Richard R. Peabody
Encyclopedia
Richard Rogers Peabody (13 Jan 1892 (Boston, Massachusetts) - 26 Apr 1936 (New York City, New York) grew up as a member of the upper class in Boston
, Massachusetts. He attended Groton
, where his grandfather was headmaster, and later enrolled at Harvard as had many of his family before him. He married Polly Jacob, the daughter of another blue-blooded Boston family with whom he had two children. He served as a Captain during World War I
in the American Expeditionary Force
.
Upon returning from World War I he became an alcoholic. His lost his inheritance because of his drinking and his wife to an affair. After their divorce, he sought help through the Emmanuel Movement
and later wrote a book, The Common Sense of Drinking, in which he described a secularized
treatment methodology. He was the first authority to proclaim that there was no cure for alcoholism. His book became a best seller and was a major influence on Alcoholics Anonymous
founder Bill Wilson
. He died of alcoholism at age 44.
had supplanted the Cabot
s and the Lodge
s as the most distinguished name in the region.
As a youth, Peabody attended Groton
, which his uncle, the Reverend Endicott Peabody
, had founded. He then attended Harvard, although he did not graduate. His great-great-grandfather was Salem shipowner and privateer
Joseph Peabody
who made a fortune importing pepper from Sumatra as well as opium from Eastern-Asia and was one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844. Another of his ancestors was Massachusetts Bay Colony
Governor John Endecott
, who ordered the hanging of non-conformist Quakers, but who none-the-less was a friend of Roger Williams
.
officiating, he married his long-time girlfriend, 24 year old Mary "Polly" Jacob. Polly was a debutante
who at age 19 had received a patent for the first modern brassiere
. They lived in a stone cottage on Quaker Ridge
and Dick commuted to a job at Johns-Manville
in Manhattan
. After a year of marriage, Polly became pregnant, and because the icy steps of the stone cottage were unsafe, they moved to an apartment on Fifty-third Street in New York. They had a son, William Jacob, born on February 4, 1916. Dick was at first excited to become a father, but soon tired of the demanding infant that took up so much of his wife's time and energy. He started a shipping business of his own using Polly's inheritance for capital.
In April they moved back to the stone cottage at Quaker Ridge. Dick's shipping business went under, and in part to escape the Jacob family's scrutiny of his growing drinking problem, Dick suddenly reported to the Mexican border, where he enlisted in Battery A, Boston's "crack militia," which was charged with stopping Pancho Villa
's raids. Polly and Billy moved in with Dick's parents at their North Shore estate where they summered.
. Bill Wilson
who would later found Alcoholics Anonymous
trained at the same camp that summer and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in Battery C of the 66th Coastal Artillery. Their lives would intersect again in the 1930s when both would become involved in treating alcoholism. On August 12, 1917, Richard and Polly had a daughter, Poleen Wheatland (also nicknamed "Polly"). A week and a half after Polly was born, her mother took her to see her father off to war in France. Mother and daughter moved in with Polly Peabody's mother in Windward, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1917 she moved in with her in-laws at their home in Danvers, Massachusetts
.
In the middle of 1921, Dick Peabody suddenly returned home from France to his new station in Columbia, South Carolina
. He summoned his wife to meet him, and she borrowed money from her children's nurse and her uncle for the train fare to Columbia. They made love and slept the night in a slit trench because all the hotels were full. Polly found an apartment and moved her children and the nurse down to Columbia. When the war ended in November, Dick was left to live off a family allowance. After life as a Captain in the Artillery where he had been awarded the Croix de guerre
and had lived life like a bachelor, domestic life with Polly and the two children was a letdown, and he took up drinking heavily again. In the spring of 1922, in an attempt to dry out. Dick was committed to a sanitarium again.
