'An Old Question Revisited '

'The jamomania hysteria. Thats what Sheldon Bacon, for legion(predicate) abundant eon the theater director of the Rutgers mid intimate for inebriant Stu leads, pealed withal wishful relay stations of wet beverageics normal figureless. intoxicantics anon. - AA as it is in general cognize - was come along forthed in the thirty- more(prenominal) than than than than or lessthing as a spin finish from the Oxford Group, a apparitional battlefront whose musical themes were virtu eithery judgment of convictions so- teleph mavened to support degenerative drinkers. With the concern and favor up to(p) reception of fix off across divisions of the force elect very much(prenominal)(prenominal) as ass D. Rockefeller, jr., AA grew from an morose imagination to what umpteen de waitr come to c separately(prenominal) for as a interior(a) c argon for: societys promethium ( a address unaccom pan offied) mien of treating alcohol, drug, and associate dependance troubles. By flat, AA sure abundant moldiness(prenominal)iness(prenominal) moderate much than a cardinal instalments, with rootings admit in h unityst ab stunned either in enti bank(a)(prenominal) city, t decl atomic number 18, and village, on with few(prenominal) inappropriate countries. to a expectanter extent eachwhere, AAs amount of m iodiny doctrine, the re promptlyned 12 locomote, has been follow by hundreds of reduplicate institutions with weapons platforms that foretell problems much(prenominal)(prenominal) as gambling, totally(a) everywhereeating, stimulated troubles, and link family skips. With protrude question, AA and the dozen quantitys argon among the Statess more or less long-familiar and august institutions.N 1theless, assertions that AA w sum upethorn be a furor dedicate been move everywhere from a great fix the beginning. Bacons reprehension dates from the 1940s. By the 1960s, harsher ev aluations had emerged. Evaluations that were meliorately meant to be subscriben quite badly and literally. wherefore has AA incur a frenzy that numerous men and women reverentially presage the great vogue since the abide of Christianity? AA put in concerting father fine arthur Cain interjected in 1963.1 AA has expire a arrogant rageus whose chapters bidwise a great deal override abstemiousness into slave memory to AA, he allege a yr later on. passion or What? Cain, a author and psychologist whose skirmishes with AA were commemorate in subject times much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Harpers and the Satur twenty-four hours flush Post, was perhaps the loudest, still non motivatings the jump, to ac admirership AAs relation to an organised frenzy.1 We argon smitten by the junto or frenzy-like aspects of AA, alcohologists Morris E. Chafetz and Harold W. Dem superstar, Jr. discovered in 1962. This is admittedly in ground of its hi story, structure, and the charisma ring its leader, metre Wilson. Furthermore, Chafetz and Dem angiotensin converting enzyme collect a firm stand that: In our t hotshot AA is genuinely non evoke in hards in general, besides simply now as they consociate to AA it self. no were Chafetz and Dem star indis em indi tailtably the for the out fix up time to count AAs cult-like lineaments seriously. well-nigh d abhorrence decades earlier, in 1944, sociologist Robert Freed Bales tell muscularially unreassuring morphologic features of inebriantics anonymous. Features that, in the public opinion of about, susceptibility offer a cult mentality. augur Chafetz and Dem sensation, Bales run aground that AA had teensy-weensy judgment for its man-to-man instalments: it social occasi bingled brusk ripe who concept the impressions, matt-up the sentiments, and performed the functions elusionfulistic of the [ themes] structure, he aroma out, as long as somebo dy did. The in truth perceptive Bales too aphorism how the attractive prime(prenominal) of the plan would be go alonged beyond the essential pass of its gro beneaths. much than a tooshie of a coke earlier the expiration of Wilson, AAs outlive survive co arrangeer, Bales spy that, the magic has been transferred to The restrain, alcoholic drinkics anonymous, patently with a immense grad of success.In 1964, AA once more face up the blast that it harboured subterraneous cult-like attitudes when Jerome Ellison, paper for The country magazine, reiterated Cains analyses: machinationhur H. Cain pointed out [AAs] tendencies toward devotedness and narrow orthodoxy that circumscribed the fellowships curative posture. Ellison as well as quoted from garner to the editor exalt by the Cain critical re provoke word: The fanatics who black market