From: carnes@quip.eecs.umich.edu (Richard Carnes)
Subject: Re: AA beliefs?
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 23:02:22 GMT

dhawk@netcom.com (David Hawkins) writes:

>puckett@lambda.msfc.nasa.gov (Jim Puckett) writes:
>>But, you have placed a finger on the sore spot - that drunk who sees the
>>only choices as AA or continue drinking....but, if his pride is so much
>>that he chooses drinking, who are we or you to complain?
>
>However, it's not just a matter of pride -- it can also be a matter of
>principal or intellectual honesty.

... or just a weak stomach for religious dogmatism.  Unfortunately,
the point of view you are replying to is all too typical of AA
members, in my experience.  Instead of trying to understand why a
person who is desperate for help would reject the AA program, many AA
members would blame him for his alleged pride or lack of honesty or
lack of genuine desire to overcome his addiction.  The program is
never at fault, only the individual who rejects AA.  I.e., blame the
victim. 

In this respect AA resembles a dogmatic religious sect.  Although the
12 Steps are officially only "suggestions", many AA members seem to
regard them and the Big Book in same the way a fundamentalist regards
the Bible: as infallible or nearly so, rather than the product of
fallible and limited human beings.  The 12 Steps, however, were not
handed to Bill Wilson on Mt. Sinai.  For the early stages of his
recovery he depended on the Oxford Group, a weird, reactionary
evangelical Protestant sect which later became known as Moral
Re-Armament; the 12 Steps were derived directly from Oxford Group
principles, with alcoholism taking the place of sin.  It doesn't take
much hard thinking to improve on the 12 Steps, but we are talking
about dogma.

AA and the 12 Steps replace alcohol dependence with dependence on a
rigid belief system and on AA itself.  Nearly everything about AA and
other 12-step programs encourages dependence (for a useful corrective
from a sympathetic position, see _The *Real* Thirteenth Step_; I'll
look up the author's name if anyone wants it).  Again, I'm not say
that such programs cannot be helpful; some people whose lives have
been disrupted by addiction seem genuinely to benefit from having a
prefabricated belief system around which to structure their lives.
But others just can't stomach religious dogmatism and anti-
intellectualism.  There's no telling how many thousands of people have
gone to AA meetings a few times, been turned off by the religiosity,
the irrationality, the self-abasement, the smoke-filled air, and the
prospect of endless meetings, and gone back home and poured themselves
a tall drink...

The admittedly sparse empirical evidence (it's extremely difficult to
do reliable research on AA) indicates that the AA program is an
effective treatment for a small minority of problem drinkers
(something like 5-10 percent); the great majority would be better off
with different recovery methods.  Unfortunately the more effective
methods don't get a tenth of the publicity that AA gets, and AA isn't
interested in telling anyone about them, so most people don't know
about them.

>It should be noted that Bill W. (co-founder of AA) warned about
>intellectual pride (and other forms of pride) and warned against the
>'AA is the only way' crowd.  Read the Twelve Concepts sometime.  ;-)

Wilson also wrote "we tried to carry this message to alcoholics" (12th
Step), "Each group has but one primary purpose -- to carry its message
to the alcoholic who still suffers" (5th Tradition), and "Had [the
Washingtonians] been left to themselves, and had they stuck to their
one goal, they might have found the rest of *the answer*" (12&12, my
emphasis).

These statements don't say: "We try help alcoholics sober up
regardless of whether they accept AA's message".  Instead, they talk
about "carrying the message", implying that AA has *the* answer for
alcoholics, and if they don't buy the message, to hell with them.
Since AA has The Answer, none of its numerous publications deal with
the medical and physiological aspects of alcohol abuse, nor has AA
shown any friendly interest in alternative programs.

I think that Wilson was in many respects an admirable and wise leader,
but he also laid the foundations for the dogmatism, self-absorption,
and hostility to other methods that has limited AA's usefulness,
although it has undoubtedly helped many people.

Richard Carnes
Newsgroups: alt.recovery