Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (known commonly as "A.A." or "AA") is a world-wide fellowship of alcoholics whose primary purpose is to stay sober and carry the message of recovery from alcoholism through the Twelve Steps. A.A. is the original twelve-step program and has been the source and model for all subsequent and separate ones, such as Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, and Al-Anon/Alateen.

An earlier group for alcoholics, known as the Washingtonians, fell apart when it tried to branch out to different goals, which A.A. has tried to avoid.

Many have claimed A.A. to be the most successful treatment for alcoholism ever devised. Though some take issue with this claim - and A.A. itself makes no such formal claim - the opinion is widely accepted because no other program has attained the same level of prominence. Dissenters have argued that there are no controlled double blind scientific studies to back the claims and that reputable scientific research casts doubts on the effectiveness of such programs[1]. One factor that complicates research into AA effectiveness is the difficulty of gathering statistical information on groups that protect the anonymity of members.

A.A. literature describes a difference between an "alcoholic" and a "hard drinker," claiming that unlike a hard drinker, who may drink enough alcohol to cause gradual physical and mental impairment but nevertheless retains the ability to stop or moderate his or her drinking, given sufficiently strong reasons (Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 20-21)), an alcoholic has a disease which renders him/her bodily and mentally different from others. A.A. considers alcoholism to be a diagnosis which can only be made by oneself, and has no opinion on abstinence for others.

There also exist a number of purely secular non-12 step programs which promote abstinence as a recovery goal, as well as programs which promote a goal of moderation for "problem drinkers" as opposed to "alcoholics." A listing can be found in the external links section of this article. None has achieved the same wide-spread use and recognition as AA, and none is without its own controversies.

Some people object to abstinence as a goal, preferring other programs which aim for moderation. [2] Others advocate harm reduction as the most effective step towards addressing the immediate social problems caused by excessive drinking/drug use.

History and development

A.A. was started by two alcoholics who first met on May 12, 1935. One was Bill Wilson (William Griffith Wilson), a New York stockbroker; the other was Dr. Bob Smith (Robert Holbrook Smith), a medical doctor and surgeon from Akron, Ohio. In A.A. circles, the former is known as "Bill W." and the latter, "Dr. Bob."

Dr Bob Smith (left) and Bill Wilson (right), the co-founders of A.A.

Wilson had been sober since December 11th, 1934 (six months) when he met Smith, although he had struggled with sobriety for years. In that time he had made several important discoveries about his own alcoholism.

Firstly he had learned from a New York alcoholism specialist, Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, that alcoholism was not simply a moral weakness. Silkworth told Wilson, during one of Wilson's admissions to his drying-out clinic, that alcoholism had a pathological disease-like character. He told Wilson that, in his view, alcoholism was akin to an allergy, in the sense that it produced abnormal reactions to alcohol that were not observed in non-alcoholic drinkers; he called these reactions a "phenomenon of craving" -- once started drinking, the alcoholic finds it very difficult to stop. In addition, Dr. Silkworth told Wilson that alcoholics had a mental obsession that gave them reasons to return to alcohol after periods of sobriety, even knowing that they would then develop overwhelming cravings. This "double whammy" (as he called it) meant that the alcoholic could not stop once started, and could not stop from starting again. This explained the enormous recidivism rate of alcoholics.

Wilson also discovered that some alcoholics were able to recover on a spiritual basis. This approach had been used by one of Wilson's old drinking buddies, Ebby Thacher, to get sober. Thacher had learned about the spiritual approach from Rowland H., an American business executive and alcoholic who had undergone treatment with the famous Swiss analytical psychologist Dr. Carl Jung. After a prolonged and unsuccessful period of therapy, Jung told Rowland that his case, like that of most alcoholics, was nigh on hopeless. Rowland was horrified and begged Jung to tell him anything that might help. Jung replied there was only one hope: a genuine spiritual conversion experience. History, he said, had recorded isolated examples of recovery from alcoholism that appeared solely attributable to the spiritual conversion of the alcoholic. He told Rowland to seek out a conversion experience.

