA's Physicians.

Aldous Huxley, a great admirer of AA introduced Bill to two psychiatrists who were researching the biochemistry of alcoholism. Bill was convinced of the truth of their findings and realized he could again help his beloved alcoholics by telling them about the physical component of alcoholism. As you know, Bill's last years were mainly devoted to the spread of this information among alcoholics and other ill persons. With help, he wrote and distributed to AA doctors a brochure, which has twice been enlarged and brought up to date. Bill's great hope was that continued research would find a means whereby those thousands of alcoholics who want to stop drinking, but are too ill to grasp the AA program, could be released from their bondage and enabled to join AA.[31]

But because of the traditions, the millions of alcoholics who have come to AA since then could not benefit from it. How many thousands of them committed suicide or died because of it is difficult to say. But Joan Larson’s teenage alcoholic son who was diagnosed with hypoglycemia committed suicide after attending a treatment center and meetings. After that Joan did extensive research on B3 and nutrition and founded the Health Recovery Center in Minneapolis based on nutritional therapy. Over 70% of those admitted to the Center recover from alcoholism.[32]

Bill’s not working the AA Steps but still writing on them, has caused a great hardship for alcoholics in taking the Steps. In the 1953 AA Grapevine article where he first outlined the original word-of-mouth program Bill wrote that he had only taken Step One and Step Three of the 12 Step program and thus he was set free, that it was just so simple, yet mysterious, as that.[33] This has given the impression to alcoholics that the inventory and the following Steps are not essential for them to recover.

In 1953 Bill W. wrote AA’s book on its Steps and Traditions. In it he further complicated the Steps. In Step One he brought in two new concepts powerlessness and obsession. He says that without the admission of personal powerlessness no progress can be made, unless he humbles himself he will not be able to recover. Admitting that he’s powerless over alcohol itself is difficult, admitting personal powerlessness is next to impossible for an alcoholic. In the Big Book too the only place that the word “powerless” is used is, while outlining the 12 Steps, in Step One.

In exposing why AA has stopped giving the results it was getting in its founding years, I may have painted a gloomy picture of AA and the 12 Step programs. It must be remembered that these 12 Step programs today are not treatment programs but only support groups. Although they may not be practicing the program the same as it was seventy years back, the fellowship is a great support for alcoholics and addicts. Newcomers get the love and caring help that only another alcoholic/addict who has recovered can give them. Also, there are alcoholics in AA who have taken the Steps. But they were made to wait months or years before they took their Steps. They could stay sober for a long time till they finally took them. So now, they think that all alcoholics are like them and can stay sober for months without the steps. Hopefully this book will help them realize that most alcoholics cannot stay for long without the inventory and sharing and will start helping the newcomers to take their inventory as soon as they come to AA. This alone will help more alcoholics to recover in years to come.

People who have recovered from their addiction problems need a support group of like minded recovered people to maintain their recovery. In these groups they can freely discuss many of their day to day problems and hardship, which they may not be able to disclose to others. This prevents tension and problems from building up. Till they can form their own support group, alcoholics and addicts who have recovered using the REB Psychoanalysis therapy from this book can go to the 12 Step program meetings which are already in existence and easily accessible.

However the excessive talk of God at these meetings often turns off many alcoholics and addicts. People who have followed the directions in this book and have done their inventory and shared their problems must have understood how those who had victimized them had themselves been victims. So too, they need to understand that the people at the 12 Step meetings are victims of circumstances. This would help them to have the patience, pity and tolerance for them. Then as long as they don’t argue about it with them, especially about God and the religious aspect of their programs, they would find these 12 Step programs a useful support system for them. And they would also be able to help the other members there with their step-work using the REBP therapy. They could also give them a copy of this book to help them use the REBP in their daily lives. Hopefully they would also realize the mistakes their programs have made over the years and correct them.

