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< | Why Lawyers Drink | >
> | Journal Entry, June 2016 | | | | |
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< | -- By TamarLisbona - 01 Apr 2016 | >
> | -- By TamarLisbona - 16 Jun 2016 | | |
Introduction | |
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< | A study, conducted by the American Bar Association and the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, found that “one in three practicing lawyers are problem drinkers, based on the volume and frequency of alcohol consumed.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/business/dealbook/high-rate-of-problem-drinking-reported-among-lawyers.html?_r=0) More specifically, the study finds that “being in the early stages of one’s legal career is strongly correlated with a high risk of developing an alcohol use disorder.” As a first year law student, this finding doesn’t shock me, but it is ominous nonetheless, and I want to begin thinking about how to stem the bleeding on this never-ending problem. With that goal in mind, I plan to observe myself and my peers to figure out why we’re turning to drink, drugs, stimulants, and downers, in the hopes of figuring out what we might do to form healthier habits. | >
> | My first paper in this course was about the commoditization of the human body in the form of paid gestational surrogacy and the ethical questions that arise when we attempt to sell parts of our selves. But I didn’t write enough (meaning at all) on the commoditization of my own body – not as a gestational surrogate necessarily, but as a lawyer and more broadly as a laborer in the modern day workforce. The style of this essay is introspective, not persuasive. It is an attempt, and just that, to reflect more fully on, to borrow Eben’s phrase (albeit out of context), the nature of my irresolution. | | | | |
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< | Why do lawyers drink? | >
> | As an incoming law student, I entered myself into the assembly line. The hope being that with each completed day and each completed course I would become one more iota “a lawyer”; that somehow law school would squeeze the pre-lawyer guts out of me and replace them with fresh-out-of-the-box lawyer guts. But the anticipatory hope stopped there. I had not spent significant or meaningful time thinking about what might happen once I had the degree in hand and entered the working world. I am starting to reflect on that now. | | | | |
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< | Drinking is a thread in the tapestry of American behavior – for better or for worse. But within the legal profession, excessive drinking at rates much higher than the general population reveals a profession crippled by exhaustion, anxiety, and depression. In order to discuss what can be done about this industry wide problem, I would like first to hypothesize about why law students and lawyers might engage in alcohol abuse, focusing on the psychological and sociological factors at play. | >
> | What does it mean to work? | | | | |
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< | Legal professionals and soon to be legal professionals naturally dissociate and need some type of adhesive to connect their multiple personalities or create the ideal “personality cocktail.” | >
> | When I look at a residential building, in New York or elsewhere, I like to imagine what the people who live inside are doing at that moment, and what their lives might be like more generally. It’s fun for me to imagine how these strangers might spend their time, and how they might interact with one another. But beyond the sheer voyeuristic pleasure of this kind of thinking, I’ve been led to think about the notion and quantity of work time and time again. Who (or what) employs people? What do most people do all day? Beyond specific vocations (like medicine or teaching) that involve required and well-known functions, what do most people do at work? I have no idea, but from my experience, what we say is work is often bona fide, yet glorified, paper pushing. | | | | |
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< | Psychological theorists have different opinions about why dissociation occurs. Notably, Sigmund Freud believed that dissociation happens as a response to trauma, often Oedipal, and often occurring during childhood. Carl Jung added that dissociation could occur as a result of fictional, or even non-traumatic endogenous stimuli. | >
> | After finishing undergrad, I took a finance job with a confusing description. Eager to do well, I did a lot of water churning and Power Point babysitting. Unable to see the impact of my day-to-day tasks, and bored out of my mind, I left the finance world for the film industry, scratching an itch I had noticed while in school. But even though I preferred the subject matter of film to that of finance, I still found myself toiling over tasks – setting meetings, booking reservations, making phone calls. This, I told myself, also couldn’t be real work. It’s at this juncture that I decided to come to law school, where reflection and introspective thinking temporarily stopped. | | | | |
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< | Carl Wylie splits. This splitting seems to be a defense mechanism that, like a dam, keeps his true thoughts and feelings at bay. Yet, this dissociation causes blur. He has issues remembering specific facts and details, and he hates discussing his work. In order to focus, Wylie self-medicates. He mixes wine with coffee to reach “that precise point when consciousness is heightened and everything glows.” Lawrence Joseph is not the only poet to describe this shift in mental state precipitated by alcohol as a means of self-calibration. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, playwright Tennessee Williams, himself an alcoholic, speaks through Brick, the former prodigal son now fighting with his repressed sexuality. Brick drinks until he hears the “click” in his head that makes him feel at ease. Williams as Brick describes the “click” as a “hot light turning off in his head, and the cool night turning on.” In his autobiography, Memoirs, Williams expands on this transition. “You felt as if a new kind of blood had been transfused into your arteries, a blood that swept away all anxiety and all tension for a while, and for a while is the stuff that dreams are made of.” (142) | >
> | In an effort to pick up again and continue reflecting on what matters to me personally and professionally, I am thinking about what constitutes work rather than just a collection of tasks. A quick survey of my colleagues at my summer job turned up words and phrases like commitment, responsibility to others, being needed, and continuity when they were asked what differentiates work and tasks. When I work, as opposed to complete tasks, I want it to be this long-standing, fulfilling endeavor, almost like a romantic partnership. Yet when I reflect on my past professional choices, I don’t think that I have put as much care into selecting employment opportunities as I have into selecting with whom I would like to spend my time socially. This is incongruous. As I move forward in my studies and in my career, I plan to think with more care and discretion about how and with whom I will be working. | | | | |
