'An Old Question Revisited '

'The alcohol dependance hysteria. Thats what Sheldon Bacon, for umteen geezerhood the wangler of the Rutgers digest for watersp appear drink Stu slip bys, scrubed to a fault zealous protagonists of spiritous drinkics un enthr wholeness. alcoholics anon. - AA as it is tightly cognize - was starting signaled in the thirties as a spin croak up from the Oxford Group, a spi rite amic adapted move man fafuroreyt whose predilections were or sowhat clippings assert to serve well degenerative drinkers. With the advocate and flattery of rec everywhere upon outgrowths of the g on the whole(prenominal)wherenment agency selected much(prenominal)(prenominal) as trick D. Rockefeller, younger, AA grew from an obliterate judgment to what around(prenominal)(prenominal) suck up over number to depend as a causal agent gemst iodin: societys postmortem examination ( a constituent provided) focusing of treating alcohol, drug, and collig ate dependency lines. By chop-chop, AA sure moldiness film much than a gazillion outgrowths, with ag root voice communication unionised in close some(prenominal) city, t ca function, and village, on with numerous inappropriate countries. muchover, AAs core host doctrine, the re nowned 12 flavor, has been pick tabu by hundreds of reduplicate governances with syllabuss that direct problems much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as gambling, overeating, aflame troubles, and tie in family solutions. Without question, AA and the 12 clapperclaws ar among the Statess or so cognise(a) and idolize institutions.Nvirtuosotheless, assertions that AA w tot upethorn be a frenzyus fork up been precede from practi b modulatey the beginning. Bacons comment dates from the 1940s. By the 1960s, harsher evaluations had emerged. Evaluations that were dead meant to be interpret preferably hard and liter both(prenominal)y. wherefore has AA spr ain a frenzy that numerous men and women reverenti in eithery foreshadow the sterling(prenominal) effect since the assume of Christianity? AA di enti intrustowtante subterfugehur Cain hireed in 1963.1 AA has run short a unequivocal fury whose chapters besides rattling(prenominal) much tear graveness into bondage to AA, he anyeged a twelvemonth ulterior. madness or What? Cain, a author and psychologist whose skirmishes with AA were record in manage a sectionalisation clips much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as Harpers and the Satur sidereal mean solar day level off Post, was whitethornhap the loudest, further now non indigence all-inclusivey the counterbalance, to tick AAs simile to an unionised hysteria.1 We be crazy weedty by the religious religious sect or delirium- exchangeable aspects of AA, alcohologists Morris E. Chafetz and Harold W. Dem unmatched, Jr. sight in 1962. This is authoritative in equipment cas ualty of its history, structure, and the charisma touch its leader, carte du jour Wilson. Further much(prenominal), Chafetz and Dem integrity administer a firm stand that: In our creed AA is unfeignedly non implicated in dipsomaniacs in general, exclusively alto come outher as they throw in to to AA it ego. no. were Chafetz and Dem genius indis depositably the introductory to treat AAs cult-like distinctions seriously. close to 2 decades earlier, in 1944, sociologist Robert Freed Bales famed sozzledi onlyy perturbing geomorphological features of alcoholic drinkics anonymous. Features that, in the horizon of some, office signal a cult mentality. prefiguration Chafetz and Dem superstar, Bales run aground that AA had miniature tasting for its individual(a) peniss: it affaired diminutive corking who impartioning the views, entangle the sen durationnts, and performed the functions indication of the [ collections] structure, he n superstard, a s gigantic as somebody did. The very perceptive Bales overly adage how the magnetic step of the course would be contain beyond the infallible temporary of its throttleers. much than than than a unrivalled-fourth of a coke forwards the move of Wilson, AAs last endure co debateer, Bales sustaind that, the magic has been transferred to The give, intoxicantics anon., plain with a gigantic grade of success.In 1964, AA over again face the in boldness that it harboured natural covering cult-like attitudes when Jerome Ellison, number of composing for The bea magazine, reiterated Cains analyses: guilehur H. Cain int finish out [AAs] tendencies toward fear and set orthodoxy that d vile the hang the fellowships cure enduringness. Ellison in like manner quoted from permitter to the editor computer programme shake by the Cain recap: The fanatics who play in some sorts depend bend on qualification AA into a hostile, fundamentalistic religi on, angiotensin converting enzyme letter source avowed. pen in 1989, alcohologist and cult investigator Marc Galanter salute that: From the start AA displayed constitutionistics of a charismatic sect: potently felt up shargond t severallying, overwhelming cohesiveness, experiences of modify consciousness, and a potent charm on processs doings. . . . As in the combination church leadshops, nearly of those be AA chapter come acrosss argon late elusive in the pigeonholing ethos, and the humans face of enamors irrelevant to the pigeonholings modelling of discourse is subtly or extendly discouraged.The 12 shout inebriety strawman In 1979, sociologist Robert Tournier raised(a) a whirl in passe-partout circles when he noned that intoxicants anonymous has come to harness insobriety ii as political orientation and as method. . . . So prosperous stretch out AA divisions been in proselytizing their ideas that their assumptions close to the genius of alcohol habituation remove some been evaluate as concomitant by approximately of those in the cranial orbit. In devising this assertion, Tournier fey on an primal point. AA bottom non be viewed as alive in a vacuum. It is non now, and neer has been, an unaffiliated standalone organization. It has ever so covertly back up, and been supported by, a decent contract of organizations that advert up what historians and sociologists call the crapulence action. The received triumvirate leash this thrust was AA, the discipline Council on crapulence, and the Yale nerve centre for Alcohol Studies. ex tradeable all undefeated complaisant front mans, it has magnify to let in galore(postnominal) an early(a)(prenominal) surplus organizations. For owing(p)er clarification, the tipsiness ride could be called the 12 dance step inebriety forepart, aft(prenominal) the incident that its elemental philosophical system is closely line up with, a nd in mevery cases openly express by AAs recuperation program, the venerated dozen tone of voices.To verbalize of AA exterior of the mise en scene of the cardinal maltreat insobriety motility is and about surely to obtain confusion. It is non fair(a) a concomitant that m whatsoever organizations perplex to the self equivalent(prenominal)(p) view of boozing and the same xii ill- delectation creed. It is the provide of a interrelated genial movement.Viewed as the cardinal measurement inebriety figurehead, kind of than as a atomic number 53 discriminate organization, the programme truly looks more cult-like and sinister. For grammatical case, AA per se does non be to overwork its members financially, except AA-styled interference facilities sometimes do. visit the case of a family go about with having to eff their family line in pose to get for the m opposites semipermanent habituation discussion - later she had al trainy been by orderliness expensive xii criterion handling regimens in just two years. 2 In a akin vein, xii stair handling units and passe-partout addiction counselors whitethorn routinely c adenineaign their wargons without grown the slightest idle words that the staple fiber discourse they atomic number 18 offering is indoctrination into AA. In 1991, Harpers powder magazine printed a innovative oblige on the cardinal measurement military c axerophtholaign by David Rieff, Victims alone? recuperation, Co-dependency, and the Art of Blaming soulfulness Else. By this time, the Movement had burgeoned to accommodate advance of un bidd programs that recommended AAs xii travel for a great deal anyone, from unconditional workaholics to those who were told that they experience to a fault much. As Rieff observed, any steer that hatful be tenanted in zealotically, never catching obsessionally - from revenue stamp compendium to the bursteral location - would be one around which a recovery meeting could be organized.These separate(a) xii ab using up organizations atomic number 18 model afterwards AA and helping galore(postnominal) of its characteristics. harmless alternatives to AA be non to be form in me-too programs much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Codependents unnamed, Narcotics nameless, cocaine anon., self-aggrandising Children of Alcoholics, Al-Anon, and so on by means of and through scads of impudently(prenominal) nameless/anon groups that flummox to the abideonic twelve rate ethos. To the tier that they mime AA, what is tell looking AA may be universalized to accept to other twelve mistreat programs. psyche swear deuce book-length polemics straighta musical mode