Rowland H. returned to America and found a means to a spiritual awakening through the Oxford Group, a self-styled first-Century Christian movement that advocated finding God through moral inventory, confession of defects, restitution, reliance upon God, and helping others. It appeared that a spiritual awakening would relieve alcoholics of the mental obsession that kept sending them back to alcoholism after periods of sobriety.

Most importantly, Wilson found that his own sobriety seemed to grow stronger when he shared his personal alcoholic experience with other alcoholics.

These were the ideas that he presented to Smith, who had been struggling with his own chronic drinking addiction. The two struck up a solid friendship and together they put Wilson's discoveries into practice. Smith's last drink is said to have been June 10, 1935, and that is considered within A.A. to be the date of the founding of A.A. Their first publication in 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous, the first 164 pages of which have remained virtually unchanged since then, has been a perennial best-seller. The fellowship began to be called "Alcoholics Anonymous" after the publication of this book. Given this start, it is no surprise that A.A. groups and members are frequently called "Friends of Bill W."

The AA Grapevine is the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is written, edited, illustrated, and read by A.A. members and others interested in the A.A. program of recovery from the disease of alcoholism.

The growth of A.A., especially in its early years, was striking. In 2002, the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous reported more than 100,000 A.A. groups in 150 countries, with a total membership of approximately two million alcoholics.

How the A.A. program works

Although some believe that A.A's success lies in the sense of support its members gain from attending regular meetings, many members, as well as A.A's literature, hold that the essence of the program is the Twelve Steps. The Steps incorporate Dr. Silkworth's description of the two-fold problem of physical allergy and mental obsession in Step One, Dr. Jung's description of the spiritual solution in Step Two, the Oxford Groups' method of reaching a spiritual awakening in Steps Three through Eleven, and Wilson's experience in helping others in Step Twelve. The process of working the Steps is sometimes summed up as "Trust God, clean house, and help others." (See twelve-step program for a list of the steps themselves.)

A.A. members are encouraged to "work the Steps", usually with the guidance of a voluntary sponsor. (A sponsor is a more experienced member who has worked the Steps before, usually of the same sex as the sponsee, and freely chosen - and just as freely "fired"- by the sponsee.) The Steps are designed to help the alcoholic achieve a spiritual, emotional and mental state conducive to lasting sobriety. There are many long-term A.A. members who claim that working the Steps has freed them entirely from the urge to drink alcohol. Whereas staying sober was once difficult and uncertain, these members report that sobriety is now much easier, provided they keep working the A.A. program.

Most members regard attendance at A.A. meetings as important to their sobriety (although there are groups in A.A. made up of loners and members living in remote locations who communicate by mail and internet). Even members with decades of continuous sobriety still go to meetings regularly. There is no compulsion or requirement to attend. Members may attend as few or as many meetings as they wish, as frequently or infrequently as they like. However, new members are encouraged to go to 90 meetings in 90 days, and a sponsor may set his or her own expectations for a sponsee's attendance. No official membership or attendance records are kept at any level in A.A. However there are annually published estimates which are available through AAs headquarters in New York City, known as "GSO" (General Service Office).

With the above in mind, a typical individual program of recovery for a newcomer may include:

• Above all, avoiding the first drink.
• Attendance at one or more meetings daily for 90 days or longer. Some people coming into A.A. have attended meetings daily for the first year. (Note: nowhere in A.A. literature is there a reference to frequent attendance at A.A. meetings. Many A.A.s believe this notion started in the treatment center industry; graduating patients were advised to attend many A.A. meetings, presumably in an effort to acquire a new peer group of abstinent friends to reinforce the effects of treatment. Regardless of source, this recommendation is consistent with a suggestion commonly heard in A.A. that one in recovery should "change playgrounds and playmates.")
• Contact with one's sponsor daily in order to work the steps and to discuss whatever problems one may be having in one's life, problems which may, if not addressed, lead the alcoholic to take the first drink: "One [drink] is too many and one thousand [drinks] never enough."
• Daily prayer and/or meditation, as suggested by Step 11: "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out."
• Daily attention to Step 10: "Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it."
• Service work, which, for the newcomer, can be as uncomplicated as making coffee at meetings, helping to set up and break down tables and chairs, etc.

