aacultwatch's
perspective on:
The
AA (General Service conference approved) book:
“Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: A co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous tells how members recover and howthe society functions”
(an
almost as wildly discursive commentary as our 'take' on the Big Book)
This
tome is much reviled in cult circles (especially amongst the Big Book
nutters who regard it as almost heretical! (A point of interest:
if you're looking for meetings largely free of the aforementioned
'fruitcakes', and for that matter sundry other screwballs, then
a Twelve Step meeting following the format of the above text is
usually a safe bet). The text we will be using is as indicated
above. And now we come to the:
“Foreword
Alcoholics
Anonymous is a worldwide fellowship of more than one hundred
thousand* alcoholic men and women who are banded together to solve
their common problems and to help fellow sufferers in recovery from
that age-old, baffling malady, alcoholism.
This
book deals with the “Twelve Steps” and the “Twelve Traditions”
of Alcoholics Anonymous. It
presents an explicit
view
[ie.
“fully and clearly expressed; leaving nothing implied”] of
the principles
by which A.A. members recover and by which their Society functions.
A.A.’s
Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature,
which, if practised as a way of life, can expel the obsession to
drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.
A.A.’s
Twelve Traditions apply to the life of the Fellowship itself. They
outline the means by which A.A. maintains its unity and relates
itself to the world about it, the way it lives and grows.
Though
the essays which follow were written mainly for members, it is
thought by many of A.A.’s friends that these pieces might arouse
interest and find application outside A.A. itself.
Many
people, nonalcoholics, report that as a result of the practice of
A.A.’s Twelve Steps, they have been able to meet other difficulties
of life. They think
_______________________
*
In 2012, it is estimated that over two million have recovered through
A.A.
that
the Twelve Steps can mean more than sobriety for problem drinkers.
They see in them a way to happy and effective living for many,
alcoholic or not.
There
is, too, a rising interest in the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Students of human relations are beginning to wonder how
and why A.A. functions as a society. Why is it, they ask, that in
A.A. no member can be set in personal authority over another [but
see here],
that nothing like a central government can anywhere be seen? How
can a set of traditional principles, having no legal force at all,
hold the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous in unity and
effectiveness? The second section of this volume, though designed for
A.A.’s membership, will give such inquirers an inside view of A.A.
never before possible.
Alcoholics
Anonymous began
in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting between a
well-known surgeon [Dr Bob – a proctologist]
and a New York broker [Bill W].
Both were severe cases of alcoholism and were destined to become
co-founders of the A.A. Fellowship.
The
basic principles of A.A., as they are known today, were borrowed
mainly from the fields of religion and medicine, though some ideas
upon which success finally depended were the result of noting the
behaviour and needs of the Fellowship itself. [eg.
parting company with the Oxford Groups]
After
three years of trial and error in selecting the most
workable [not
dogma driven] tenets
upon which the Society could be based, and after a large amount of
failure in getting alcoholics to recover, three successful groups
emerged—the first at Akron, the second at New York, and the third
at Cleveland. Even then it was hard to find two score of sure
recoveries in all three groups.
Nevertheless,
the infant Society determined to set down its experience in a book
which finally reached the public in April 1939. At this time the
recoveries numbered about one hundred. The book was called
“Alcoholics Anonymous,” and
from it the Fellowship took its name. In it alcoholism was
described from the alcoholic’s point of view [ie.
this perspective is NOT claiming to present any kind of medical
diagnosis], the spiritual ideas of the Society were
codified for the first time in the Twelve Steps, and the application
of these Steps to the alcoholic’s dilemma was made clear. The
remainder of the book was devoted to thirty stories or case histories
in which the alcoholics described their drinking experiences and
recoveries [it
would seem that talking about drink in AA meetings is OK after all
contrary to cult orthodoxy!]. This established
identification with alcoholic readers and proved to them that the
virtually impossible had now become possible. The book “Alcoholics
Anonymous” became the basic text of the Fellowship, and it still
is. This present volume proposes to broaden and deepen the
understanding of the Twelve Steps as first written in the earlier
work [which
implies that the Big Book is to be regarded as an introductory text –
not the last word!]
With
the publication of the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” in 1939, the
pioneering period ended and a prodigious chain reaction set in
as the recovered alcoholics carried their message to still others. In
the next years alcoholics flocked to A.A. by tens of thousands,
largely as the result of excellent and continuous publicity freely
given by magazines
and newspapers throughout the world. Clergymen
and doctors
alike rallied to the new movement, giving it unstinted support and
endorsement.
This
startling expansion brought with it very severe growing pains. Proof
that alcoholics could recover had been made. But it was by no
means sure that such great numbers of yet erratic people could live
and work together with harmony and good effect.
Everywhere
there arose threatening questions of membership, money,
personal relations, public relations, management [or
mismanagement] of groups,
clubs,
and scores of other perplexities. It was out of this vast welter of
explosive experience that A.A.’s Twelve Traditions took form and
were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.’s First
International Convention, held at Cleveland in 1950. The Tradition
section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which
finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present
form, substance, and unity.
As
A.A. now enters maturity, it has begun to reach into forty foreign
lands.* In
the view of its friends, this is but the beginning of its unique and
valuable service.
It
is hoped that this volume will afford all who read it a close-up view
of the principles and forces which have made Alcoholics Anonymous
what it is.
(A.A.’s
General Service Office may be reached by writing:
Alcoholics
Anonymous, P.O. Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163.
U.S.A.)
_______________________________
*
In 2012, A.A. is established in approximately 170 countries.”
(our emphases)(our
observations in red print)
Coming
next - Step One
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
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