Recognizing the Paradox

In effect, the acceptance of personal weakness becomes the basis of strength... It is only when the [individual] no longer can maintain the fiction of being in control, when stark reality begins to shatter his illusions, that he is able to set aside his false pride and turn outside himself for support and guidance.

Dr. Arnold Ludwig, Understanding the Alcoholic's Mind.

Those doctors and psychologists who specialize in the treatment of addiction seem to understand powerlessness, and the paradox of recovery, very well. Dr. Ludwig calls the first chapter of his book Paradoxes and Contradictions.

However, there are at least some members of the medical profession who are still operating under the illusion that we are in control, and when a survivor of emotional rape encounters one of these healers there is a strong possibility that more damage will be inflicted because the patient will be made to feel like more of a failure.