Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? by Charles Bufe

Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure?, Charles Bufe. Tuscon AZ: See Sharp Press, 1997 (revised). 208 pps.


For those who are unfamiliar with See Sharp Press, the company self-describes as a "Publisher of anarchist, atheist, music, and science fiction books." Anyone expecting essays that are unabashedly 'pro-Alcoholics Anonymous' should look elsewhere for reading matter. Those in recovery who are willing to concede that twelve step programs may not be the only way to recover or the best way for all addicts to find recovery should consider reading this book.

A.A. does have some characteristics of a cult. And while A.A. has been successful some of the time, there are some alcoholics who do not recover in a 12 step program. Some atheists who come into the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous [and other programs using the 12 steps] do find some sort of higher power. Others do not. A few believers who come into the rooms discover after a time that they no longer believe. 

While the rehab market has almost entirely bought into the "Higher Power" stuff, I suggest that a disservice is being done to two sets of their clients. There are some people who are atheist and/or agnostic in orientation. They have carefully evaluated a variety of religions and religious thought. They are sincere about their non-theism and ought not to be pressured by clinical staff into accepting a brand of spirituality that is not genuine to who they are as human beings. There are others who are marked by their beliefs and their religious practices as belonging to the label 'fundamentalist.' Fundamentalist Christians, the born-againers, and those who accept a literal interpretation of their holy literature-- whether Christian, Muslim, or Jewish or other-- will find that the 12-step version of a Higher Power pales in comparison to what they are used to. Additionally, the emphasis by professionals and by folks who bring meetings into the institution on 'keeping an open mind' is something that neither the non-theist nor the fundamentalist will relate to. Are these people to be lost to their addictions?

New Agey 'feel-good' affirmations are not appropriate to offer to an atheist or to a fundamentalist in early recovery. The pop psychology brand of 'treatment' replete with New Age trappings like affirmations, yoga, showing of the film The Secret, lectures on The Course in Miracles or attendance at a Unity service, a strong insistence that 'there are no true coincidences and all of the rest are foreign to both groups. The interesting thing about James Christopher's S.O.S. secular sobriety groups is that both atheists and fundamentalists have found some common ground there. One set of members don't have any sort of gods or higher powers. The other set recognize a very specific God and don't want their religious beliefs or practices to be altered. The S.O.S. meeting in my town is a place where both non-theists and fundamentalists peacefully co-exist.

Addiction is fundamentally a behavioral problem. As such, we do not know enough about competent treatment of people who have it and who are looking for their way out of the mess. Instead, what we have is pretty much the entire recovery industry and 12 step groups who have jumped on the disease concept bandwagon. The practice of the twelve steps has saved many lives from the bondage of addiction. But there are more lives to liberate. 

Ideally, a treatment program ought to grant their clients access to a variety of options: A.A. and all of the other A's [Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Methadone Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Dual Recovery Anonymous, Double Trouble [a separate organization which currently has meetings in NY, NJ and PA], Alanon, Alateen, Alapup, etc...], Women for Sobriety, Smart Recovery, Secular Organizations for Sobriety, Red Road groups [for indigenous Americans], Overcomers Anonymous [specifically for fundamentalist Christians] and others. Non-traditional clients who are returning to hometowns that do not have anything other than the traditional twelve step programs around ought to be taught how to network with others in order to form a group that will help them. They should also be given information on recovery options which are available on-line. 

This cookie-cutter approach to abstinence must stop. If rehabs and drug courts are to offer true intervention, then the individual addict [which includes those who are addicted to the drug alcohol] must be considered in the intervention and in the services being offered. "Individualized treatment plans" which do not take into account that the customer of rehab services is a viable human being with his or her own life and way of being are worthless. Those good members of traditional 12 step groups who scream and yell about the evil inherent in alternative notions of spirituality or even of recovery are partly responsible for a perception that A.A. may in fact be cult-ish or a form of group-think.

