A FAILURE TO TREAT SPIRITUAL ILLNESS

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. is an inspired comic whose eloquent eyes telegraph the
sadness underneath our laughter. But what has happened to him in the past
four years, ending in his arrest on charges of cocaine and methamphetamine
possession last month, is not just tragic and sad-it is unacceptable.

Downey has the bad luck to have a spiritual problem in a world that rejects
the possibility of spiritual problems. In recent decades we have found many
miraculous cures for physical illnesses, but we still treat soul sickness
with a brutality and stupidity that puts physical torture in the shade.
We're deluged with advice about our physical health. We try to care for our
mental health. If we get sick, we take a pill. But our spiritual health is
rarely mentioned. We think a good heart is created by low blood cholesterol
levels. Spiritual health takes time, and we are very, very busy.

In 1996, Downey was stopped for speeding on the Pacific Coast Highway and
arrested for the drugs found in his car. The 35-year-old actor, who is the
son of the filmmaker Robert Downey and the father of a 7-year-old boy, was
already a successful comic and movie star in hits like "Natural Born
Killers" and "Wonder Boys." He was arrested again after a drug overdose
while he waited for trial. He violated probation twice and was sent to
California's Corcoran State Prison. He had been out less than four months
and his career was reviving with a television role on "Ally McBeal" and
upcoming movie and stage parts, when he checked himself into a Palm Springs
hotel-the Merv Griffin resort-for Thanksgiving. Af-ter an anonymous
telephone tip, the police arrested him that Saturday night.

Because he's a celebrity, this is news. Because he has all the things we
want -youth, money, talent, fame -his relapses don't make sense to us. "
Didn't he know what would happen?" we say. "Couldn't he control himself?"
We say this about alcoholics, and we say this about compulsive gamblers,
and we say this about overeaters and sex offenders. "How could he do that?"
we ask. "Where was his willpower?" But addicts don't suffer from a failure
of willpower, they suffer from a chronic disease with physical, emotional
and spiritual components. This disease doesn't absolve them from
responsibility, but it does defy reason. Many addicts-including Downey-
also suffer from clinical depression or bipolar disorder. Many carry the
disease in their genes. They don't need willpower. They don't need
self-knowledge. They certainly don't need the kind of unspeakable
punishment that is doled out in state prison systems.

The way we deal with addiction is crazier than Thanksgiving alone in a Palm
Springs hotel room. When will we learn that making something illegal will
not make it go away? Making alcohol illegal didn't work. Making drugs
illegal has not worked, either. Sometimes drugs and alcohol lead to other
crimes-Darryl Strawberry has been arrested for assault, for instance.
Downey's crimes, on the other hand, have been committed only against
himself.

What is the answer? If drug addicts shouldn't be put in prison, what should
we do with them? Addiction is mysterious. Some addicts can be coerced into
getting clean if enough pressure is applied. Others can't. Like alcoholism
and other compulsions, drug addiction is very hard to treat. Doctors hate
it because there is often nothing they can do. The recidivism rate is high.
The few methods that work, however, heal the heart rather than the body.
Addiction is, above all, a sickness of the spirit. It is often cured only
when the addicts' nature undergoes some kind of shift. Carl Jung called
this shift a "higher understanding." William Griffith Wilson, the cofounder
of Alcoholics Anonymous, wrote that recovery requires a "spiritual
awakening" or more simply, "a change of heart."

We live in a barbaric world where the ancient and gentle ideals of poverty,
chastity and obedience have not just been laid aside-they have been turned
upside down. Holiness is not cool. Poverty is definitely not cool. Our
credit ratings and our fitness levels get more attention than the state of
our souls. We believe that people control their own lives through conscious
action. That way life makes sense. That's the American dream.

But there is, and always has been, another dimension to human experience.
The old ideas-that our lives are controlled by our gods, that the soul is
more important than the body, that prayer is more important than
conversation-have been marginalized, co-opted by the religious right and
put in opposition to the education we value so highly.

Isn't it clear that this tragedy is beyond the reach of the law of modern
medicine, of the beloved bromides that we use to separate ourselves from
other people's disasters? Isn't that why it fascinates us? It fascinates
us, but not enough to change the way we look at things. Drug addiction is a
tragedy. We can struggle to treat it, or we can compound the tragedy by
refusing to accept what it is.