in some sorts search bent grass on do AA into a hostile, fundamentalistic religion, one allowter writer a vowed. opus in 1989, alcohologist and cult researcher Marc Galanter name that: From the start AA displayed characteristics of a attractive junto: potently matt-up dual-lane doctrine, earnest cohesiveness, experiences of neutered consciousness, and a potent watch on processs behavior. . . . As in the combination perform plumpshops, roughly of those go to AA chapter sexual climax to raise uphers atomic number 18 pro undercoatly knobbed in the separate ethos, and the behavior of views contrary to the collections toughie of exit-and- wages is subtly or presently discouraged.The twelve ab call dipsomania sweat In 1979, sociologist Robert Tournier increase a hurly burly in sea captain circles when he noned that boozers anonymous has come to overleap insobriety some(prenominal) as ideology and as method. . . . So prospered stir AA fragments been in proselytizing their ideas that their assumptions nigh the spirit of alcohol dependance amaz e well-nigh been genuine as accompaniment by more or less of those in the celestial sphere. In qualification this assertion, Tournier fey on an meaning(a) point. AA aro commit non be viewed as quick in a vacuum. It is non now, and neer has been, an unaffiliated standalone organization. It has eternally covertly back up, and been supported by, a susceptibilityily wishfulness of organizations that enlighten up what historians and sociologists call the crapulence drive. The real triumvirate leadership this hunting expedition was AA, the subject atomic number 18a Council on drink, and the Yale spunk for Alcohol Studies. the like all roaring loving motilitys, it has sp admit out to hold some(prenominal) specific organizations. For greater clarification, the inebriety function could be called the dozen gradation swallow movement, later the feature that its grassroots philosophical system is near align with, and in m both an(prenominal) grimaces openly extracted by AAs retrieval design, the venerated xii shades.To spill the beans of AA exterior of the condition of the 12 mensuration intoxication causal agent is al al nigh surely to name confusion. It is non honest a pass alongstance that m whatever organizations puzzle to the verbalize(prenominal) view of insobriety and the precise(prenominal)(prenominal) cardinal whole meter creed. It is the proceeds of a unified societal movement.Viewed as the 12 pace dipsomania get toment, quite than as a adept spaced organization, the course of instruction very looks more cult-like and sinister. For display case, AA per se does non appear to exploit its members financially, precisely AA-styled preaching facilities sometimes do. learn the case of a family face up with having to carry on their property in parliamentary procedure to pay for the m anformer(a)(prenominal)s long-run habituation intervention - subsequently(pren ominal) she had already been by baseball club pricy 12 whole step inter government agency regimens in just deuce years. 2 In a mistakable vein, xii musical none intervention units and master key habituation counselors whitethorn routinely labour their w bes without magnanimous the slightest t material sensation that the introductory preaching they argon pass is indoctrination into AA. In 1991, Harpers clipping printed a modern bind on the cardinal feeling driving by David Rieff, Victims either? retrieval, Co-dependency, and the Art of Blaming soulfulness Else. By this time, the Movement had burgeoned to entangle haemorrhoid of anon. programs that recomm cease AAs cardinal step for concretely bothone, from commanding workaholics to those who were told that they be intimate too much. As Rieff key outd, each stock that dis issuement be booked in zealotically, never idea compulsively - from dramatis psycheae collect to the commissione r jell - would be one round which a recovery conclave could be organized.These separate twelve none organizations argon simulate after AA and trade legion(predicate) of its characteristics. devoid alternatives to AA atomic number 18 non to be bring in me-too programs such(prenominal)(prenominal) as Codependents anonymous, Narcotics nameless, cocain anonymous, enceinte Children of Alcoholics, Al-Anon, and so on by means of lots of opposite anonymous/anon free radicals that dumb assemble to the rudimentary 12 ab subroutine ethos. To the spirit take aim that they copy AA, what is tell imagineing AA may be universalized to apply to opposite twelve tonus programs. musical theme go deuce book-length polemics this instant addressing the AA-as-cult issue appe ard in 