It will be noted that the program is to be worked daily and done so one day at a time. Frequently heard at meetings: "I'm a winner today, no matter what happens, as long as I don't pick up that first drink."

A common feature of A.A. meetings is that members are asked to speak to the group about their experience with alcoholism and recovery. However, there is no requirement to speak. Some members speak every time they are asked; others simply sit and listen in meetings for years before they say anything; some may choose never to speak.

A.A. does not charge membership fees to attend meetings, but instead relies on whatever donations members choose to give to cover basic costs like room rental, coffee, etc. Contributions from members are limited to a maximum annual amount. A.A. is self-supporting and is not a charity. It accepts no subsidies from any non-A.A. source and donations of money or other items of value from such sources are not accepted.

A.A. receives proceeds from sale of its book Alcoholics Anonymous along with other A.A.-approved books and literature, which are periodically reviewed from a cost standpoint so that printed materials can be priced to be self-sustaining while not actually being a source of profit for the organization.

Many A.A. groups use the famous Serenity Prayer.

Beliefs about alcoholism

There is no official creed of A.A. belief about alcoholism, since individual members are free to believe whatever they wish based on their own experiences. Even the core twelve step program is presented to members as suggested rather than mandatory. While AA literature states that "our twelve steps are only suggestions", many more traditionally-minded members claim that today's decreased emphasis on "Step Work" has resulted in a drastic decline in AA's success rate. In the early days of AA, say critics of today's meeting-centered brand of Alcoholics Anonymous, the 12 Steps were mandatory and attendance at meetings were optional. They claim that during this time, AA experienced 75-90% success rates of recovery^{[Citation needed]}. In recent years however, the Fellowship has shifted its views greatly and now many veteran AA members advise newcomers that meetings are mandatory while placing less emphasis on "working the steps". Some blame this lessened emphasis on The Twelve Steps for a first-time sobriety success rate of approximately 5%, according to an internal study conducted by AA Intergroup in 1988. Other estimates put overall success rates however somewhere between 5 and 10%. Given that AA's membership is by definition, anonymous, and its administrative body, AA Intergroup has historically lacked both the resources and the will to keep extensive records on its members, claims of success rates then and now are hard to substantiate with reliable data.

Many A.A. members share similar views on alcoholism and most would agree with the following statements:

• Alcoholism has no cure. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. There is no way to make a "normal" drinker out of an alcoholic. Nor is there any way to make a non-alcoholic into an alcoholic. Alcoholics who do not drink can recover and function in normal society, but should they drink again, their active alcoholism will re-emerge quickly and be as debilitating as before. This is true even in cases where alcoholics have remained sober for many years before relapsing.

• Alcoholism is a progressive illness. Over time, alcoholics who continue to drink will get worse. Those who keep drinking will often die from alcohol-related causes or be institutionalized (prison, hospital or asylum).

• The first drink does the damage. Once an alcoholic takes a drink, a powerful craving for more alcohol sets in. This makes moderation or controlled drinking nearly impossible. Thus the A.A. approach of abstinence. Without the first drink, the craving cannot occur. Much of the A.A. program is intended to help the alcoholic stay stopped, thereby preventing the compulsive drinking cycle from starting.

• The desire to stop drinking needs to come from the alcoholic. This often happens as a result of the alcoholic realizing that his or her life has become unmanageable and that excessive drinking is the cause. A.A. members call this "hitting bottom" - a potentially life-changing moment when the alcoholic perceives an urgent need for major personal change.

Structure

The affairs of A.A. are governed broadly by A.A.'s Twelve Traditions. A.A. has a minimal amount of organized structure. There is no hierarchy of leaders and no formal control structure. People who accept service positions within the Fellowship are known only as "trusted servants." Individual A.A. members and groups cannot be compelled to do anything by "higher" A.A. authorities. Each A.A. group, small or large, is considered a self-supporting and self-governing entity. A.A. does maintain offices and service centres which have the task of co-ordinating activities like printing literature, responding to public enquiries and organizing state or national conferences. These offices are funded by local A.A. members and are directly responsible to the A.A. groups in the region or country they represent. (For more information, see A.A.'s Twelve Traditions as set out in the A.A. "Big Book" Alcoholics Anonymous and discussed in detail in the A.A. book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.)