A Note on God: After his friend had taken Bill W through the Steps in the hospital in 1935, Bill said that he saw the room lit up with a great white light and God appeared to him. And after that he was freed from alcohol. At the hospital Bill was being treated with sedatives and belladonna which is known to cause hallucinations.[34] Now, whenever something happens that brings about a miraculous change and people are unable to explain why it happened, it is a common tendency to say that “God did it.” But, as Plato had noted, “To say that ‘God did it’ is to offer no explanation; it is just an excuse for having no explanation.” People who go to the 12 Steps programs cannot understand how an inventory and talking about their problems relieves them from the iron grip of their addiction. And so, they believe God does it for them. Anna O had symptoms as bad as any addict’s, if not much worse. But she talked her problems to Dr. Bryer, a physician as part of her therapy. After her symptoms were removed, she went on to become Germany’s first social worker helping other women. So people in AA are basically doing the same, but as they cannot understand the working of the mind they are attributing their recovery to God. Once one can understand this, those who’ve done their inventory and sharing as explained in this book would get along well in any support group.

I wish you all the very best. May you be happy, peaceful and for ever free!

© 2008 Rajiv Bhole

Great article, except that the ending makes it a marketing and publicity article. (And coincidentally, Vipassana is the best somatic or sensory therapy if anybody is interested) No grudges, seeing that this American trend has been going on for decades now. Doctors seem to be forgetting their Hippocratic oath, making their profession a money making enterprise. Gone are the days, of the 50s and sixties, when doctors only had a small white board displaying their credentials outside their dispensaries.

That aside, after studying up Vander's Human Physiology, a standard text book used by non-medical students---dentists, bio-engineers, psychologists, etc.---I find that these doctors are resorting to alternate medical therapies because they have not studied their physiology well. I don't blame them, but the education system. You see, physiology is the study of how the body works based on the physical laws of physics and electro-chemistry. The bio-chemistry involved was difficult for even an engineer like me to understand, to say nothing about the students opting for medicine because they are weak in physics. The result is that they loose interest in the subject and do not study it well enough, but only cram it up to pass in the exams.

The result is that they seem to have forgotten that under stressful situation our body releases a lot of adrenaline, also called epinephrine. So our body cries for the nutrients that can manufacture epinephrine. If we don't supply it to the body it leads to traumatic stress...whatever that syndrome is called. Vanders says that the amino acid phenylalanine gets converted to amino acid L-tyrosine which in turn gets converted to dopamine which becomes nor-epinephrine and finally epinephrine or adrenaline. Today free-form amino acids are available. And L-Tyrosine, which is quick acting and cheaper than phynalalanine, need to be given to stress patients.

Stress patients also become deficient in the neurotransmitters dopamine & nor-epinephrine which are responsible to pep us up and to make us capable of enjoying pleasurable experiences, thus resulting in lethargy and depression which is a common symptom of stress. It's all so very scientific. It is a pity that the doctors who are good in physiology get absorbed as research workers for the billion dollar pharmaceuticals manufacturing drugs they patent and sell at huge profits and we are left with doctors who have become mere agents of these pharmaceuticals. There is lot more behind the corrupting-screen, but that I'll leave out for now.

All that's written above is part of my research for my book & I did not want to give out the secret just yet. But in times of crisis like this, my heart bleeds for the suffering. And I'm sure giving tyrosine to stress patients will release them from their suffering in a short time. Of course it has to be taken with the co-factors minerals & vitamins like Vit. B6 etc.

Vinay, I do not want you to take my word blindly. Please google search "tyrosine & stress" but better still discuss it with some leading doctors, maybe heads of the genetics departments of one of the big hospitals that've come up in Bombay. Or meet Dr Apte from Bombay Hospital genetics dept. as it's near your office. (Dr Apte is, or was a year back, also looking out for some NGO to donate his hospital an amino-acid analysis machine. Anybody willing can please contact him.) These amino acids have to be ordered from abroad. I personally take the laboratory grade tyrosine available in India as I don't mind taking the risk, but I don't ask others to take them as I don't want to risk anybody else's life.