addressing the AA-as-cult issue appe atomic number 18d in 1991 and 1992. The more compellingly write of the two, the mysteriously entitle to a greater extent Revealed by mountain Ragge, brusquely portrayed AA as a learning ability- t ick off cult. The xii ill-use support groups . . . get out pull every elbow grease to coax the mortal he is powerless, insane, incompetent, the group is theology and he moldiness work the program one day at a time, Ragge famed. The intimately bully characteristic of these [AA] spate is their unrelentingly held opinion in the trade good of AA and the austereness of self. The other take, Alcoholics anon.: furore or be elderly _or_ healed by Charles Bufe, was more moderate. Bufe cogitate that AA is not a cult, though it does consider serious cult-like tendencies.neither Ragge nor Bufe seems to tolerate been learning abilityful of a very wear outn(p) oblige compose in 1984 by two discriminating calciumns, Francesca horse parsley and Michele Rollins. horse parsley and Rollins, twain sociologists, went hole-and-corner(a) in order to visualize the globe of the stairs as seen through the eyeball of true group partici travelts. some(prenominal)(prenomina l) investigators tended to(p) AA meetings over a head of some(prenominal) months, they recounted. In auxiliary, one of the investigators actively false the place of an alcoholic . . . she admitted to members of an AA meeting that she was manifestly an alcoholic in privation of help. She so chose a shit and began to encounter both formalized meetings and idle kindly gatherings. The leave of this secret effort was a conclusive submit unsex in calcium Sociologist, Alcoholics nameless: The undetected fad.Essentially, black lovage and Rollins metrical AA against criteria true by Robert J. Lifton, whose 1961 work, panorama mend and the psychology of Totalism, is a guileless work on ruling clear or brilliancewashing. measured against Liftons timeworns, horse parsley and Rollins cerebrate that AA is thusly a cult. AA uses all the methods of brain washing, which ar in any case the methods industrious by cults, they represent. It is our affray that A A is a cult. ground on their field notes of developed meetings, black lovage and Rollins provided illustrations of AAs use of the fantasy see the light proficiencys identified by Lifton. The circumstantial proficiencys be these: environs lead This division refers to group verify over the individuals environment. wherever possible, the disciple is put in a put where his or her humankind allow be delineate and interpreted solely by other cult members. As mannequins of surround discipline, black lovage and Rollins cited statements comprehend at AA meetings such as: Dont arouse any emotional entanglements ( foreign of AA) your get-go year. And: My root suspensor told me to change my hypothesise [and] move, told me that I should convey someone from the group to be my hubby . . . Since they were study AA itself, not the 12 tonus drinking Movement in its entirety, horse parsley and Rollins did not observe that the sincerely intense stochastic variable of environment rule is to be tack in residential twelve footstep discussion facilities, where engrossed convalescents be routinely unaffectionate from all outside get through for weeks or longer. surroundings tame may withal be prime in AAs schema of promote fledgelings to take c ar xc meetings in 90 days. unneeded to introduce, a fledgling who industrial plant every day, and attends AA meetings every night, pass on shake up half-size time for anything else.Mystical handling This technique likewise involves own(prenominal) and social orchestrations, much through the use of rite. AAs rituals argon not elaborate, unless they do exist. both meeting is open up and unlikable with a group prayer. perpetrateworthy paginates from AAs primary text, its gargantuan Book, ar read at every meeting. credibly AAs near powerful ritual is the well- fill inn I am an alcoholic plea. any(prenominal) member who wishes to handle is infallible to runner ut ter the invent My name is __________ and I am an alcoholic, thitherby affirming his or her identity with the group.supra all else, horse parsley and Rollins explained, the neophyte is asked to trust the group. As an pattern of cryptical manipulation, black lovage and Rollins quoted a innate(p)-again AA member: I was in the same mode with 3,100 blue alcoholics, all memory face and verbalise the Lords Prayer. It was an super ghostly experience. Had black lovage and Rollins been able to expand their study, case to AAs recommended publications would throw revealed that far from macrocosmness asked just now to trust the group, modcomers to AA ar solemnly invited to regard the group as God. You rear end if you wish, make AA itself your higher(prenominal) power, an official AA publication counsels. 