Polly found after the war that Dick had only three real interests, all acquired at Harvard: to play, to drink, and to turn out, at any hour, to chase fire engines. Peabody even persuaded the fire chief to wire a fire alarm bell to his house. Polly's life was difficult during the war years and when her husband returned home and resumed drinking, her commitment to her marriage was further weakened. Polly felt that her husband was a well-educated but undirected man and a reluctant father.
and some of his friends to a party on July 4, 1920. It included dinner and a trip to the amusement park at Nantasket Beach
. Crosby, breaking decorum, never spoke to the girl on his left that he was supposed to spend time with, but focused his attention on the buxom Mrs. Peabody. By some accounts, Crosby fell in love with her in about two hours, confessing his love for her in the Tunnel of Love at the amusement park. Two weeks later they went to church together in Manchester-by-the-Sea, and spent the night together. Polly was seen as an adulteress who had perverted the trust placed in her as a chaperone, an older woman who had taken advantage of a younger man. To the Crosbys, she was dishonored and corrupt. Her scandalous affair was the gossip of blue-blood Boston
. She was 28, six years older than Harry, with two small children, and married.
s fighting alcoholism
and acute depression several times. Polly had become so afraid of him that she refused to stay alone with him, even appealing to her uncle, J. P. Morgan, Jr.
, for moral and financial support. Crosby pestered Polly Peabody to tell her husband of their affair and to divorce him. In May she revealed her adultery to Peabody, and without any resistance he offered her a divorce. In June, she formally separated from her husband. Her mother insisted that she stop seeing Crosby for six months, a condition she agreed to, and she left Boston for New York. In December Peabody initiated the divorce and in February 1922, the divorce was finalized.
. When he got sober he began offering therapy to other alcoholics on an individual basis. During the 1920s he opened an office on Newbury Street in Boston. He was very successful in helping others and although he was not a medical doctor became known to some as Dr. Peabody. Patients came to him from long distances.
For his practice, Peabody adapted methods used by the Emmanuel Movement
from Dr. Elwood Worcester and Courtenay Baylor, excluding fellowship and any spiritual or religious elements. He prescribed a method for getting and staying sober that included rigid scheduling, self-control and work to bring feelings and emotions under control through reason.
(1930), Mental Hygiene (1930), The American Mercury
(1931) and American Magazine
(1931). The January 15, 1937 issue of the Saturday Evening Post contained an article titled, The Unhappy Drinker. Written by Frances T. Chambers, Jr., as told to Gretta Palmer, Chambers had been cured of his alcoholism by Peabody. Peabody's book was based on an earlier study Psychotherapeutic Procedure in the Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism, which had been read before the Harvard Psychological Society and the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.
In 1931 he published The Common Sense of Drinking. He was the first authority to assert there was no cure for alcoholism, writing in his book,
His book became a best seller and was a major influence on Alcoholics Anonymous
founder Bill Wilson
.
He was credited with contributing considerable insight into secondary withdrawal symptoms of alcoholism. In his book he offered insight from the patient's point of view, "as well as forearming him against the extraordinary rationalizing technique that he will uncover from time to time during his struggle to make readjustment without alcohol." Many of the founding members of what would become Alcoholics Anonymous read his book with great interest.
His practice was in the same neighborhood as Calvary Episcopal Church
on East 23rd Street where the Rev. Samuel Moor Shoemaker was Rector and active in the Oxford Group
, and near the Olive Tree Inn that Alcoholics Anonymous
founder Bill W.
's friend Ebby Thacher
went to. The Calvary Church's Rescue Mission was where Bill W. took his pledge of sobriety.
.
and Dr. Bob
credited Peabody with contributing to the founding concepts and principles of AA. Because A.A. was free and non-professional, it gradually eclipsed Peabody's methods and spread beyond its own mostly well-to-do roots to a wide audience.
Bill W. borrowed phrases from Peabody's book like as "once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic" and "half measures are of no avail." In addition the entire story of "a man of thirty-six years" contained in the chapter More About Alcoholism appears to have been borrowed from Peabody's book.
published an article, The Danger Line of Drink, in 1936 after he died. They noted that he died of a heart attack. His wife Jane McKean did not say. Samuel Crocker, who had once shared an office with Peabody, told Faye R. that Peabody was intoxicated at the time of his death. Some early members of A.A.
believed that he died drunk. Most members of A.A. acknowledge that Peabody relapsed and died of alcoholism. He was survived by his ex-wife, Caresse Crosby, his son Bill and daughter Polleen, and his second wife Jane McKean.
