Dr. Carl Jung, Norman Vincent Peale, and the Twelve Steps as an answer

I recently participated in a two day event at work which centered on the naming of six groups or “Families” of students residing at The Family Foundation School.  The theme for naming their houses was “Heroes of recovery in addiction and other prominent figures in the history of recovery.”  And yet while the two day “Color Wars” activity was incredibly exciting, what I want to share are two pieces of information that I came across in helping to research the names.

The first was an article by Norman Vincent Peal, author of the Novel “The Power of Positive Thinking.” The article appeared in the April 1989 issue of Guideposts in which Peale makes the following comment;

“So if you have a problem that you cannot master, be it alcohol or anything else, I heartily urge you to study the Twelve Steps.”

Now this caught my eye for two reasons: first, Peale was not a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and second he had been successfully promoting his own “tools” for better living as talked about in his “Positive Thinking” philosophy or approach. So I saw this endorsement as significant validation that the 12 step approach can be applied as an answer to an array of difficulties faced by young people today.

The second piece of information that caught my eye was a letter written by Carl Jung, a Psychiatric professional who started out with Dr. Sigmund Freud in the early part of the 20th century and then later branched out and became known for his focus on integrating spirituality and the exploration of the unconscience into the practice of psycho-analysis.  I knew about the importance and impact on the formation of AA from Dr. Jung’s work. I did not realize that there had been almost direct interaction between Dr. Jung and the founding members of the program. The most significant thing is the validation found in Dr. Jung’s letter that there is a definite need for a spiritual answer for addiction.  (original letter can be seen here)