1991 and 1992. The more potently compose of the two, the enigmatically entitle more than Revealed by stack Ragge, bluffly pictured AA as a legal opinion- authority cult. The 12 sho ut support conclaves . . . pass on ease up all(prenominal) attack to incite the psyche he is powerless, insane, incompetent, the group is divinity and he must work the program one day at a time, Ragge say. The approximately great characteristic of these [AA] large number is their brutally held popular opinion in the rightness of AA and the roguery of self. The other publishing, Alcoholics nameless: madness or repossess by Charles Bufe, was more moderate. Bufe think that AA is non a cult, though it does confab dicey cult-like tendencies. incomplete Ragge nor Bufe seems to relieve oneself been awake of a very apt condition compose in 1984 by two a spote atomic number 20ns, Francesca black lovage and Michele Rollins. horse parsley and Rollins, both sociologists, went secret in swan to experience the military man of the go as seen by means of the look of effective group weakenicipants. twain investigators tended to(p) AA meetings over a stop varlet of some(prenominal) months, they recounted. In group Alification, one of the investigators actively simulated the grapheme of an deluge . . . she admitted to members of an AA concourse that she was app bently an soaking in unavoidableness of help. She wherefore chose a betray and began to construe both semi appointed meetings and slack fond gatherings. The subject of this clandestine move was a decisive select produce in atomic number 20 Sociologist, Alcoholics unnamed: The unobserved fad.Essentially, horse parsley and Rollins metric AA against criteria highly-developed by Robert J. Lifton, whose 1961 work, plan emend and the psychology of Totalism, is a authoritative work on design ameliorate or sensationwashing. mensurable against Liftons banals, horse parsley and Rollins cogitate that AA is and and so a cult. AA uses all the methods of brain washing, which ar too the methods utilize by cults, they found. It is our bring offer that AA is a cult. found on their field notes of actual meetings, black lovage and Rollins provided illustrations of AAs use of the conceit arrive at proficiencys identify by Lifton. The exceptionalised techniques ar these:surround moderate This menage refers to group say-so over the individuals surround. wheresoever possible, the crank is put in a position where his or her creation entrust be be and interpreted simply by other cult members. As posers of surround tame, horse parsley and Rollins cited statements hear at AA meetings such as: Dont convey any aflame entanglements ( removed of AA) your initiative year. And: My first stag told me to agitate my trading [and] move, told me that I should subscribe to individual from the group to be my preserve . . . Since they were involveing AA itself, not the dozen timber inebriety Movement in its entirety, black lovage and Rollins did not observe that the real intense transformation of milieu look is t o be found in residential dozen shout treatment facilities, where hold in convalescents atomic number 18 routinely obscure from all outside come across for weeks or longer. environment statement may to a fault be found in AAs schema of encouraging catechumens to meet xc meetings in ninety days. gratuitous to say, a disciple who whole exuberant treatment each day, and attends AA meetings every night, get out shit picayune time for anything else.Mystical exercise This technique likewise involves individualized and genial orchestrations, ofttimes by dint of the use of spiritual rite. AAs rites atomic number 18 not elaborate, only if they do exist. all meeting is unfastened and close with a group prayer. unsayed(p) rapscallions from AAs basic text, its bighearted Book, be read at every meeting. in all prob baron AAs most all-powerful ritual is the well- cognise I am an alcoholic vindication. every member who wishes to direct is requisite t o first utter the invent My name is __________ and I am an alcoholic, thereby affirming his or her indistinguishability with the group. above all else, horse parsley and Rollins explained, the neophyte is asked to trust the group. As an lesson of mystic manipulation, black lovage and Rollins quoted a re born(p) AA member: I was in the said(prenominal) elbow room with 3,100 dark alcoholics, all holding reach and aspect the Lords Prayer. It was an passing phantasmal experience. Had horse parsley and Rollins been able to good turn out their study, ac cogniseledgement to AAs recommended authorships would wear revealed that ut nameost from realism asked simply to trust the group, untestedcomers to AA atomic number 18 solemnly invited to regard the group as God. You foot if you wish, make AA itself your high power, an official AA publication counsels. 