(See
the new aacultwatch forum)
"Learning
from the US experience of Twelve Step Facilitation continued... A
peer reviewed paper giving an accurate appraisal and stern warning to
AA and NA, resulting from 10 years of research by Professor
Zafiridis and Lainas S, Department of Psychology, Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki.
“Alcoholics
and narcotics anonymous: A radical movement
under
threat” by Professor Zafiridis and Lainas S.,
2012 published
in
Addiction Research and Theory,
Vol. 20, No. 2, Pages 93-104
The
following are extracts from a pre-peer reviewed version of the paper.
For the 40 page Full text pdf follow this
link: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/232038226_Alcoholics_and_narcotics_anonymous_A_radical_movement_under_threat
“In
recent decades, the considerable proliferation of the self-help
groups (especially those of the Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics
Anonymous) has attracted the interest of those engaged in the social
sciences as well as of those responsible for mapping out health
policies. The present paper is based on the ten year involvement of
the authors into a participatory action research project for the
promotion of self help groups in Greece as well as to an extensive
literature review of the AA and NA movements. First it identifies the
radical perspective of self-help groups, as the main source for their
effectiveness, while it attempts an assessment of their effect on
traditional professional attitudes. Second it raises concerns over
the radical perspective of these initiatives in the framework of
their transition from an alternative stance towards their integration
in formal Health Systems. This transition process is manifested in
the following developments: 1.The constantly increasing number
of old members who quit the role of the volunteer sponsor and
undertake the financially beneficial role of (para-) professional
addiction counselor. 2. The instrumentalization of 12 steps. 3. The
increasing number of members who adopt the nosological perspective of
addiction 4. The various adverse effects of dominant culture on the
internal working of the groups. Moreover the paper attempts a
comparative assessment of the produced experience with the AA and NA
movements in Greece and abroad.”
“…Apart
from the benefits to both sides, this close co-operation harbours
risks to both. The danger for the health services is that they may
depend too lazily on the complementary functioning of the self-help
groups. By failing to appreciate the inadequacy of their own narrow
scientific approach they may never reform their own failed practices.
With regard to the self-help groups, the danger is that they may
gradually forfeit their independence and communal characteristics,
become bureaucratized, and eventually incorporated into the
instrumental logic of the health services (Borkman,1990;Matzat,
2002)…”
1.
The threat from private treatment centres
“For
the past three decades at the international level (Makela et al.,
1996, White, 2010), and for the last few years in Greece, there has
been a steep increase in the number of private, profit-making centres
which offer treatment for addiction, and base their methods on the AA
and NA 12-step programme. The propaganda which supports the function
of these private programmes relies, on the one hand, on the need for
a change of setting, and, on the other, on the intensive attempts to
raise awareness of the 12-step method. As a rule, and regardless of
whether they are founded by AA or NA members or by entrepreneurs,
these centres hire experienced AA or NA members as their
therapists….”
Conclusion
“….Despite
all this, the future of the AA and NA self-help groups is not yet
determined. Everything depends on their choices. If the groups choose
to preserve the principles and values which have led them, over the
years, to such encouraging results, and if they realize that this
course will entail conflict with the prevailing social and scientific
attitudes, then they will succeed in safeguarding their genuinely
valuable contribution. If, however, they continue to set aside their
innovative characteristics, and eventually side with the dominant
social perceptions and attitudes, then their credibility and their
capacity to help individuals with an addiction problem will
constitute nothing more than a glorious past….”
Note:
Conference Questions can be downloaded in pdf from the GSO (GB)
website. They are on pages 5-11, AA Service News, Issue 157,
Winter 2013
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/download/1/Library/Documents/AA%20Service%20News/157%20Winter%202013.pdf
Conference 2014 background material can be found on the GSO (GB) website. Follow the “Background Material for Conference 2014” link in the Document Library. http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Members/Document-Library
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS
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