Extract
from our forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/aacultwatch
under thread: “TLM in Alanon UK?”
“Here's the first post about the
problem I have with Joe McQ's portrayal of the relationship between
early A.A. and the Oxford group. The beginnings of A.A. are complex
because A.A. began simultaneously both in New York and Akron. It is
noted in the foreword to 'Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers' that a
joint biography of the Co-founders was planned, but this proved
impractical; therefore the biography of Dr. Bob and the development
of A.A. in the Midwest was published in 'Dr. Bob and the Good
Oldtimers' and Bill W's biography and the development of A.A. in New
York was published in 'Pass It On'. The development of AA in the
Midwest around Akron is only half the story. In this post I'll focus
on a couple of issues I have with Joe McQ's version of events and the
development of A.A. in New York.
Joe McQ writes very simply about the
Oxford Group as though it was a successful and positive influence;
Bill W got his ideas for the AA program from the Oxford Group in
Akron.
''Buchman was immediately successful.
People who followed this procedure were changed. The Oxford groups
grew and spread. Realizing that these five basic principles ' these
tenets ' were the foundation of Christianity (and other religions
worldwide), Buchman called his movement 'First Century Christian
Fellowship'' (Carry this message p14)
“After visiting with the Oxford
Group members in Akron, Bill went back to New York with a better
understanding of their program. And he went back with knowledge of
the powerful dynamics he had learned in Akron: the problem, the
solution, and the program of action'' (Carry This Message p18)
“Bill expanded the Oxford Group's
tenets, and this is what he, Dr. Bob Smith, and the 'first one
hundred' got sober on. Although they got sober in the Oxford Groups,
Bill felt that alcoholics needed to change more drastically than
other members of the Oxford Groups did. He realized the tenets needed
to be adapted and the meetings made separate for alcoholics. When he
wrote the steps in 1938, Bill Wilson did a lot more than just put
them together. He found a language alcoholics were more likely to
respond to.”(Carry This Message p 19)
The Oxford Group wasn't as successful
as Joe portrays, it mostly failed in sobering up alcoholics. The
relationship between the Oxford Group and early AA wasn't as simple,
nor was it as positive. Joe doesn't mention the Oxford Group's
negative side of coercion or the development of A.A. in New York. It
can be seen from the extracts from Conference Approved literature
below that Bill W. and Ebby T. were with the Oxford Group in New
York. Bill W started going to the Oxford Group meetings in December
1934 in New York. The first pre-formative AA meetings in New York
were held in 1935 at Bill W's house in Clinton Street. Perhaps if
these meetings had not been suppressed by the Oxford Group in 1935,
Bill might have had more success with sobering up alcoholics in the
early days in New York. The alcoholics attending the Oxford Group
Calvary mission in New York were instructed by the Oxford Group not
to attend the meetings at Bill's house. After about six months of
early failures in trying to sober up alcoholics in New York by
preaching the Oxford Group message, Bill changed his approach on the
advice of psychiatrist Dr. Silkworth. He tried Dr. Silkworth's
approach shortly after with Dr. Bob when he made a trip to Akron. It
is clear that Bill W. was not getting a better understanding of the
Oxford Group program and the “powerful dynamics he had learned in
Akron” as Joe McQ insinuates, but that he was carrying his own
developing A.A. program to Dr. Bob in Akron. At this time, it was
based on Bill's previous six month experience of trying to sober up
alcoholics in New York combined with the advice gained from Dr.
Silkworth. The following are extracts from AA Conference approved literature:
“After Bill's release from Towns on
December 18, he and Lois started attending Oxford Group meetings at
Calvary House, adjacent to Calvary Episcopal Church.” (Pass It On
p127)
“In those early months of 1935,
Bill Wilson preached the Oxford Group message to anybody who would
listen. He spent long hours at Calvary Mission and at Towns, where
Dr. Silkworth, at the risk of his reputation, gave Bill permission to
talk with some of the patients.” (Pass It On p 131)
“My new Oxford Group friends (the
religious group in which Ebby had made his, first, but not final
recovery) objected to the idea of alcoholism as an illness, so I had
quit talking about the allergy 'plus- the- obsession. I wanted the
approval of these new friends, and in trying to be humble and
helpful, I was neither. Slowly I learned, as most of us do, that when
ego gets in the way it blocks communication” (Bill W. The Language
of the Heart p 247)
“In that fall of 1935, a weekly
meeting took shape in our Brooklyn parlour. In spite of much failure,
a really solid group finally developed. There was first Henry P., and
there was Fitz M., both out of Towns Hospital. Following them, more
began to make real recoveries.” (Bill W. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes
Of Age p74)
"While Lois later admitted that
their success rate was low during the 1935-36 period at Clinton
Street, she pointed out that many of the alcoholics Bill worked with
during that time did recover later on. In other words, Lois said, the
seeds of sobriety were being planted, to take root slowly."
