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“Smack in the Middle” Puts Readers Smack in the Middle of a True-Life Heroin Treatment Drama 

PRESS RELEASE

In his new book, Gibbs Williams, Ph.D., revisits his troubled tenure 50 years ago at the famed Odyssey House

New York, NY, — In late 1967, an eager 30-year-old therapist named Gibbs Williams was offered a job treating heroin addicts at a new establishment in lower Manhattan called Odyssey House.

What followed over the next two years represents one of the most harrowing and illuminating journeys a young professional can experience at the beginning of a career. In no small measure that was thanks to Odyssey’s brilliant, pioneering, inscrutable and, in time, despotic founder and leader, Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber. Gibbs Williams documents his journey in a new book published by the Black Opal imprint of the History Publishing Company (Palisades, NY) called “Smack in the Middle: My Turbulent Time Treating Heroin Addicts at Odyssey.”

“Although my fascination of Dr. Judi’s colorful disposition and esteem for the depth of her convictions never wavered, I reached the point where I had to hightail it out of there,” says Dr. Williams, who has been a prominent psychoanalyst in New York City for more than 50 years. “On the other hand, I found it exceedingly difficult to leave because of my continued fascination with her.” 

Among the book’s astonishing disclosures are:

• One drug resident who shared some memories in a group encounter was suddenly accused of murder and had the police called on him

• Odyssey House residents were once subjected to a ‘Starvathon’ during which food was withheld for no apparent reason

• Even after Mr. Williams made his displeasure with Odyssey House management known, he was asked to meet the director one night — in her bedroom...

In addition to being a remarkable first-person account of an extraordinary place and time, “Smack in the Middle” also opens important dialogue about cult-like leadership and authoritarian rule, which makes it as important as a contemporary exposition as it is compelling as a nonfiction historical account.  

Densen-Gerber was a Columbia University-trained attorney and New York University Medical School-trained psychiatrist who founded Odyssey House in 1966. Odyssey House sought to teach addicts that its program held out a better alternative for them than their present lifestyles. They were motivated to make progress by distinguishing themselves with productive work in and around the House, and eventually reenter society as productive and responsible citizens.

A comprehensive and extensively researched profile in New York Magazine in 1979 reported that “the goings-on at Odyssey House seemed to reflect Dr. Densen-Gerber’s psychological needs more than those of the addicts she was committed to serve.” About herself she stated to the magazine: “Am I considerate of the feelings of others? No... I don’t play by the same rules that other people play by.”

“Gibbs Williams’ book is an entertaining and revealing trip into the social-psychological dynamics of a therapeutic community from the inside out. He describes in insightful detail... how the process works and at times doesn’t work in treating addiction.”

— Lewis Yablonsky, Professor Emeritus of Criminology, California State University 

“Gibbs has written a compelling narrative that braids together his life story, professional development, and tumultuous experience as a counselor at Odyssey House,”

— Frank Lachmann, Ph.D, psychoanalyst and author

Gibbs Williams, Ph.D. is a practicing psychoanalyst in Manhattan with expertise in helping clients explore existential questions of identity and purpose. He trained at Columbia University, Yeshiva University, New York University, and the Greenwich Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. In addition to his practice, over the last few decades he has investigated the perplexities of meaningful coincidences. His book on the topic, “Demystifying Meaningful Coincidences (Synchronicities),” is one of the only volumes that expressly covers the specific fields of speculative philosophy, depth psychology, the esoteric occult, and spirituality.

“Smack in the Middle: My Turbulent Time Treating Heroin Addicts at Odyssey House” (173 pages) is available on Amazon and all other online booksellers, as well the History Publishing Company website. For more information please visit _______.

PRESS RELEASE re: OPIOIDS, 08/14/2019 

According to a January 2019 report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than 130 people in the United States die each day from an opioid overdose. Yet there remains a glaring national insufficiency to deal with the problem. We put most of the focus on the drugs themselves, and the pharmaceutical firms that push them out. But when we do that, we miss the point. To deal with the problem effectively, we must go back to basics: we have to listen to the addicts. 

In the late nineties, the pharmaceutical industry assured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers. Healthcare providers began to prescribe them at ever-increasing rates. But they had been misinformed, which led to widespread misuse among those already predisposed to craving a high. Many people who have emotional pain start to use highly addictive opioids to dull that pain. One drug-induced high easily turns into ten, then fifty, then a hundred. The fact of the matter is that opioid addiction is not always about physical pain.

How are we dealing with it? Incorrectly. Right now we're looking for ways to curtail drug availability, applying new penalties to possession, and prescribing other drugs to curb addictive appetites. But these tactics are not likely to foster a decisive improvements. We need to treat the root causes. With opioids (as well as heroin and other drugs), users come to believe that their psychic pain — typically tied to difficult memories — can be replaced by the pure pleasure opioids provide, a pleasure that’s difficult for them to achieve elsewhere with such ease. While high, users adore their altered states of pleasure. When the drug wears off, they experience an emotional hangover that motivates them to get high again. As long as they are under the influence of the narcotic, they believe they can hold onto the illusion of endless pleasure. 

I was one of the original staff members at an innovative therapeutic community in Manhattan called Odyssey House. Beginning in 1967, I worked with heroin addicts trying to persuade them that there were ways to reenter society as socially responsible, productive citizens. I tried to make them realize their potential, and to acknowledge the fact that they were not alone. During my first meeting with a group of addicts who were to be placed under my therapeutic care, I asked one of them what he liked about heroin.

“It makes me feel good,” he said. “It takes away the pain.” 

That's why people do drugs.

Our Odyssey brownstone in lower Manhattan became home for several dozen addicts, about a third of whom were white, a third Black, and a third Latino. There were almost as many women as men. Ages ranged from just under adulthood to just over middle age. Addicts entering the program were compelled to leave all drugs outside and commit to life in the House for at least six months with no outside contact. Based on how well they behaved and helped out with domestic chores, they were assigned various stages in the resident hierarchy — one through four — each with its own obligations, expectations, and levels of responsibility. The goal was to increase their personal growth and development. The days were structured: in the morning they would have assigned tasks; in the afternoon they would participate in group therapy; at night they would engage in learning activities.

But most of all, we talked. I conversed with my Odyssey charges day after day, and in time I saw their hard outer shells start to crack and expose a plethora of mixed feelings often related to traumatic experiences from days gone by. Encouraging them to tell their often difficult truths in an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance worked wonders even with the hardest of the hardcore addicts. In fact, they proved to be remarkably insightful once they felt free to relax, to be themselves, to not have to worry about being judged or punished. 

For today’s opioid crisis, what we need to do is listen more carefully. We need to help today's abusers face up to the inevitability of psychic pain. After all, psychic pain is a normal response to human limitations.

Here's a sobering fact: the forces that drive opioid addiction are the forces that drive all of us to sometimes act out in less than admirable ways: anxiety, frustration, depression, stress, weakness, hopelessness, meaninglessness, emptiness, isolation, despair, low self-esteem and a lack of self-respect. We can all become opioid abusers. Most of us choose not to be. Those who do might just need someone skilled in these matters to listen to them. For only when we hear what they have to say can we help them deal with reality in a way that's far more realistic, and ultimately a lot safer.