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts. He attended Groton
Groton School
Groton School is a private, Episcopal, college preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, U.S. It enrolls approximately 375 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades...
, where his grandfather was headmaster, and later enrolled at Harvard as had many of his family before him. He married Polly Jacob, the daughter of another blue-blooded Boston family with whom he had two children. He served as a Captain during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in the American Expeditionary Force
American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
.
Upon returning from World War I he became an alcoholic. His lost his inheritance because of his drinking and his wife to an affair. After their divorce, he sought help through the Emmanuel Movement
Emmanuel Movement
The Emmanuel Movement was a psychologically-based approach to religious healing introduced in 1906 as an outreach of the Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts. In practice, the religious element was de-emphasized and the primary modalities were individual and group therapy...
and later wrote a book, The Common Sense of Drinking, in which he described a secularized
Secularity
Secularity is the state of being separate from religion.For instance, eating and bathing may be regarded as examples of secular activities, because there may not be anything inherently religious about them...
treatment methodology. He was the first authority to proclaim that there was no cure for alcoholism. His book became a best seller and was a major influence on Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
founder Bill Wilson
Bill W.
William Griffith Wilson , also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous , an international mutual aid fellowship with over two million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety...
. He died of alcoholism at age 44.
Early life
Born on 23 Jan 1892 to Jacob Crowninshield Rogers Peabody and Florence Dumaresq Wheatland, his family was among the upper-class of Boston society. By the early 20th century a case could be made that the PeabodiesPeabody (surname)
Peabody is a surname, and may refer to:* Elizabeth Peabody , a United States educator* Endicott Peabody , a United States politician, Governor of Massachusetts...
had supplanted the Cabot
George Cabot
George Cabot was an American merchant, seaman, and politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate and as the Presiding Officer of the Hartford Convention.-Early life:...
s and the Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...
s as the most distinguished name in the region.
As a youth, Peabody attended Groton
Groton School
Groton School is a private, Episcopal, college preparatory boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, U.S. It enrolls approximately 375 boys and girls, from the eighth through twelfth grades...
, which his uncle, the Reverend Endicott Peabody
Endicott Peabody (educator)
The Reverend Endicott Peabody was the American Episcopal priest who founded the Groton School for Boys , in Groton, Massachusetts in 1884. Peabody served as headmaster at the school from 1884 until 1940, and also served as a trustee at Lawrence Academy at Groton...
, had founded. He then attended Harvard, although he did not graduate. His great-great-grandfather was Salem shipowner and privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
Joseph Peabody
Joseph Peabody
Joseph Peabody was a merchant and shipowner who dominated trade between Massachusetts and the Far East for a number of years.-Family and career:...
who made a fortune importing pepper from Sumatra as well as opium from Eastern-Asia and was one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844. Another of his ancestors was Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
Governor John Endecott
John Endecott
John Endecott was an English colonial magistrate, soldier and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. During all of his years in the colony but one, he held some form of civil, judicial, or military high office...
, who ordered the hanging of non-conformist Quakers, but who none-the-less was a friend of Roger Williams
Roger Williams (theologian)
Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...
.
Marriage
In 1915, with his uncle Reverend Endicott PeabodyEndicott Peabody (educator)
The Reverend Endicott Peabody was the American Episcopal priest who founded the Groton School for Boys , in Groton, Massachusetts in 1884. Peabody served as headmaster at the school from 1884 until 1940, and also served as a trustee at Lawrence Academy at Groton...
officiating, he married his long-time girlfriend, 24 year old Mary "Polly" Jacob. Polly was a debutante
Debutante
A débutante is a young lady from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity, and as a new adult, is introduced to society at a formal "début" presentation. It should not be confused with a Debs...
who at age 19 had received a patent for the first modern brassiere
Brassiere
A brassiere is an undergarment that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting breasts....
