The Good Guys Discouraged by the bad guys. Professionals

[Guest guest]

I'm going to stop this flooding but you do get the idea that the medical

community has many who hide behind degrees.

Carol

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 07:23:15 -0400

Reply-To: ADD_MED LIST Addiction Medicine

Sender: ADD_MED LIST Addiction Medicine

Subject: Re: Knowledge about AA/NA groups

To: ADD_MED@...

One of the complexities we impose on the utter simplicity of AA is that it

can be

viewed as a treatment and as an agent of social change, rather than what it

is; a

fellowship of alcoholics with both a common problem and a common solution.

If this were a race, and science were indeed " lagging " behind AA, it would

be in

not scientifically understanding that spirituality combined with fellowship

is a

real force for positive change in many people, whether thru religious

movements

or thru AA.

Meanwhile, if anyone wants to get an expanded view of AA as a social

movement in

a novel way, i recommend these two oldie but goodie books:

Fanshen, by Hinton. UofC Berkeley Books.

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, by Jay Lifton, WW

Norton.

Both books are about the Chinese revolution, a movement i think is very

different

from European communism, altho i hasten to say i am not an expert on

either. The

two books present VERY different views of the same phenomenon. Hinton takes

the

reader into the pastoral scene of a rural village. Lifton intensely

interviewed a

small number of people who had been brainwashed. Hinton is an agriculturist

and

author, Lifton a psychiatrist.

My own very personal reaction to the books, in hindsight, is that Lifton

did an

remarkably good, altho unintentional, job of describing key behavioral

aspects of

the " TC " style of therapeutic community, a la Daytop (my alma mater), while

Hinton captured more of the essence of AA (my way of life).

peace,

john

PS I just re-read Lifton's Chapter 23, " Ideological Totalism. " I think i will

read it yet again. It and the entire book can be applied without malice to

AA as

well as TC's, not to denigrate, but to understand. , you might find it

interesting.

Garber MD wrote:

> Jovian:

>

> I do not know what in particular sparked your vituperative outburst. I too

> have a lot of difficulty with the manner in which twelve step dogma seems to

> have virtual complete hegemony in recovery circles. That its underpinnings

> are purely empirical, at best. But I don't think it is the product of any

> conspiracy. It merely reflects the fact that medicine and medical science

> have lagged decades behind the lay recovery community in addressing

addiction

> issues. People with addictions face a far greater conspiracy than could

> possibly be engineered by AA, and that is the conspiracy of indifference on

> the part of the public, policy makers and the medical community. Your

rant is

> not without merit. But really, must you shout?

>

> Garber MD

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Life is a candy store.

Visit: Information on recovery alternatives at

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