DAVID MARKS, MD: Now, this sounds very different, in fact opposite, from something we've all seen, which is one of these interventions where the family members and friends ambush a person who they think is abusing a substance. That seems to be the opposite of this.
RICHARD ROSENTHAL, MD: Well, it is in a certain way. It's essentially trying to achieve the same effect, which is to get the person to buy in to the concept that they need treatment. But this way is a very different way of doing it, which is essentially a confrontational style where important figures from the person's life are marshaled. It's not necessarily just family. It can be work associates. It can be close friends. Anybody who's been affected by that person's drinking behavior. And this is usually done professionally, with somebody who really knows how to organize this type of intervention. The person essentially is given access to all of these people who then say, "This is how your drinking has affected my life. This is what I see. This is what it means to me. This is what's happened to me because of how you are behaving with respect to alcohol."
Essentially, what it does is it tries to challenge denial. It tries to challenge the rationalizations.–Look, we all have rationalizations.We all get through life with little neurotic defenses that we use to sort of disavow little painful realities. But in the case of someone with alcoholism, it's something that's gonna blow up. It's something that's gonna get worse, typically worse and worse over time, and not only ruin the person's life, but maybe ruin the family members' lives as well, and blow up a career, and all the rest of it.