. They lived in a stone cottage on Quaker Ridge
New Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...
and Dick commuted to a job at Johns-Manville
Johns-Manville
Johns Manville is an American corporation based in Denver, Colorado that manufactures insulation, roofing materials, and engineered products. The stock was included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from January 29, 1930 to August 27, 1982 when it was replaced by American Express. Berkshire...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. After a year of marriage, Polly became pregnant, and because the icy steps of the stone cottage were unsafe, they moved to an apartment on Fifty-third Street in New York. They had a son, William Jacob, born on February 4, 1916. Dick was at first excited to become a father, but soon tired of the demanding infant that took up so much of his wife's time and energy. He started a shipping business of his own using Polly's inheritance for capital.
In April they moved back to the stone cottage at Quaker Ridge. Dick's shipping business went under, and in part to escape the Jacob family's scrutiny of his growing drinking problem, Dick suddenly reported to the Mexican border, where he enlisted in Battery A, Boston's "crack militia," which was charged with stopping Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
's raids. Polly and Billy moved in with Dick's parents at their North Shore estate where they summered.
Service in World War I
Less than a year after Peabody returned from the Mexican Revolution, he re-enlisted during the summer of 1917 and began training at the Officers Training Camp at Plattsburgh, New York, where he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 15th Field Artillery, 2nd Division, American Expeditionary ForceAmerican Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
. Bill Wilson
Bill W.
William Griffith Wilson , also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous , an international mutual aid fellowship with over two million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety...
who would later found Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
trained at the same camp that summer and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in Battery C of the 66th Coastal Artillery. Their lives would intersect again in the 1930s when both would become involved in treating alcoholism. On August 12, 1917, Richard and Polly had a daughter, Poleen Wheatland (also nicknamed "Polly"). A week and a half after Polly was born, her mother took her to see her father off to war in France. Mother and daughter moved in with Polly Peabody's mother in Windward, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1917 she moved in with her in-laws at their home in Danvers, Massachusetts
Danvers, Massachusetts
Danvers is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on the Danvers River near the northeastern coast of Massachusetts, Danvers is most widely known for its association with the 1692 Salem witch trials, and for its famous asylum, the Danvers State Hospital.-17th century:The land...
.
In the middle of 1921, Dick Peabody suddenly returned home from France to his new station in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
. He summoned his wife to meet him, and she borrowed money from her children's nurse and her uncle for the train fare to Columbia. They made love and slept the night in a slit trench because all the hotels were full. Polly found an apartment and moved her children and the nurse down to Columbia. When the war ended in November, Dick was left to live off a family allowance. After life as a Captain in the Artillery where he had been awarded the Croix de guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
and had lived life like a bachelor, domestic life with Polly and the two children was a letdown, and he took up drinking heavily again. In the spring of 1922, in an attempt to dry out. Dick was committed to a sanitarium again.
Polly found after the war that Dick had only three real interests, all acquired at Harvard: to play, to drink, and to turn out, at any hour, to chase fire engines. Peabody even persuaded the fire chief to wire a fire alarm bell to his house. Polly's life was difficult during the war years and when her husband returned home and resumed drinking, her commitment to her marriage was further weakened. Polly felt that her husband was a well-educated but undirected man and a reluctant father.
Wife's affair
While Dick had been at war, his wife Polly had been carrying on a not-very-secret affair. Mrs. Henrietta Crosby saw in Mrs. Polly Peabody a trustworthy mother who could chaperone her son Harry CrosbyHarry Crosby
Harry Crosby was an American heir, a bon vivant, poet, publisher, and for some, epitomized the Lost Generation in American literature. He was the son of one of the richest banking families in New England, a member of the Boston Brahmin, and the nephew of Jane Norton Grew, the wife of financier J....
and some of his friends to a party on July 4, 1920. It included dinner and a trip to the amusement park at Nantasket Beach
Nantasket Beach
Nantasket Beach is a beach in Hull, Massachusetts. The shore has fine, light gray sand and is one of the busiest beaches in Greater Boston. At low tide, there are acres of tide pools.-Name:...