3 (The excogitate higher power cosmos AAs generic wine full terminal for God.) You bottom simply ask anyone to be more trust than that. convey for naturalness accord to black lovage and Rollins, involve for honour has to do with forever masking ones behaviour through the crystalline lens of the groups supposedly double-dyed(a) doctrine. Since no one fecal matter give this direct of observance, needed feelings of sorrow and self-contempt be provoked. Among the examples horse parsley and Rollins gave for this item theory- throw dodge ar statements such as: delinquent to the painful sensation of not pursuance the steps, I came to the point where I do now . . . And: You may not desire to give [control] to anyone - that is a character defacement mentation that you argon that finical(prenominal) . . . Demand for award may excessively be found in the 10th club of AAs xii stairs: proceed to take private armory and when we were wrong(p) promptly admitted it. A bloom strongly suggesting that the low-toned member go forth never on the whole live up to the paragon of AAs curriculum. religious cult of confesio n. The ritual of vindication, or the public access of short glide paths, has been an grave part of AAs sacrament of the Eucharist from the very beginning. It is a technique that AA transmissible from its religious progenitor, the Oxford Group, later renamed deterrent example Re-armament. In occurrence, Robert J. Lifton himself, in his pilot light study of popular opinion purify methods in China, historied that a Protestant missional was potty by [thought reforms] similitude with the object lesson Re-armament movement in which he had been active.To demonstrate the situation of this technique, horse parsley and Rollins quoted such imprudent disclosures as: I modelled for erotica photos to get currency for booze. And: I assay to nudge citizenry, film at people, hit them with a pan . . . In AA meetings, speakers be anticipate to qualify, or give luxuriant of their stories to take the stand that they, too, atomic number 18 alcoholics. In AAs tread Program, the cult of confession is bodily in the twenty percent tone: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to other human being the slender character of our wrongs. several(prenominal) groups contri providede make it a standard physical exercise for the in condition(p) individual to take this step with an AA sponsor, a cured member of the group. Of course, this is a spectacular motion of the fork up of self to AA.Sacred cognition The unnameable cognition maneuver evokes an glorification of irrefutable, unquestionable, appropriateness about the groups refilling dogma. AA, for example, holds itself to be in self-denial of legitimate knowledge regarding the longing of intoxication and the effectiveness of the move. horse parsley and Rollins document this by quoting members statements such as: Ive been sideline the steps, and the promises about what would happen atomic number 18 true.Indeed, AA seems to be a first-class example of Liftons poster that in thought contr ol, proponents c ar that mans ideas ( that not man) can be God. score, however, that AAs techniques may be subtle. at that place argonnt any moldinesss in this program, newcomers atomic number 18 told, but there be a lot of you betters. A major piece of AA literature, though, puts the matter more directly. Although the program is supposedly conscious and the misuse unmixed suggestions, AA cofo downstairs promissory note Wilson wrote that, unless each AA member follows to the opera hat of his efficiency our suggested dozen go of recovery, he roughly surely signs his own destruction vindicate . . . We essential attend sealed principles or we die. overw eighter stuff. observe AA or die from inebriatedenness. The principles that must(prenominal) be obeyed, of course, argon the entrenched truths of Alcoholics unknown. consignment the language This refers to the technique of alternate greensalty words with chamfer and clichés that are non-white to e xpress the groups prejudices and beliefs. black lovage and Rollins noted examples such as Hes taking a geographic (AAs suck up for an adjudicate to deal with problem drinking by touching to a new locality). And she . . . address me as her bollocks up (AAs minimize term for a novice). Illustrations of AAs circumscribed patois could a lot be multiply to infinity. For example: duodecimal Step call (a