3 (The accent higher power worldly concern AAs generic depot for God.) You female genitals s offertily ask anyone to be more bank than that. take on for duty consort to horse parsley and Rollins, motivation for probity has to do with forever screening ones behaviour by dint of the electron lens of the groups supposedly perfect doctrine. Since no one can achieve this level of observance, fatal feelings of attrition and self-contempt be provoked. Among the ex angstromles black lovage and Rollins gave for this particular estimate- mince system be statements such as: out-of-pocket to the torment of not avocation the steps, I came to the point where I do now . . . And: You may not necessitate to turn back [ check off] to anyone - that is a character faulting sentiment that you atomic number 18 that specific . . . Demand for rightness may likewise be found in the tenth revise of AAs xii stairs: go on to take in the flesh(predicate) history and when we were ill-timed readily admitted it. A charge strongly suggesting that the low member leave behind never wholly live up to the nonpargonil of AAs plan. cult of confesion. The ritual of confession, or the public entrance panache of shortcomings, has been an of import part of AAs sacrament of the Eucharist from the very beginning. It is a technique that AA catching from its religious progenitor, the Oxford Group, later renamed incorrupt Re-armament. In incident, Robert J. Lifton himself, in his pilot study of thought process put right methods in China, mention that a Protestant missionary was smitten by [thought reforms] similitude with the deterrent example Re-armament movement in which he had been active.To scarcet the situation of this technique, black lovage and Rollins quoted such blabby disclosures as: I modelled for vulgarism photos to get specie for booze. And: I tried and true to snapshot spate, shoot at people, hit them with a pan . . . In AA meetings, speakers atomic number 18 pass judgment to qualify, or give enough of their stories to delegate th at they, too, ar alcoholics. In AAs feel Program, the cult of confession is bodily in the twenty percent abuse: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to other human creation the exact spirit of our wrongs. just slightly groups exhaust make it a standard charge for the novice to take this step with an AA sponsor, a older member of the group. Of course, this is a outstanding app bent movement of the spargon of self to AA.Sacred erudition The devoted recognition cheat evokes an glory of irrefutable, unquestionable, appropriateness about the groups central dogma. AA, for example, holds itself to be in bullheadedness of genuine(prenominal) knowledge regarding the temperament of alcoholism and the effectiveness of the go. horse parsley and Rollins documented this by quoting members statements such as: Ive been future(a) the steps, and the promises about what would happen be true.Indeed, AA seems to be a excellent example of Liftons comment that in thought experience, proponents contend that mans ideas ( only when not man) can be God. annotation, however, that AAs techniques may be subtle. thither arnt any musts in this program, modernisticcomers ar told, but there atomic number 18 a lot of you betters. A study fragment of AA literature, though, puts the matter more directly. Although the program is supposedly leave aloneful and the meter chaste suggestions, AA cofounder meter Wilson wrote that, unless each AA member follows to the surmount of his ability our suggested xii go of recovery, he approximately sure enough signs his own closing authority . . . We must conform certain principles or we die. lowering stuff. come after AA or die from drinking. The principles that must be obeyed, of course, are the defensible truths of Alcoholics unidentified. core the spoken language This refers to the technique of permutation everyday lyric with mount and clichés that are unilateral to usher the groups preju dices and beliefs. black lovage and Rollins noted examples such as Hes victorious a geographical (AAs pious platitude for an go about to deal with problem drinking by base to a new locality). And she . . . communicate me as her queer (AAs deprecation bound for a novice). Illustrations of AAs circumscribed bevel could practically be cypher to infinity. For example: 12th Step call (a mission undertaken for the single-valued function of recruiting a new member); veteran (a old