>
> Trauma First Aid
>
>
> If survivors’ traumatic symptoms can be decreased soon after a
> disaster, it is likely that they can be better advocates for
> themselves and that family and community relationships will be more
> stable.
>
> Trauma research is increasingly linking the mind and the body as more
> is understood about the biological basis of traumatic stress and the
> many physiological symptoms arising from alterations in the
> endocrine, autonomic, and central nervous systems.
>
> R. Selvam Phd points out that during life-threatening and
> overwhelming experiences, the physiology (brain and body) of human
> beings appears to be hard-wired to respond with a number of inter-
> related survival/coping strategies: constriction or flaccidity of
> body/brain tissue, high or low nervous system arousal, terror or its
> apparent absence, stress or its apparent absence, and overactive or
> underactive defensive responses of orienting, flight, fight, freeze,
> and dissociation, to name the more important among them. When such
> basic physiological survival/coping responses (we will call them
> basic survival responses) are unable to deal with the overwhelm, the
> physiology might even undergo extreme states of dis-regulation, such
> as convulsions and various autonomic nervous system disturbances.When
> such basic survival responses and extreme states of dis-regulation
> persist, for whatever reason, they can become a source of troubling
> trauma symptoms in human beings.
>
>

Sure our country is powerful and rich too. The problem is that the power and riches are with 10% of the people--the rulers and the rich. In such a case do you think the common man cares what the 10% do. Why should they care to even report seeing a bunch of terrorist landing by boats. Incidently this was also one of the main reasons the Muslim invasion of india was possible in the 10-12th centuries. The 80% of the population--dasa or slaves in short--kept on plowing their fields while the rulers's armies fought in the next field. Who cares when the riches the ruling class accumilated huge fortunes earned from the sweating brows of these poor people. And then hoarded the fabulous wealth in their house of their petty gods, temples, rather than spending a part of it on the common man's wefare, singing praise to their god with his cow-maids & copying his example by keeping devdaasis in their temples. This is what our great vedic culture had decayed to a few centuries after the end of the vedic period, vedanta. Then under the Muslims and British for a thousand years--our dark-age-- this was the culture that got frozen and not our original vedic/ariyan one.
Now freed from the foreign yoke we seem to have revived this decayed culture and not our original one. And our rulers and the rich are blindly praising it and living it up while the common man continues to suffer. I for one am ashamed of this culture that now even the common man himself has started praising rather than condemn. Only educating the masses about our true history can make them see and understand. And so change. The history taught in our schools keeps our children from learning what actually had happened, being written by our rulers to suit their purpose, not our's. Please read Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's 10 volumes of "The history and culture of the Indian people" or at least get it for our children to read. There is so much that we can learn from our history if it is not distorted. Only the truth will set us free.

Have you been to any of the police living quarters? They're more like the ghettos, slums--dark dungy rooms with children playing outside, most with big frames but skinny and ill nourished. They need to eat cheese and chicken, which our cops can barely afford it.
And the Bombay Police force doesn't even have a HR or social-welfare department for their force to look after their personal welfare. They are forever doing overtime. They are manning a city that is designed for a tenth or a hundredth of its present population without any increase in their salaries or the task force. I had dropped the idea of helping them with their alcohol problems a few years back because unless they improved the living conditions and salaries of the police task force. Half measures don't work in the long run. Their sallaries need to be at least doubled if not made 3 or four times what they now get.Can someone please take this matter up with the concerned authorities. And even their heads are so stressed out, its difficult for them too. Otherwise do you think Karkare--what a fine, big hearted person--would have removed his helmet and body armour in the line of action?

My two bits for now.

> India is a very powerful country at this movement but the police
> force in the country is very demoralised and ill equipped.
>
> We need to create a friendly Police stations or check posts under
> capable officers at every 5 kms radius to report terrorist
> activities.