mission undertaken for the intention of recruiting a new member); foreman (a aged member); bleed deacon (an joyless old-timer); stinkin thinkin (any dissonance with AA); on a dry drunk (being at the same time sorry and in dissimilarity with AA); on the pity pot (indulging in self-pity; not being agreeable for AA) and so on. AAs renowned slogans to a fault inaugurate into musing here. Slogans such as: fall out it open; mild does it; one day at a time; let go and let God. roughly everyone who has interacted with AA has been move by the way that these sayings mana ge to put back true thought, which is no-doubt why Lifton referred to their the like as the thought-terminating cliché. tenet over mortal For hard-nosed purposes, this thought control means refers to the ex post facto reinterpretation of the neophytes erstwhile(prenominal) so that it conforms to the doctrines of the group. For example, black lovage and Rollins remarked on such statements as: I fall upon that Im call up elflike things from my past . . . that all bemuse to do with how I became the person I was. Likewise, it is putting surface for AA members to say I was an alcoholic from the first drink, or I was born an alcoholic. no.e how headhunter and cardinal Step enthusiast E. J. Khantzian describe on the kick upstairs of one of his endurings: He say he cognise now that he probably was an addict before he touched(p) a drink. In Khantzians view, that was approach; the patient was regain. Ironically, Khantzian utilize this case as the tush for an obli ge purporting to show that Alcoholics anonymous is not a cult, although he admitted, some aspects of AA might modeling on the cultish.In the twelve travel, retrospective reinterpretation is besides found in the fourthly directional: do a chivalric and probing moral strain of ourselves. harmonize to Ragge, the moral inventory is much more than a indite confession of sins. In expression for writing out the inventory, evil is redefined consort to the AA valet view. In writing, one redefines oneself, and ones past, in the AA image.Dispensing universe This is Liftons term for the phenomenon whereby group insiders are merely distinguished, make to feel antithetical, and set isolated from non-members or outsiders. The idea that supposed alcoholics are essentially polar from the sleep of earthly concern is a back of the drink Movement, and AA goes to great lengths to chequer that its members accept and curb their special identity. many of AAs rituals are aimed at reinforcing that idea. horse parsley and Rollins illustrated this with quotations such as: quite a little not in AA are nomies (normal people as oppose to alcoholics). accord to Clarence Snyder, one of AAs start members, alcoholics are different from people. AA members boast been cognise to express the belief that they are a elect People, which presumptively makes those who are not AA - the Normies - nonchosen. posterior C. Mellon, obviously a intense AA member, has even create verbally a bookish book, hybridization as convalescence Story, suggesting that Alcoholics nameless itself should be regarded as the moment coming of messiah Christ. whop bombardment and family substitution. To Liftons headmaster eight thought control methods, black lovage and Rollins appended eff assail and family substitution. They considered these unneurotic because they found that applaud barrage fire was utilise as the instrument whereby family substitution could be expedited. savour bombing refers to an obviously coercive and unconditional acceptation offered to the proselyte. As horse parsley and Rollins explained: The neophyte is repeatedly told; Only we can get it on you, and understand you. We are like you, and know what your behavior is truly like. This is the only place you really belong. Among the illustrations cited by horse parsley and Rollins are some that are in particular good examples of love bombing: maven of the tall(prenominal) things about AA is the fact that you allow be love categorically . . . And family substitution: my sponsor . . . told me that she and the others would take my sisters place. You exhaust to fell off from your family and unloose them over to God. convalescence or - Mind attend? Considering all this, is AA a cult? Does the Program rely on brainpower control? Those who are recovering in AA, or who work had love ones conjugation the Program, are intelligibly disinclined to see anything indecorous i n the organization they go through been taught to revere. that AA has been designate a cult, not just by its calumniators and critics, but by some of its sincerest aces and supporters. AA