Alcohol research

The Self-Help Process of Alcoholics Anonymous, Robinson D, British Journal on Alcohol and Alcoholism, Vol.12, 143-146, 1977

“The past 20 years have seen a rapid increase in the number of self-help groups and organizations which now constitute a significant feature of contemporary life. Often referred to as the self-help movement, some of us have seen us moving toward a selfhelp society. There have been several attempts, recently, to analyses the nature of self-help, its history and its significance (Katz and Bender 1976, Caplan and Killilea, 1976, Robinson and Henry, 1977), while increasing attention has been given to selfhelp by government departments and professionals, by laymen and the media.

Alcoholics Anonymous occupies an important place in the selfhelp movement, not only because of its rapid growth into a worldwide organization (Norris, 1974) but because it is unashamedly used as a model by many of the newer self-help groups and regularly praised in the most fulsome terms (Robinson, 1976). Despite this praise, Alcoholics Anonymous has been remarkably little studied (Bean, 1975). Although there are now over 1,000 groups in the United Kingdom there have been very few attempts even to find out who goes to A.A, when and why? Apart from Edwards ' ( 1967) survey of London groups, a small unpublished survey by the A.A. General Service Office (1972) and a recent national survey (Robinson and Henry, 1978) we have very little basic descriptive material on this widely regarded organization. We have even less evidence on the extent of A.A.'s success, either in its own terms or in comparison with other systems of help. Leach, however, under the heading 'Does Alcoholics Anonymous Really Work', draws on the small number of evaluative studies in existence and concludes that ' . . . A.A. merits more understanding than the current state of knowledge about it affords ...( and that) .... the answer to the heading to this chapter is, yes, Alcoholics Anonymous really does work' (Leach, 1973).”

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