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The lesson presented in this installment is based on a phrase coined by the great French scientist, Louis Pasteur. He declared that the different outcomes evolving from equivalent events are determined by the expectations of those involved. In essence careful planning and prior learning can lead to specific results that might not otherwise be achieved. In today’s vernacular, it might be said that “People make their own luck.”

Lesson #3- “Chance favors the prepared mind,” (Louis Pasteur)

Johnny was a patient at Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts, who became a trustee and then patient again. As World War II went on, male state hospital employees were drafted into military service.  As a result, patients were selected to fill the gaps in “trustee” positions,  essentially running many of the services of the hospital, including (but not limited to) custodial care, kitchen, utilities work, grounds and Victory gardens.  My brother and I got to know Johnny while he was a trustee, as he subscribed to the Sunday edition of the New York Times, for which we were the delivery boys.  This period of time lasted for over two years (1944-1946).  After peace was restored, servicemen came back to their jobs and the patients returned to their previous roles of “patients.”  As a result, my brother and I lost a customer, for Johnny had disappeared back into a locked ward.

During this same period a psychiatrist, Hiram Johnson, having visited the original AA group in Ohio, decided that the notion of self-help through mutual-help might be applicable to his patients at Rockland State Hospital, in New York.  He was the catalyst for the development in 1944 of a group for some of his patients.  The group called itself WANA (We Are Not Alone).

In contrast to the experience at Worcester State Hospital, as well as almost all other state hospitals, members of WANA improved psychiatrically to the point of being discharged.  Because most were from Manhattan, they re-united themselves in the City and through the gracious help of some wealthy volunteers with whom the group had first met at Rockland State Hospital, WANA evolved into Fountain House, the pilot clubhouse model for community-based psychiatric rehabilitation.

In later years, I often wondered what might have been had the mental health system recognized:  a) the successful efforts that so many patients like those at Worcester State Hospital had demonstrated in performing valuable jobs during the war, and b) what these WANA patients had demonstrated, and therefore what a difference in the quality of life it might have been for many — to me a clear lesson unnoticed, unlearned for many years with this one exception.

Over the ensuing years, Fountain House evolved into a rather complex “intentional” community designed to create a restorative environment within which individuals who have been socially and vocationally disabled by mental illness can be helped to achieve or regain the confidence and skills necessary to lead vocationally productive and socially satisfying lives.  While the program was developing, its core values remained intact, including the idea of self-help through mutual help.

There are also individual examples of how one must be prepared in order to utilize opportunities when Mark spoke of how he learned this lesson:

“Using myself as an example, leaving the hospital at 23 and being completely disabled by my newly diagnosed mental illness, unable to work or move on in my life with my own housing, friends and career or do anything productive at all, my needs were immense.  I didn’t know it at the time but only a clubhouse could address the enormity of these needs.  This was back in 1973. I was lucky.  There was one clubhouse — the original one, Fountain House in New York City.  And that’s where I was sent.  I wish I could say I took one look at Fountain House and said this is the place for me.  Far from it.  I didn’t want to go.  I went at first only because of my father, who talked me into it.  I made friends but otherwise resisted the whole process.  I wouldn’t become part of a unit.  I didn’t work.  I just hung out.  I did eventually do a few … jobs and tried living in a clubhouse apartment — even returning to a vocational program for some training. You could say that was Act One in my clubhouse life.  That act ended with a second hospitalization after five years.  In the hospital, in complete despair, I escaped and attempted suicide. From that ultimate low spot in my life, my recovery began.
“I started Act Two in my life at Fountain House after that second hospitalization.  I began to get active working in the clubhouse, taking placements, one after another, getting into my own clubhouse apartment and making new friends.”

What Mark has demonstrated with these remarks is the perfect example of what Pasteur had conceptualized.  His “Act Two” represents how Mark’s prepared mind led to his making the progress that followed.  As this series continues, many of the lessons presented clearly depended on actions that would not have occurred without having prepared minds at work.

This series is part of a larger work in progress, pending publication.  Any quotations or references must be with the author’s permission.  As always, we welcome all comments and feedback at the URL below, or our e-address: tandcassociates@gmail.com