The Corporate Octopus: Volume Five of the Untold History of Addiction Treatment in the United States

How did 12-step programs become the standard treatment for addiction in US hospitals despite the fact that there existed no proof of their efficacy? After all, doctors do not normally adopt a treatment for a disease unless there is adequate evidence for its efficacy published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The answer to this question has nothing to do with science and everything to do with corporate profits. And the man responsible was not a researcher, but an accountant.In the 1970s, a large number of US hospitals were bleeding money due to hospital overbuilding resulting in many empty beds. Meanwhile, insurance companies had begun to cover alcoholism treatment, but only if it were treated in a hospital. However, few hospitals treated alcoholism, and few doctors had any interest in treating it. Enter B. Lee Karns, former accountant for Caterpillar Tractors in Peoria, Illinois, who hit upon a great money-making scheme.Karns took a failing healthcare company, renamed it CompCare, and offered to run alcoholism treatment programs in hospitals on a contract basis. CompCare supplied the treatment personnel, the hospitals supplied the empty beds, and together they split the profits. Karns opted for 12-step treatment because 12-step counselors required no special training and were cheap. Soon there were CompCare units operating in hundreds of hospitals coast to coast. Other companies followed suit, and soon the 12-step industry had a stranglehold on alcoholism treatment in the US.In addition to covering the proliferation of 12-step programs, this book also covers the growth of giant methadone monopolies and of therapeutic communities such as Daytop, Odyssey House, and Phoenix House, which were based on the Synanon model."When it comes to recounting the history of addiction and alcoholism treatment in the U.S., there is ONE encyclopedic source - Ken Anderson's series, The Untold History of Addiction Treatment in the United States. It subsumes and exceeds everything before it to become the definitive account of how we have arrived where we are at in America - for better and worse."--Stanton Peele, Founder, Life Process Program® for addiction coaching lifeprocessprogram.com"Previous books have provided an overview of the global evolution of addiction treatment institutions and their methods, but no book or other resource has more meticulously catalogued and chronicled the unique history of each addiction treatment institution until the arrival of Kenneth Anderson's multi-volume series The Untold Story of Addiction Treatment in the United States. I wish to offer a personal word of thanks to Ken Anderson for the exhaustive research that went into this series."--William L. White, author of Slaying the Dragon"Essential history of the addictions field that you will find nowhere else. Comprehensive and filled with surprising details. A magisterial series."--Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain"We might think addiction treatment in the US began with AA in 1935, but there is a vast history before and since. Anderson's work is noted for thoroughness (which is why 5 volumes are needed) and objectivity. Any library that wants to have an addiction focus needs this book. Given the importance of addictive problems, they would seem to be almost every library."--A. Tom Horvath, PhD, ABPP, President"Encyclopedic, thorough, and engaging, Kenneth Anderson's rigorous history of the American addiction treatment system is an enlightening tour through the centuries Americans have spent trying to treat, and profit from, substance use disorders. A requirement for any serious scholar."--Emily Dufton, author of Addiction, Inc."With the history of alcohol and drugs in the human story being such a long one, it is remarkable that Ken Anderson has managed to chronicle this phenomena."-- Patt Denning - founder of the Harm Reduction Therapy Center Read more