A.A., religion and the law

U.S. judges continue to offer defendants the choice of attending A.A., or going to prison. A federal appeals court ruled in 1999 that doing so compromises Americans' constitutional right not to have religion dictated to them by government - because A.A. suggests that a belief in a higher power (and willingness to turn one's will and life over to it, per the third step) is necessary to achieve recovery. The United States Supreme Court has let this decision stand.

A.A. World Services Inc. [the legal entity of the program as a whole] and A.A.'s General Service Office [the legal entity of A.A. in the U.S. and Canada] do not favor coercion regarding meeting attendance. A.A. experience long suggests that the program works best for people who seek sobriety of their own free will. The Third Tradition of A.A. states "The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking." Those forced to attend meetings may not have any desire to stop drinking. Nevertheless, it is true that some members claim to owe their recovery to the fact they were ordered to go to A.A. by a judge or doctor. A.A. welcomes everyone at its meetings, including those who are there only because a court or other external authority compelled them.

The A.A. program contains spiritual ideas, but it does not promote any particular religion over others, and it has worked for adherents of many faiths, including Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims as well as for many who identify with no religion. Nevertheless, since it suggests that the recovering alcoholic seeks help from a "Higher Power," some atheists find themselves unable to accept A.A.'s Twelve Steps and instead seek out secular alternatives. Many others have been able to adapt the concept of a "Higher Power" in a manner that works for them, and there is a chapter of the book Alcoholics Anonymous called "We Agnostics" that speaks directly to agnostics and agnosticism. It counsels that even those members who "thought we were atheists or agnostics" were able to "lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves ... even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God" and "had to stop doubting the power of God" because "deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God." (quotes from Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, p. 44, 46, 52, 55) Many alcoholics arrive at A.A. with a strong disbelief towards spiritual ideas. A.A. members usually counsel attendees with such beliefs to keep attending despite their perceived conflicting beliefs. The attitude towards these cases is usually the same as in the Alcholics Anonymous book, they believes that eventually atheists and agnostics will "come around" to believing in a "higher power." Many agnostics and atheists find this attitude offensive and condescending, because they interpret such statments as being tantamount to saying that atheist and agnostics have simply not thought about the implications enough to come to see what A.A. adherents see as a basic "truth."

Many alcoholics who arrive at A.A. without belief in a god use the group itself as their "Higher Power." One such alcoholic defined "GOD" as "Group Of Drunks" until he was able to discover a spiritual concept of God which worked for him. Others may focus on the program itself, defining "GOD" as "Good Orderly Direction." On the other hand, newcomers are cautioned that it is unwise to use any one person, such as a sponsor, as their higher power in that all individual human beings are fallible and, in the case of another recovering alcoholic, no matter how long his or her sobriety, capable of relapse. The basic idea is that, in order to recover, the alcoholic must "surrender," meaning that he or she must admit his or her powerlessness over alcohol and unmanageability of life and must stop depending only on self, while beginning to rely on help from a "power greater than [one's self]," whatever the precise nature of that power. Many recovering alcoholics would agree with the statement: "I had done things my way long enough, and all it got me was drunk. I decided it was time to start following directions."

Ironically, it has been the experience of some A.A. "old timers" (recovering alcoholics with many years of uninterrupted sobriety) that active alcoholics who seek recovery in A.A. without having a prior religious concept of God may have a better chance of lasting recovery than their more religious counterparts. This seems to be true because the former may find it easier to focus on working the program itself, instead of using previously-held religious beliefs as a rationalization for seeking an "easier softer way." However, as stated elsewhere, many people who come to A.A. with all sorts of religious beliefs, or the lack thereof, have found long-lasting recovery from alcoholism in A.A. "one day at a time."

Discussion of the Merits of A.A.

Though there is little doubt that A.A. is the number one treatment for alcoholism in the world today, it has its detractors.