(Pass It On Page 166)
“Tension began to develop between
the main group at Calvary Church and Bill's struggling band of
alcoholics. The Oxford Group leaders resented the fact Bill was
holding separate meetings for alcoholics at Clinton Street. They
criticized his work with the alcoholics as being 'narrow and
divisive' The alcoholics, on the other hand, felt they needed these
special meetings because many of the nonalcoholic O.G. members did
not understand them. Jack Smith, one of Sam Shoemaker's assistants,
disapproved of Bill's work and finally brought the conflict out into
the open. In an informal talk at a Sunday Oxford Group gathering, he
made references to special meetings 'held surreptitiously behind Mrs.
Jones's barn.' The atmosphere of the Oxford Group then became
'slightly chilly' toward the Wilsons. Near the end of 1935, the
alcoholics living at Calvary Mission were instructed not to attend
the meetings at Clinton Street. 'This not only hurt us but left us
disappointed in the groups' leadership,' Lois remembered.1"
(Pass It On p169)
“1. This incident led Sam Shoemaker
to apologize to Bill later, after he himself had broken with the
Oxford Group in 1941. Shoemaker wrote: 'If you ever write the story
of A.A.'s early connection with Calvary, I think it ought to be said
in all honesty that we were coached in the feeling that you were off
on your own spur, trying to do something by yourself, and out of the
mainstream of the work. You got your inspiration from those early
days, but you didn't get much encouragement from any of us and for my
own part in that stupid desire to control the Spirit, as he
manifested Himself in individual people like you, I am heartily sorry
and ashamed.” (Footnote: Pass It On page 178)
“After
some six months of violent exertion with scores of alcoholics which I
found at a nearby mission and Towns Hospital, it began to look like
the Oxford Groupers were right. I hadn't sobered up anybody.” (Bill
W. 'A fragment of A.A. History: Origin of the Twelve Steps, AA
Grapevine July 1953, The Language of the Heart p 198)
“There
was, though, one bright spot. My sponsor Ebbie, still clung
precariously to his newfound sobriety. What was the reason for all
these fiascos? If Ebbie and I could achieve sobriety, why couldn't
all the rest find it too? Some of those we'd worked on certainly
wanted to get well. We speculated day and night why nothing much had
happened to them. Maybe they couldn't stand the spiritual pace of the
Oxford Group's four absolutes of honesty, purity, unselfishness, and
love. In fact some of the alcoholics declared that this was the
trouble. The aggressive pressure put upon them to get good overnight
would make them fly high as geese for a few weeks and then flop
dismally. They complained too of another form of 'coercion '
something the Oxford Groupers called 'guidance for others.' A 'team'
composed of nonalcoholic Groupers would sit down with an alcoholic
and after 'quiet time' would come up with precise instructions as to
how the alcoholic should run his own life. As grateful as we were to
our O.G. friends, this was sometimes tough to take. It obviously had
something to do with the wholesale skidding that went on.” (Bill W.
'A fragment of A.A. History: Origin of the Twelve Steps' AA Grapevine
July 1953, The Language of the Heart page 199)
“Just
before leaving for Akron, Dr. Silkworth had given me a great piece of
advice. Without it A.A. might never have been born. 'Look, Bill,' he
had said 'you're having nothing but failure because you are preaching
at these alcoholics. You are talking to them about the Oxford Group
precepts of being absolutely honest, absolutely pure, absolutely
unselfish, and absolutely loving. This is a very big order. Then you
top it off by harping on about this mysterious spiritual experience
of yours. No wonder they point to their finger to their heads and go
out and get drunk. Why don't you turn your strategy the other way
around? Aren't you the very fellow who once showed me that book by
the psychologist James which says that deflation at great depth is
the foundation of most spiritual experiences? Have you forgotten that
Dr. Carl Jung in Zurich told a certain alcoholic, the one who later
helped sober up your friend Ebby, that his only hope of salvation was
a spiritual experience? No, Bill you have got the cart before the
horse. You've got to deflate these people first. So give them the
medical business, and give it to them hard. Pour it right into them
about the obsession that condemns them to drink and the physical
sensitivity or allergy of the body that condemns them to go mad or
die if they keep on drinking. Coming from an alcoholic, one alcoholic
talking to another, maybe that will crack those tough egos deep down.
Only then can you begin to try out your other medicine, the ethical
principles you have picked up from the Oxford Groups. “ (Bill W.
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age pp 67- 68)
“Shortly after this history-making
conversation, I found myself in Akron, Ohio, on a business venture
which promptly collapsed. Alone in the town, I was scared to death of
getting drunk. I was no longer a teacher or a preacher, I was an
alcoholic who knew that he needed another alcoholic, as much as that
one could possibly need me. Driven by that urge, I was soon face to
face with Dr. Bob. It was at once evident that Dr. Bob knew more of
spiritual things than I did. He also had been in touch with the
Oxford Groupers at Akron. But somehow he simply couldn't get sober.
Following Dr. Silkworth's advice, I used the medical sledgehammer. I
told him what alcoholism was and just how fatal it could be.