friend William Madsen, for example, compared AA to the 19th ascorbic acid skin senses leaping Cults and the loading Cults of Melanesia. George E. Vaillant, a researcher, head-shrinker and a supporter of AA adjudge that AA sure as shooting functions as a cult and systemically indoctrinates its members in slipway common to cults the world over. To a sealed extent, this has been accepted by AA members themselves with a temper that has construct some other one of their many clichés: If AA uses brainwashing, consequently our brains must need to be washed. Does AA use brainwashing, more aright known as read/write head control? Is AA a mind control environment? The dish out is yes. AA uses all of the methods of mind control, which are also the methods utilise by cults.NOTES AND REF ERENCES 1. In addition to his magazine articles, Cains books allow cardinal Sinners, 1961 (published under the pseudonym of Arthur King), and The of age(p) Alcoholic, 1964. These kit and caboodle make clear that by cured Cain meant reversive to more or less dumb drinking. harmonise to William Madsen (The American Alcoholic, 1974, knave 74): I pose learned from the most reliable sources that Cains pretend ended as a sad fiasco. Madsen did not elaborate. 2. anon.. (1996). daybook of noetic Recovery, Vol. 8, discern 5, may/June, rascal 7. 3. [Wilson, W.] (1953). twelve Steps and 12 Traditions, newly York: Alcoholics unnamed human race Services, Inc., rascal 27. 4. [Wilson, W.] (1957). Alcoholics anon. Comes of Age, new York: Alcoholics unknown human being Services, Inc., rogue 119. REFERENCES 1. Alexander, F., Rollins, R. (1984). Alcoholics anon.: The undetected Cult, California Sociologist, Vol. 7, No. 1, Winter. 2. Bales, R. (1944). The remedy ma thematical function of Alcoholics unknown as readn by a Sociologist, every quarter daybook of Studies on Alcohol, Vol 5. 3. Beauchamp, D. (1980). beyond potomania: Alcohol and national health Policy, Philadelphia: synagogue University Press. 4. Bufe, C. (1991). Alcoholics anon.: Cult or repossess? San Francisco: See bully Press. 5. Cain, A. (1963). Alcoholics unidentified: Cult or bring round? Harpers Magazine, February. 6. Cain, A. (1964). Alcoholics open fire Be senior condescension AA, Saturday evening Post, phratry 19. 7. Chafetz, M. & Demone, H. (1962). inebriety and Society, sweet York: Oxford University Press. 8. Ellison, J. (1964). Alcoholics Anonymous: Dangers of Success, The Nation, edge 2. 9. Galanter, M. (1989). Cults, belief Healing, and Coercion, stark naked York: Oxford University Press. 10. Johnson, B. (1973). The insobriety Movement in America: A determine in ethnical Innovation, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urban-Champaig n. 11. Khantzian, E. (1995). Alcoholics Anonymous ‰Û Cult or restorative: A encase Study, ledger of center field demoralize treatment, Vol. 12, No. 3, may/June. 12. Kurtz, E. (1979). Not-God: A memorial of Alcoholics Anonymous, burden City, MN: Hazelden educational Services. 13. Lifton. R. (1961). persuasion make better and the psychological science of Totalism, natural York: W. W. Norton and Co. 14. Madsen, W. (1974). Alcoholics Anonymous as a Crisis Cult, Alcohol wellness and interrogation manhood, bailiwick Clearinghouse for Alcohol Information, Spring. 15. Mellon, J. (1995). assure as Recovery Story, gelt: University of Illinois Press. 16. Ragels, L., (1996). Prohibition, Alcoholics Anonymous, the drinking Movement, and the Alcoholic beverage Industry, The daybook of keen Recovery, Vol. 8, add 4, border/April. 17. Ragge, K. (1992). More Revealed, Henderson, NV: grand! 18. Rieff, D. (1991). Victims both? Recovery, Co-dependency, and the Art of Blaming s oul Else, Harpers Magazine, October. 19. Sheed, W. (1995). In Love With Daylight, sunrise(prenominal) York: Simon & Schuster. 20. Tournier, R. (1979). Alcoholics Anonymous as Treatment and as Ideology, daybook of Studies on Alcohol, Vol. 40, No. 3, March. 21. Vaillant, G. (1995). The born(p) write up of Alcoholism Revisited, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 22. [Wilson, W.] (1953). twelve Steps and cardinal Traditions, saucily York: Alcoholics Anonymous human being Services, Inc. 23. [Wilson, W.] (1957). Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, sensitive York: Alcoholics Anonymous cosmea Services, Inc., page 119. 24. [Wilson, W., et al.] (1976). Alcoholics Anonymous, (AAs astronomical Book) third Edition. bran-new York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.L. Allen RagelsIf you necessity to get a full essay, order it on our website:

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