(Note: in this section, BB refers to The Big Book, aka Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, by the first 100 members of Alcoholics Anonymous, and 12x12 refers to Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, by William G. Wilson) Note: in 2001 the 4th edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, was released. The first 164 pages (including the doctors opinion), of the BB have been left intact and unchanged since the books publication in 1939. The only change in each edition, aside from some minor updating of the basic text from the first to the second edition, has been the addition and/or deletion of some of the stories in the back of the book.

AA's Supporters

On one hand, supporters claim that AA is an indispensable support group for people seeking to free themselves of an addiction to alcohol. Some things they cite include:

• The American Medical Association supports the disease model of alcoholism that was developed by AA seventy years ago.
• A large amount of anecdotal evidence in which people assert that joining AA saved their lives [3] [4] [5] [6]
• Long-term sobriety lengths of 20, 30, or 40 or more years are not uncommon in AA.
• Many members find that AA is fun. While meetings can be serious, they can also be filled with laughter. Social activities such as dances, picnics, and conventions are enjoyed by great numbers of AAs. Many members discover that their fears of never again having fun after quitting drinking have proven false. Many AA's believe that engaging in therapeutic recreation that does not include alcohol helps them to stay away from drinking.
• Because of the large number of AA groups (over 100,000 worldwide as of 2001), AA members are free to try different groups until they find groups that they enjoy. Because AA members come from all walks of life and every segment of society, there is a tremendous amount of variety within the fellowship. Not only do these facts make it difficult to generalize about AA groups, but these circumstances allow for a level of flexibility that accommodates the sobriety needs of a large spectrum of recovering alcoholics.
• The fact that AA does not require a belief in any specific higher power means that AA is not a religion. Since members are free to choose any higher power they like--including higher powers that are not spiritually based--and since members are allowed to change higher powers whenever they like, this agility facilitates a kind of transference that aids in recovery from alcoholism. By this definition, an alcoholic is a person who has turned alcohol into a higher power. By selecting an alternate higher power of his or her own choice and/or design, the alcoholic is able to achieve the psychological transference that topples alcohol as a higher power. As the alcoholic progresses in recovery over months and years, this same flexibility allows the recovering alcoholic to switch to higher powers that are more individually appropriate to that AA member at that given time.
• "Doing the footwork and turning over the results." Contrary to occasional criticism, the AA program encourages members to act as individuals and to think for themselves. Not only must they design the pace of their own programs and choose their own higher powers with which to supplant alcohol, but they must do their own "footwork" in all areas of their lives. The individual in AA is fully empowered to do his or her own footwork. When the AA program speaks of "powerlessness," this applies to the results of the footwork. This distinction is expressed in the words, "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." In life, footwork is always changeable by the individual, while results are often uncertain, unpredictable, and/or out of the individual's control.
• The "Toolbox Principal." Many AA's see the program as a large "toolbox." Not everyone feels comfortable with all of the tools all of the time. Many AA's find that they can stay sober while using some tools and not others, or using different tools at different times. This flexibility allows members to reach for the specific help they need at specific times, then use a different kind of help as circumstances fluctuate.
• Enlightened self-interest: Many AA's believe that in order for an alcoholic to stay sober, he or she must be in the program for him- or herself. According to this perspective, an AA member does not work the program for the sake of his family, his job, his community, or for the sake of any AA group or AA as a whole. An alcoholic works the program for himself, and helps others primarily because it helps oneself.
• Every AA member is free to have a sponsor of his or her own choice or not to have a sponsor at all. Some AA's have more than one sponsor at one time. Some AA's have a sponsor or sponsors at the beginning of sobriety, then choose not to have sponsors later on. A member may "fire" a sponsor at any time, and vice versa. Because AA members are learning to become individually empowered, it is their responsibility to select approprate sponsors and change sponsors when necessary. The great variety of available sponsors is another aspect of the program's flexibility in terms of the shifting needs of individual members.
• Many members and groups acknowledge that AA isn't the right program for everyone, and that there are effective alternatives for other individuals.
• The 12 steps are suggestions rather than requirements (though "they are 'suggested' in the same way that, if you jump out of an airplane with a parachute, it is 'suggested' that you pull the ripcord" (Daily Reflections; A Book of Reflections by A.A. members for A.A. members, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., pg. 344))
• There are no official membership records, allowing members to come and go as they choose (see above for the exception to this, which AA itself does not sanction)
• Despite Bill W.'s claim that members are "impersonally and severely disciplined from without" in a letter to Dr. Harry Tiebout (quoted in Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, Ernest Kurtz, page 129, a book put out by a publisher which publishes much addiction literature), AA lacks any sort of formal disciplinary measures against members who fail to adhere strictly to the program
• The claim that AA is spiritual, not religious, and that the requisite Higher Power can be anything including God (as the individual understands Him, according to the 3rd Step), the group itself (one slogan: "G.O.D.=Good Orderly Direction), a philosophical system, a dead person, the universe, nature, or anything the individual member chooses to invent. AA philosophy acknowledges that all rational people admit the existence of powers greater than themselves, and that this is in fact one of the definitions of a rational person.
• The slogan that says to "Take what you can use and leave the rest." Members are also reminded that AA will work for them only if they work the program.
• The lack of a guru-like figure rising to fill the late Bill Wilson's shoes, lending credibility to the slogan that says "principles before personalities"
• According to the BB, "Our primary purpose is to stay sober and to help others to achieve sobriety." Thus, AA is not a social movement and is not involved in trying to reshape society or to affect communities or their values. AA prefers to appeal to potential members through "attraction rather than promotion."