. Crosby, breaking decorum, never spoke to the girl on his left that he was supposed to spend time with, but focused his attention on the buxom Mrs. Peabody. By some accounts, Crosby fell in love with her in about two hours, confessing his love for her in the Tunnel of Love at the amusement park. Two weeks later they went to church together in Manchester-by-the-Sea, and spent the night together. Polly was seen as an adulteress who had perverted the trust placed in her as a chaperone, an older woman who had taken advantage of a younger man. To the Crosbys, she was dishonored and corrupt. Her scandalous affair was the gossip of blue-blood Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. She was 28, six years older than Harry, with two small children, and married.
Divorce
Crosby pursued Mrs. Peabody and in May 1921, when she would not respond to his ardor, he threatened suicide if she did not marry him. Dick Peabody was in and out of sanatoriumSanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
s fighting alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
and acute depression several times. Polly had become so afraid of him that she refused to stay alone with him, even appealing to her uncle, J. P. Morgan, Jr.
J. P. Morgan, Jr.
John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan, Jr. was an American banker and philanthropist.-Biography:He was born on September 7, 1867 in Irvington, New York to John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. and Frances Louisa Tracy. He graduated from Harvard in 1886, where he was a member of the Delphic Club, formerly known as the...
, for moral and financial support. Crosby pestered Polly Peabody to tell her husband of their affair and to divorce him. In May she revealed her adultery to Peabody, and without any resistance he offered her a divorce. In June, she formally separated from her husband. Her mother insisted that she stop seeing Crosby for six months, a condition she agreed to, and she left Boston for New York. In December Peabody initiated the divorce and in February 1922, the divorce was finalized.
Recovery from alcoholism
The Peabody family had been one of the wealthiest in America during the 1800s. Peabody lost his share of the family fortune in shipping during the war when everyone else was becoming rich. Having lost his family and his fortune, he sought help with his alcoholism and began attending a clinic and weekly health classes in the winter of 1921-1922 at the Emmanuel ChurchEmmanuel Church
Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a historic church at 15 Newbury Street in Boston, MassachusettsThe church was founded in 1860 as part of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Designed by architect Alexander Rice Esty and constructed in 1861, it was the first building completed on Newbury Street in...
. When he got sober he began offering therapy to other alcoholics on an individual basis. During the 1920s he opened an office on Newbury Street in Boston. He was very successful in helping others and although he was not a medical doctor became known to some as Dr. Peabody. Patients came to him from long distances.
For his practice, Peabody adapted methods used by the Emmanuel Movement
Emmanuel Movement
The Emmanuel Movement was a psychologically-based approach to religious healing introduced in 1906 as an outreach of the Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts. In practice, the religious element was de-emphasized and the primary modalities were individual and group therapy...
from Dr. Elwood Worcester and Courtenay Baylor, excluding fellowship and any spiritual or religious elements. He prescribed a method for getting and staying sober that included rigid scheduling, self-control and work to bring feelings and emotions under control through reason.
Published articles and book
He published a number of articles in both lay and medical literature, including the New England Journal of MedicineNew England Journal of Medicine
The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...
(1930), Mental Hygiene (1930), The American Mercury
The American Mercury
The American Mercury was an American magazine published from 1924 to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s...
(1931) and American Magazine
American Magazine
The American Magazine was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie...
(1931). The January 15, 1937 issue of the Saturday Evening Post contained an article titled, The Unhappy Drinker. Written by Frances T. Chambers, Jr., as told to Gretta Palmer, Chambers had been cured of his alcoholism by Peabody. Peabody's book was based on an earlier study Psychotherapeutic Procedure in the Treatment of Chronic Alcoholism, which had been read before the Harvard Psychological Society and the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology.
In 1931 he published The Common Sense of Drinking. He was the first authority to assert there was no cure for alcoholism, writing in his book,
His book became a best seller and was a major influence on Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
founder Bill Wilson
Bill W.
William Griffith Wilson , also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous , an international mutual aid fellowship with over two million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety...