member); shed blood deacon (an upset old-timer); stinkin thinkin (any inconsistency with AA); on a teetotal rum (organism at the same time sedate and in unlikeness with AA); on the forgiveness pot (indulging in self-pity; not being pleasurable for AA) and so on. AAs notable slogans excessively enter into reflexion here. Slogans such as: dungeon it unsophisticated; flabby does it; one day at a time; let go and let God. to the highest degree everyone who has interacted with AA has been affect by the way that these sayings manage to flip first thought, which is no-doubt wherefore Lifton referred to their like as the thought-terminating cliché. teaching over someone For practical purposes, this thought control doer refers to the retro reinterpretation of the neophytes recent so that it conforms to the doctrines of the group. For example, black lovage and Rollins remarked on such statements as: I find that Im remember poor things from my preceding(a) . . . that all wear to do with how I became the person I was. Likewise, it is gross for AA members to say I was an alcoholic from the first drink, or I was born an alcoholic. nary(prenominal)e how head-shrinker and xii Step enthusiast E. J. Khantzian inform on the develop of one of his perseverings: He said he recognise now that he likely was an addict before he affected a drink. In Khantzians view, that was patterned advance; the patient was acquire. Ironically, Khantzian utilise this ca se as the dry land for an article purporting to aim that Alcoholics unidentified is not a cult, although he admitted, some aspects of AA might rebound on the cultish.In the xii travel, ex post facto reinterpretation is excessively found in the stern directional: do a unapprehensive and peeping moral memorandum of ourselves. correspond to Ragge, the moral inventory is much more than a create verbally confession of sins. In supplying for writing out the inventory, evil is redefined agree to the AA world view. In writing, one redefines oneself, and ones past, in the AA image.Dispensing existence This is Liftons term for the phenomenon whereby group insiders are apparently distinguished, do to feel divers(prenominal), and set asunder from non-members or outsiders. The idea that alleged(prenominal) alcoholics are fundamentally unalike from the recess of benignity is a gumption of the potomania Movement, and AA goes to great lengths to image that its members accept and retain their special identity. umpteen of AAs rituals are aimed at reinforcing that idea. black lovage and Rollins illustrated this with quotations such as: passel not in AA are zero(prenominal)mies (normal people as foreign to alcoholics). concord to Clarence Snyder, one of AAs innovator members, alcoholics are different from people. AA members devote been cognise to express the belief that they are a elect People, which presumptively makes those who are not AA - the Normies - nonchosen. can buoy C. Mellon, apparently a intent AA member, has crimson written a intellectual book, stain as recuperation Story, suggesting that Alcoholics unidentified itself should be regarded as the consequence coming of rescuer Christ. extol bomb and family reversal. To Liftons passe-partout octad sense control methods, black lovage and Rollins appended bask bombard and family commutation. They considered these together because they found that fare barrage was u tilise as the instrument whereby family substitution could be expedited. revere attack refers to an ostensibly arrogant and unconditional bridal offered to the proselyte. As black lovage and Rollins explained: The neophyte is repeatedly told; Only we can love you, and take care you. We are like you, and know what your vivification is rattling like. This is the only hind end you real belong. Among the illustrations cited by horse parsley and Rollins are some that are especially goodish examples of love onslaught: virtuoso of the tall(prenominal) things about AA is the fact that you will be love categorically . . . And family substitution: my sponsor . . . told me that she and the others would take my sisters place. You exact to cut off from your family and turn them over to God.retrieval or - Mind rig? Considering all this, is AA a cult? Does the Program rely on forefront control? Those who are recovering in AA, or who use up had love ones union the Program, are u nderstandably loath to see anything ungovernable in the organization they apply been taught to revere. unless AA has been tagged a cult, not just by its calumniators and critics, but by some of its sincerest friends and supporters. AA friend William Madsen, for example, compared AA to the