AA's Critics

Specific criticims sometimes put forth by AA's critics (some of whom go so far as to call AA a cult) include:

• While AA acknowledged in the foreword to the second edition of the Big Book that "we surely have no monopoly", one of the stories following the main text of the book still claims that AA is "the only remedy" to alcohol abuse (BB, pg. 259. Emphasis added.), despite some current research which shows that high percentages of alcohol abusers recover without medical treatment (Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction -- Part III, The Harvard Mental Health Letter, Volume 12, Number 4, October 1995, page 3.). Another study suggests that AA may be "no better than the natural history of the disease" in keeping people alive and sober (The Natural History of Alcoholism: Causes, Patterns, and Paths to Recovery, George E. Vaillant, pgs. 283-286.)
• The claim that people who refuse to work the program thoroughly, or do but are not helped by it, are "constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves" (BB, pg. 58.), implies that, by definition, the AA program itself is incapable of failure, provided that the alcoholic is properly motivated. This seems to deny the existence of honest, motivated individuals for whom the program doesn't work.
• A lack of official checks and balances designed to keep sponsors from abusing their position (though sponsors can be fired at any time)
• Claims that alcoholics are "doomed to an alcoholic death" unless they decide to "live on a spiritual basis" (each AA member being allowed to decide for himself what "spiritual basis" means) (BB, pg 44) and "Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant." (12x12, pg. 174).
• In the discussion of self-centeredness, statements such as "Sometimes they [other people] hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some point in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt." (BB, pg. 62. Emphasis added.) may be generalized so as to leave no room for instances where the victim was blameless, such as childhood sexual abuse or another form of mistreatment of either children or innocent adults unable to protect themselves. Many AA members interpret this to mean that blameless victims are at fault for continuing to be hurt by a past event, and not at fault for the past event itself. This interpretation is incompatible with the text, since it clearly refers to the actual acts of others, not the victims' attitudes towards those acts, and suggests the problems of victims are that they have made "decisions based on self", that, later place them in a position to be hurt, not that they have chosen to remain affected by earlier hurts. An unofficial slogan sometimes heard in AA is "There are no victims, only volunteers." This clearly indicates the belief that nobody is ever victimised in any way that they could not have avoided. In any case, the interpretation suggests that whether one continues to be hurt by previous abuse is something one can have full choice over, whereas physical and mental trauma resulting from victimisation might be chronic and something the victim is truly powerless over.
• The claim that "If we were to live, we had to be free of anger." (BB, pg. 66) when psychologists say that while anger must be managed, it is not possible or healthy to do away with it entirely. (Some AA members interpret "free of anger" to mean that one should not be enslaved by their anger, be a "rageaholic," or engage in habitual toxic anger, not to mean that they should have no anger at all.)
• The "To Wives" chapter of the Big Book being written as advice from one wife of an alcoholic to another, when it was in fact written by Bill W. himself despite his wife Lois's desire to write it (Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, Nan Robertson, page 70-71)
• Bill W.'s frequent use of first-person plural giving the implication that all alcohol abusers have similar defects of character (6th Step) and past experiences (examples: "...something had to be done about our vengeful resentments, self-pity, and unwarranted pride." 12x12, pg. 47. and "We never thought of making honesty, tolerance, and true love of man and God the daily basis of living." 12x12, pg. 72. Emphasis added.)
• The contradiction between Bill W.'s claim that "We will seldom be interested in liquor. "If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame" We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given to us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it." (BB, pgs. 84-85) and his own admission that even co-founder Dr. Bob "was bothered very badly by the temptation to drink. "Unlike most of our crowd, I did not get over my craving for liquor much during the first two and one half years of abstinence." ["Dr. Bob's Nightmare"] (BB page 181)
• AA's heavy reliance on numerous slogans [7] [8], including ones used to defer criticisms brought up during meetings, such as "Take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth!"