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< | While all people are layered, the desire to use alcohol to switch between or blend the personas is dangerous as it obscures the truth. As law students and young lawyers, we are struggling with our multiples selves, perhaps more acutely than the average person, and perhaps as a result of real (or imagined) burdens. Yet, like Wylie, as anxious perfectionists, the idea of failure or any deviation from the mean is unthinkable, hence we use stimulants and depressants to excite or subdue some of our many personalities until we hear the “click” of one-ness: the state we describe as high functioning. | >
> | Additionally, to work, you have to have purpose. For me, that purpose cannot be solely completing the task at hand, but has to be a higher-level goal to which all of the tasks bubble up. | | | | |
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< | Legal professionals are unsuccessfully dealing with work-related trauma. | >
> | What does drinking have to do with any of this? | | | | |
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< | As Freud described, dissociation can occur as a result of trauma to protect the ego. Trauma can occur as an acute episode, or it can accrue over time as the result of a devastating amount of stress that exceeds one’s ability to cope. Many lawyers are trying to forget. Having entered law school to do good, they are now pushing paper in order to pay off mountains of student debt. No matter the practice area, the nature and quality of the work can be stressful. Lawyers deal with despicable clients, aggressive and often arbitrary deadlines, and a lack of job security. These stressful bundles cause dissociation, which in turn causes discomfort and haziness, and lawyers drink and abuse other substances to hear the “click.” | >
> | Why do lawyers drink? Honestly, I’m not sure. It’s easy to hypothesize, as I did in my previous draft, but without long and frank conversations had with many lawyers over the span of many years, it is too hard to know definitively. Why won’t I drink in middle age? I’m also not sure. But here’s my current thinking. | | | | |
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< | The professional legal environment promotes a reckless drinking culture. | >
> | 1. I will seek out real, meaningful work. | | | | |
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< | Many lawyers feel entitled. In an article published by the legal profession’s gossip blog, Above the Law, a journalist tackling the problem of the legal drinking problem concludes that lawyers essentially drink because they can. (http://abovethelaw.com/2012/10/why-do-lawyers-drink-so-much-because-they-can/) The author goes on to state that as a lawyer, “you can pretty much drink with impunity without significantly hurting your job performance.” While the article reads farcically, it’s easy to see the truth hiding behind the humor. This type of bad behavior starts in law school, and the cycle will continue unless something is done to break the chain. | >
> | This is non-negotiable for me. While I am not sure what “real, meaningful work” means quite yet, and am confident that awareness to this desire will lead me to think more deeply about my potential choices and visualize what it would be like to take a certain job. I feel lucky to have two more years of school to learn by doing, think, and reflect. | | | | |
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< | What can we do about it? | >
> | 2. I am my own best companion. | | | | |
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< | Alcoholism is an illness that requires medical attention and rehabilitation. Yet, as law students about to enter the legal working world, there are things we can do to prevent bad habits from taking root. First, we must understand and accept the nature of our splitting. The process is natural and learning to sit with the discomfort will ease the desire to self-medicate. Personally, I have been trying to keep track of my splitting. I am trying to notice when I seemingly black out certain things, in an attempt to figure out what triggers these episodes. Second, as a profession, we should change the nature and outlook of the work and work environment to help ourselves deal with fear and ambiguity. Perhaps this could include making firm and law school events less focused on drinking, or exploring and promulgating alternative ways to relax and unwind such as yoga and meditation. | >
> | In law school we are surrounded by friends and classmates non-stop. That constant drip of social sugar has made me irrationally nervous for what happens when it inevitably stops. Having spent a few weeks alone this summer, I have had time to reflect and remember that I am my own best companion. A sense of community in oneself is a beautiful thing, and I look forward to reflecting further as I continue law school and beyond. | | | | |
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> | 3. There is always more to see. | | | | |
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You ask why lawyers drink more than the general population. Your answers are derived not from any data, beyond those presented in one news story about one study, but from your own speculations and those of one blogger you don't take seriously. This isn't research, this is Googling. | >
> | I drink because I’m lazy. I have to caveat that having a conversation over a glass of wine will likely always remain in my definition of a good time, but the laziness and lethargy that comes with drinking is ultimately unappealing. I have a very real desire to see and explore the world for what it is without the added color of inebriation. | | | | |
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< | Basically, your explanation is that practicing law is traumatically stressful. This raises the question why two-thirds of lawyers are not problem drinkers. | >
> | 4. I am grateful. | | | | |
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< | But as your focus is on how to prevent lawyers more like yourself
from drinking too much later, it is not surprising in a way that
your ultimate proposal is that lawyers should all pretend to live in
LA. They should have a more laid-back lifestyle, including yoga,
meditation, and (I should think) lots of juice and good sex with
younger people. | >
> | Having stable employment is a luxury, and collecting a paycheck does come with a responsibility – to yourself, to your family, but most of all to society. | | | | |
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< | It's also harder to wrap a car around a telephone pole when the
traffic won't let you move faster than 5mph. Unfortunately, not
everything is as slow as the freeways. | | | | |
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< | But if we ask ourselves the question "why won't you drink too much
in middle age," instead of either why lawyers drink or whether yoga
prevents alcoholism, I think the essay has a real road to
improvement. | | |
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