Apparently this did something to Dr. Bob, On June 10, 1935, he
sobered up, never to drink again. When, in 1939, Dr. Bob's story
first appeared in the book, Alcoholic
Anonymous, he put one paragraph of it in
italics. Speaking of me, he said: "Of far
more importance was the fact that he was the first living human with
whom I had ever talked, who knew what be was talking about in regard
to alcoholism from actual experience".”
(Bill
W. 'A fragment of A.A. History: Origin of the Twelve Steps' AA
Grapevine July 1953, The Language of the Heart pp 199-200)
“The Oxford
Groupers had clearly shown us what to do. And, just as importantly,
we had also learned what not to do as far as alcoholics were
concerned. We found that certain of their ideas and attitudes simply
could not be sold to alcoholics. For example, drinkers would not take
pressure in any form, excepting from John Barleycorn himself. They
always had to be led, not pushed. They would not stand for the rather
aggressive evangelism of the Oxford Groups. And they would not accept
the principle of 'team guidance' for their own personal lives. It was
too authoritarian for them. In other respects, too, we found when
first contacted most alcoholics just wanted to find sobriety, nothing
else. They clung to their other defects, letting go only little by
little.“ (Bill W. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age p 74)
“One of the first insights Dr. Bob
and I shared was that all true communication must be founded on
mutual need. Never could we talk down to anyone, certainly not a
fellow alcoholic. We saw that each sponsor would have to humbly admit
his own needs as clearly as those of his prospect. Here was the
foundation for AA's Twelfth Step to recovery, the Step in which we
carry the message.” (Bill W. 'The Language of the Heart' The
Language of the Heart p 247)
“Until the middle of 1937 we in New
York had been working alongside the Oxford Groups. But in the latter
part of that year we most reluctantly parted company with these great
friends. Naturally enough they did not think too highly of our
objective, limited as it was to alcoholics.” (Bill W. Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes Of Age p 74)
“Bill had friends in the Oxford
Group who understood his view of the situation. One of them was John
Ryder, a New York advertising executive who knew Bill in the days of
the Calvary Mission. Ryder made these comments about Bill's
separation from the Oxford Group: 'I was, or felt, quite close to
Bill Wilson in the early days before A.A. was started. Herb Wallace,
a close teammate of mine, spent much time with Bill, caused him to
take a public speaking course at the Downtown Athletic Club; but I
think the 'group' proper disowned Bill when he proceeded on his
guidance to create a special group for A.A.'s. At that time, if you
were associated with the 'group,' your guidance seemed to be of
questionable worth unless okayed by Sam Shoemaker or Frankie Buchman
or one of his accredited representatives.” (Pass It On p173-174)
“The Oxford Group disapproved of
the alcoholics' concentration on their problem to the exclusion of
other group concerns. Lois even said that the 'Oxford Group kind of
kicked us out,' that she and Bill were not considered 'maximum' by
the groupers. ('Maximum' was used by the Oxford Group to define the
expected degree of commitment to group activities.)” (Pass It On
p174)
“1937 Bill and the New York
alcoholics separate from Oxford Group. More than 40 alcoholics are
now staying sober.” (Pass It On Page 407)
“....but by counting everybody who
seemed to have found sobriety in New York and Akron, they concluded
that more than 40 alcoholics were staying dry as a result of the
program!” (Pass It On page 178)
In 1938, Frank Amos, an assistant to
John D. Rockefeller Jr., made several reports to Rockefeller about the
newly forming A.A. In one report he put the membership as follows: "Of the 110 members then in the program, 70 were in the
Akron-Cleveland area, the report said" (Dr. Bob and the Good Old
Timers p135) (This leaves 40 members in New York)
In 1939 Dr. Silkworth published a
medical paper in which he stated:'These ex-alcoholic men and women
number about one hundred at present. One Group is scattered along the
Atlantic seaboard with New York as a center. Another and somewhat
larger body is located in the Middle West' (Dr. W.D Silkworth M.D. (A New Approach to Psychotherapy in Chronic Alcoholism, Journal
Lancet, July 1939; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, appendix
E:a, p 303)
To sum up, the first problem that I
have with Joe McQ's account of early AA history is his insinuation
that Bill got his ideas for the A.A. program from the Oxford Group in
Akron, and as Joe put it, 'Bill went back to New York with a better
understanding of their program.' It can be seen from the above that
this statement should be the other way around. Bill took his own
developing A.A. program to Akron and sobered up Dr. Bob, who couldn't
stay sober with the Oxford Group until he met Bill. Secondly, it can
be seen from the above that Joe McQ's reference to 'the first one
hundred' 'got sober in the Oxford Groups' is simplistic. At the time
the book Alcoholics Anonymous was published in 1939, the New York
group had already been separated from the Oxford Group for some two
years. It is unlikely that all the 'first one hundred' got sober with
the Oxford groups. Those of the 'first one hundred' who joined the
New York group after 1937 would have got sober in this group rather
than the Oxford Groups. “
Cheerio
Comment: It's interesting what you
can learn just by reading a bit of AA (Conference Approved) literature isn't it!
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics
Anonymous)