.
He was credited with contributing considerable insight into secondary withdrawal symptoms of alcoholism. In his book he offered insight from the patient's point of view, "as well as forearming him against the extraordinary rationalizing technique that he will uncover from time to time during his struggle to make readjustment without alcohol." Many of the founding members of what would become Alcoholics Anonymous read his book with great interest.
Practices in New York
After his book was published in 1931, Peabody moved from Boston to New York City. His began practicing in his new home at 24 Gramercy Park, where he charged USD$20 per hour for seven sessions per week, a fee that few but the wealthy could afford.His practice was in the same neighborhood as Calvary Episcopal Church
Calvary Church (Manhattan)
Calvary Church is an Episcopal church located at 273 Park Avenue South on the corner of East 21st Street in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the border of the Flatiron District. It was designed by James Renwick, Jr., the architect who designed St. Patrick's Cathedral...
on East 23rd Street where the Rev. Samuel Moor Shoemaker was Rector and active in the Oxford Group
Oxford Group
The Oxford Group was a Christian movement that had a following in Europe, China, Africa, Australia, Scandinavia and America in the 1920s and 30s. It was initiated by an American Lutheran pastor, Frank Buchman, who was of Swiss descent...
, and near the Olive Tree Inn that Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
founder Bill W.
Bill W.
William Griffith Wilson , also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous , an international mutual aid fellowship with over two million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety...
's friend Ebby Thacher
Ebby Thacher
Edwin Throckmorton Thacher , was an old drinking friend and later the sponsor of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson...
went to. The Calvary Church's Rescue Mission was where Bill W. took his pledge of sobriety.
Techniques and ideas are adopted
Several physicians began using his technique, including Norman Jolliffe at Bellevue Hospital in New York, Edward Strecker at the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, and Merrill Moore at Boston City HospitalBoston City Hospital
The Boston City Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, was "intended for the use and comfort of poor patients, to whom medical care will be provided at the expense of the city, and .....
.
Alcoholics Anonymous borrows ideas
The Yale Center of Alcohol Studies opened the first free clinic devoted solely to treating alcoholism in 1944. Their clinics were directed by Raymond G. McCarthy, a Peabody-trained therapist. Peabody's followers continued his work until the 1950s. The founder of A.A., Bill Wilson along with his wife Lois read Peabody's book The Common Sense of Drinking and were very interested in it. A.A. founders. Bill W.Bill W.
William Griffith Wilson , also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous , an international mutual aid fellowship with over two million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety...
and Dr. Bob
Bob Smith (doctor)
Robert Holbrook Smith was an American physician and surgeon who co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous with Bill Wilson, more commonly known as Bill W. He was also known as Dr. Bob. He was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where he was raised, to Susan A. Holbrook and Walter Perrin Smith...
credited Peabody with contributing to the founding concepts and principles of AA. Because A.A. was free and non-professional, it gradually eclipsed Peabody's methods and spread beyond its own mostly well-to-do roots to a wide audience.
Bill W. borrowed phrases from Peabody's book like as "once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic" and "half measures are of no avail." In addition the entire story of "a man of thirty-six years" contained in the chapter More About Alcoholism appears to have been borrowed from Peabody's book.
Death due to alcoholism
Peabody died on April 26, 1936 in New York City. There were conflicting opinions about Peabody's sobriety at the time of his death. Scribner's MagazineScribner's Magazine
Scribner's Magazine was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. Scribner's Magazine was the second magazine out of the "Scribner's" firm, after the publication of Scribner's Monthly...
published an article, The Danger Line of Drink, in 1936 after he died. They noted that he died of a heart attack. His wife Jane McKean did not say. Samuel Crocker, who had once shared an office with Peabody, told Faye R. that Peabody was intoxicated at the time of his death. Some early members of A.A.
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
believed that he died drunk. Most members of A.A. acknowledge that Peabody relapsed and died of alcoholism. He was survived by his ex-wife, Caresse Crosby, his son Bill and daughter Polleen, and his second wife Jane McKean.