Criticisms specific to religious themes

Critics see the following points as evidence of religious themes in AA:

• Many of the steps being adapted and altered from tenets that "came straight from Dr. Bob's and (Bill W.'s) own earlier association with the Oxford Groups" (The Language of the Heart, William G. Wilson, pg. 298), a spiritual movement with which friends of theirs had been involved and which places a large emphasis on taking individual responsibility for the harm one has done to others and confession to God and another person.
• Because "most alcoholics just wanted to find sobriety, nothing else", "The Oxford Groups' absolute concepts ... had to be fed with teaspoons rather than by buckets." (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age, William G. Wilson, pgs. 74-75.)
• The statement that "At the moment we are trying to put our lives in order. But this is not an end in itself. Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God" ("God" or "higher power" being defined by the AA member himself, including non-spiritual, agnostic, or atheist beliefs) (BB, pg. 77)
• "Being entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character" (sixth step), "or, if you wish, our sins" (12x12, pg. 48), and "praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out" (eleventh step)

Criticism of religious themes from religious groups

Several Traditionalist Catholics have expressed misgivings about what they term "the abominably liberal and indifferentist," nature of AA while at the same time acknowledging it should be cautiously tolerated to avoid the greater evil of alcoholism.[9] A small number of ultra-conservative Protestants have expressed discomfort about what they believe to be New Thought, Jesuitic, or even occult aspects to Bill W's personal philosophy.

Literature

• Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. A Brief History of A.A., New York: Alcoholics Anonymous, 1990, ISBN 091685602X.

For more literature, see Bill W., Literature; Dr. Bob, Literature; Twelve-step program, Literature.

• "Alcoholics Anonymous" by Jack Alexander, Saturday Evening Post, March 1, 1941
• The Drunkard's Best Friend by Jack Alexander, Saturday Evening Post, April 1, 1950

Dramatic Portrayals

• My Name is Bill W.[10] Story of the founders of AA
• Days of Wine and Roses[11] An early portrayal of AA (1962)
• South Park [12] Parodied AA in the December 7, 2005 episode ("Bloody Mary")

External links

Official A.A. links -

• A.A. home page
• The A.A. Grapevine

There are many unofficial A.A. sites on the internet -

• The Unofficial Website for AA Related Information
• Example of Regional Unofficial Site
• Staying Cyber: An AA Meeting for the WWW
• AA Big Book
• The Washing Machine
• AA History and Trivia
• Online Intergroup of AA
• GlennS's AA blog & Friends of Bill W blogring

Critical links

• Triple A Comix--AA In Satire
• More Revealed: A Critical Analysis of Alcoholics Anonymous
• The Orange Papers

• Allegations of "Mind Control" in A.A.
• Is A.A. a Cult?