AA Program: Abstaining Alcoholism

Words: 372
Pages: 2
Open Document
AA's program extends beyond abstaining alcohol.[33] Its goal is to effect enough change in the alcoholic's thinking "to bring about recovery from alcoholism"[34] through "an entire psychic change," or spiritual awakening.[35] A spiritual awakening is meant to be achieved by taking the Twelve Steps,[36] and sobriety is furthered by volunteering for AA[37] and regular AA meeting attendance[38] or contact with AA members.[36] Members are encouraged to find an experienced fellow alcoholic, called a sponsor, to help them understand and follow the AA program. The sponsor should preferably have experience of all twelve of the steps, be the same sex as the sponsored person, and refrain from imposing personal views on the sponsored person.[37] Following …show more content…
AA shares the view that acceptance of one's inherent limitations is critical to finding one's proper place among other humans and God. Such ideas are described as "Counter-Enlightenment" because they are contrary to the Enlightenment's ideal that humans have the capacity to make their lives and societies a heaven on earth using their own power and reason.[33] After evaluating AA's literature and observing AA meetings for sixteen months, sociologists David R. Rudy and Arthur L. Greil found that for an AA member to remain sober a high level of commitment is necessary. This commitment is facilitated by a change in the member's worldview. To help members stay sober AA must, they argue, provide an all-encompassing worldview while creating and sustaining an atmosphere of transcendence in the organization. To be all-encompassing AA's ideology places an emphasis on tolerance rather than on a narrow religious worldview that could make the organization unpalatable to potential members and thereby limit its effectiveness. AA's emphasis on the spiritual nature of its program, however, is necessary to institutionalize a feeling of transcendence. A tension results from the risk that the necessity of transcendence, if taken too literally, would compromise AA's efforts to maintain a broad appeal. As this tension is an integral part of AA, Rudy and Greil argue that AA is best described as a quasi-religious
Show More

Related Documents: AA Program: Abstaining Alcoholism

Prohibition: Prohibition in the United States and Alcohol Essay

repealed in U.S. History. The roots of Prohibition can be traced back to go back the Temperance Movement which began in the early 1800’s.3 The Temperance movement was the key to the ratification of the 18th Amendment. Temperance at first meant abstaining from distilled liquors, but later would be the complete avoidance of alcohol.4 Both men and women would participate in the temperance movement across the U.S. In the 1820's, the Temperance movement sought to make Americans into a clean, sober…

Words 3635 - Pages 15