A Sociological Analysis of Commitment Generation in Alcoholics Anonymous, Donovan ME,
British
Journal of Addiction, Vol. 79, 411-418, 1984
“SUMMARY
This
paper utilizes a conceptual framework of commitment generation in
voluntary organizations formulated by Rosabeth Moss Kanter in order
to provide a sociological explanation for the success of Alcoholics
Anonymous in the treatment of alcohol abuse. This paper demonstrates
that Alcoholics Anonymous is systematically organized around the
processes of sacrifice, investment, renunciation, communion,
mortification and transcendence. An examination will be made of how
those processes function to generate and sustain a strong commitment
to sobriety among its members. In addition, consideration will be
given to how those processes function to submit to social control
salient aspects of collective life that have implications for
commitment, including identity, interpersonal intimacy, work,
recruitment, sanctions, extra-group ties and ideology.”
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