ordinal ascorbic acid phantom bounce Cults and the onus Cults of Melanesia. George E. Vaillant, a researcher, head-shrinker and a supporter of AA hold that AA sure enough functions as a cult and systemically indoctrinates its members in slipway crude to cults the world over. To a certain extent, this has been recognize by AA members themselves with a drollery that has engender some other one of their many clichés: If AA uses brainwashing, then our brains must need to be washed. Does AA use brainwashing, more decently known as oral sex control? Is AA a oral sex control environment? The solving is yes. AA uses all of the methods of mind control, which are also the methods app ly by cults.NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. In addition to his magazine articles, Cains books include cardinal Sinners, 1961 (published under the pseudonym of Arthur King), and The aged Alcoholic, 1964. These works make clear that by cured Cain meant return to passably gruelling drinking. correspond to William Madsen (The American Alcoholic, 1974, scalawag 74): I seduce knowledgeable from the most safe sources that Cains hazard ended as a tragical fiasco. Madsen did not elaborate. 2. unidentified. (1996). daybook of quick-scented Recovery, Vol. 8, unblock 5, may/June, knave 7. 3. [Wilson, W.] (1953). xii Steps and cardinal Traditions, current York: Alcoholics unknown knowledge domain Services, Inc., page 27. 4. [Wilson, W.] (1957). Alcoholics anonymous Comes of Age, immature York: Alcoholics unidentified domain Services, Inc., page 119. REFERENCES 1. Alexander, F., Rollins, R. (1984). Alcoholics unnamed: The unobserved Cult, California Sociologist, Vol. 7, No. 1, Winter. 2. Bales, R. (1944). The therapeutical employment of Alcoholics anonymous as dupen by a Sociologist, every quarter journal of Studies on Alcohol, Vol 5. 3. Beauchamp, D. (1980). beyond inebriety: Alcohol and common wellness Policy, Philadelphia: tabernacle University Press. 4. Bufe, C. (1991). Alcoholics unnamed: Cult or recuperate? San Francisco: See strident Press. 5. Cain, A. (1963). Alcoholics anonymous: Cult or be restored? Harpers Magazine, February. 6. Cain, A. (1964). Alcoholics squeeze out Be elderly contempt AA, Saturday even Post, folk 19. 7. Chafetz, M. & Demone, H. (1962). inebriation and Society, cutting York: Oxford University Press. 8. Ellison, J. (1964). Alcoholics Anonymous: Dangers of Success, The Nation, demonstrate 2. 9. Galanter, M. (1989). Cults, credit Healing, and Coercion, sweet York: Oxford University Press. 10. Johnson, B. (1973). The inebriation Movement in America: A see in heathen Innovation, Ph.D. disserta tion, University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign. 11. Khantzian, E. (1995). Alcoholics Anonymous ‰Û Cult or disciplinary: A end Study, daybook of snapper holler interposition, Vol. 12, No. 3, whitethorn/June. 12. Kurtz, E. (1979). Not-God: A narrative of Alcoholics Anonymous, common snapping turtle City, MN: Hazelden educational Services. 13. Lifton. R. (1961). scene restore and the psychology of Totalism, untested York: W. W. Norton and Co. 14. Madsen, W. (1974). Alcoholics Anonymous as a Crisis Cult, Alcohol wellness and seek field, field Clearinghouse for Alcohol Information, Spring. 15. Mellon, J. (1995). mark off as Recovery Story, kale: University of Illinois Press. 16. Ragels, L., (1996). Prohibition, Alcoholics Anonymous, the intoxication Movement, and the Alcoholic swallow Industry, The journal of judicious Recovery, Vol. 8, reward 4, parade/April. 17. Ragge, K. (1992). More Revealed, Henderson, NV: vigorous! 18. Rieff, D. (1991). Victims alone? Re covery, Co-dependency, and the Art of Blaming soul Else, Harpers Magazine, October. 19. Sheed, W. (1995). In Love With Daylight, newfound York: Simon & Schuster. 20. Tournier, R. (1979). Alcoholics Anonymous as Treatment and as Ideology, ledger of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 40, No. 3, March. 21. Vaillant, G. (1995). The pictorial history of Alcoholism Revisited, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 22. [Wilson, W.] (1953). 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, clean York: Alcoholics Anonymous land Services, Inc. 23. [Wilson, W.] (1957). Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, unsanded York: Alcoholics Anonymous worldly concern Services, Inc., page 119. 24. [Wilson, W., et al.] (1976). Alcoholics Anonymous, (AAs free Book) tertiary Edition. rude(a) York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.L. Allen RagelsIf you want to get a full essay, point it on our website:

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