Marshall Jones Company, first printed in 1931, this is the 1932 printing. There is a name and address on the ffep and a YMCA stamp on the front pastedown, otherwise there is no writing in the book and no torn or missing pages, the cover has minor indication of wear, the binding is tight, the text pages are age-toned. No dust jacket. This book is out of print.

This book was written twenty-three years after Religion & Medicine. Since this time, the work at Emmanuel Church had continued under Worcester for almost a quarter of a century, but he retired from parochial ministry in October, 1929 so as to devote all his strength to the individual work of saving lives. At that time, the “adopted” name of the Emmanuel Movement was dropped. Worcester and Courtenay Baylor incorporated their efforts as the Craigie Foundation, 176 Marlborough Street, Boston, Massachusetts. They now had some funding backing their efforts.

In this book, Worcester attempts to shown the changes and growth in the Emmanuel work as new understandings and experience helped evolve the therapeutic methods they employed. At the time the original book Religion & Medicine was written, psychoanalysis was practically unknown in the USA. Worcester cautions that the methods of psychoanalysis positive and negative transfers, that in which the psychoanalyst is the only one that understands the mystery of the patients existence, whose words become law and every instruction followed to the letter, will ultimately cause problems when it comes time to break the transfer. Worcester’s contends the Emmanuel methods do not have this problem, because it employs a third transfer called the inward transfer in which the seat of power and authority if felt within the patient and the teacher is no longer important. This is because of the teaching of a religious faith and a spiritual philosophy of life. The primary reason Worcester cites this is because not all Emmanuel teachers incorporate the development of a spiritual life.

The book includes case studies to show how the Emmanuel methods have effected changes in lives, and in many cases saved lives. The methods illustrated include: suggestion, relaxation techniques, dream study, positive direction of energy, and, most importantly, the power of prayer. The development of a spiritual life and the healing power of Christian living were of the utmost importance to Worcester.

Worcester also cites what he calls the Four Curses of Mankind, diseases that descend from generation to generation claiming tolls of victims without regard for gender, education, wealth or age. The diseases Worcester speaks of are tuberculosis, alcoholism, syphilis and cancer. In his discussion of helping alcoholics, Worcester outlines his guidelines:

Worcester’s conditions for treatment require three basic components: voluntary cooperation, total abstinence, and no drinking for a week to give it a chance to work. This falls very much in line with AA’s  traditional approach to a Twelfth Step call: 1)  the person must first ask for help – not a family member or employer, and “dry people – dry places”. 2) As stated in the Big Book, “the idea that we can drink like normal people has to be smashed”. 3) There are no pledges in AA; newcomers are not getting on the wagon so to speak. The only distinct variation from Worcester’s is AA’s concept of a One Day At A Time program. Even despite this difference, it is quite often heard by a newcomer to AA, “Give us thirty days and then we will gladly refund your misery”. In effect, just as Worcester taught, AA’s ask the newcomer to give it a chance.

What was the Emmanuel Movement?

William James offered his conviction that by getting in touch with the subconscious the human energy  released could be used for transformation and healing. Elwood Worcester was one of the first ministers to take seriously this notion. While rector of the Episcopal Emmanuel Church in Boston he teamed up with other with other physicians and offered classes and groups using suggestive therapy to treat nervous disorders. Worcester offered group therapy classes for free for almost 23 years. His clientele grew quickly from hundreds to thousands and gained national publicity. Thus was born the Emmanuel Movement, the first American adventure between doctors and clergy to cure souls.

An important aspect of the Emmanuel Movement was the introduction of lay therapy in the treatment of alcoholism. Up to this time treatment had been the duty of the medical profession or clergy, or sometimes just dealt harshly with by the legal system. Courtenay Baylor, who as a recovering alcoholic, began working with Worchester in 1912 may have been the first lay therapist to work with other alcoholics. Among those treated by Baylor was Richard Peabody in 1922, the author of Common Sense of Drinking. Alcoholics Anonymous memeber’s practice of one non-professional alcoholic helping another is an example of utilizing lay therapy.

Another important aspect of the Emmanuel Movement similar to William James’s teachings of reliance upon an higher power. It is believed James is the source for AA’s term higher power when he wrote in Varieties of a Religious Experience: we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers.

Worcester wrote in his first book of the Emmanuel Movement Religion and Medicine: Man must become conscious of his need and dependence upon a Higher Power, and bring himself more and more into harmonious relations with this Power, and this desire goes forth with prayer.