This book has research and stats to back up its' conclusions. It offers hope to people who have not found A.A. to be the welcoming fortress that others have found. We are talking about people here. We are talking about people who will continue to die because of our shortsightedness. 

sapphoq reviews says: Kudos to Charles Bufe for the willingness to go against the grain. We need and deserve alternates to 12 step recovery. Although Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? is an older book now, it is worth reading. 

P.S.: Those who want examples of how to individualize the twelve steps can read Charlotte Kasl's most excellent Many Roads, One Journey. Those who are interested in on-line arguments pro- and con- twelve step programs can turn to http://www.green-papers.org/  and to http://www.orange-papers.org/  for starters.

The Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook, movie review

     A bit under the weather recently, I watched two movies at home. Both were strikingly different movies save that both had a character with the last name of "Patel" in them. Both were also out in the theaters in 2012 and had been adapted from novels. I had not read either book. The movies were The Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook.


     A writer looks up Pi who is residing in Montreal with his wife and child. Pi relates his story of the shipwreck:    

     The young Hindu boy in The Life of Pi shortened his first name from the French word Piscine [pool] to simply Pi. Schoolmates had callously teased him by pronouncing his first name as Pissing. Pi Patel had an older brother and parents. Pi was curious about religion. As a younger, he wanted to practice Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. His dad pointed out the folly of this. Pi's reply was that he wanted to be baptized.

     The family decided to migrate to the United States from India. They booked passage on a freighter for themselves and some of their zoo animals. A storm came. The ship went down. All of the humans died except for Pi who was unceremoniously dumped onto a lifeboat by some of the crew [before they died].

     Pi was not alone on the boat as it turned out. Several of the animals were also using it as their floating home, including the Bengal tiger. Pi made a floating dock and survived, finally washing up on the coast of Mexico. The Bengal tiger immediately headed for the jungle. Pi started a new life after some recovery time in a Mexican hospital and an interview with two Japanese men from the company that owned the downed freighter. 

sapphoq reviews says: Unlike other reviewers, I did not share the 'joy' inherent in Pi's argument related to the existence of a god. I found the part of the movie where Pi was sharing his ideas on the divine to the writer as clumsy. I think the movie would have flowed better without the intrusion of the visiting writer. The ocean scenes, the dream sequences, and the tiger were all quite striking. I would have thrown out the writer. I would have kept Pi as a young child curious about the different religions as well as Pi crying out to a god on the lifeboat. Then I would have had Pi getting married at a recognizable site in Montreal like St. Joe's Cathedral or St. George's Episcopal Church. Then he and his wife and child could have faded out walking through the big park overlooking Montreal at the end. I might have thrown in a few shots of the St. Lawrence flowing into the Pacific Ocean and down to Mexico superimposed over a blue Canadian sky.


     Silver Linings Playbook was an utterly different movie. It was set in Philly. Pat had undiagnosed Bipolar I. He came home one day from his teaching job at a school where his wife at the time Nikki also worked to find an unexpected guest in the shower with her. So in a rage, he offed the guest [also a teacher and a co-worker]. To pay for his crime, Pat was hustled off to an institution for eight months.

     He was released to his parents back in Philly. By then, his wife Nikki had moved away and Pat was ordered to stay away from both her and the school. But he was still obsessed with Nikki. He possessed limited insight into his actions.

     The character in this movie with the last name of Patel was Pat's shrink Doctor Patel. With grave difficulty, he kept Pat somewhat anchored into reality. Finally, Pat decided to take his meds. He started to level off with frequent glitches and lapses into manic or depressive modes.

     Pat met a beautiful but mixed-up woman named Tiffany. His dad, the neighborhood bookie having troubles, beat on Pat a bit. The cops showed up periodically and Pat frantically talked them out of shipping him back to the unnamed institution. He and Tiffany train for a dance contest. Tiffany was annoyed that Pat was still stuck on Nikki. At the end, Pat's dad got out of hock by the winnings from the dance contest and he told Pat not to let Tiffany get away.

sapphoq reviews says: The idea that beating someone to death in a manic rage would yield only eight months of punishment and forced therapy in a mental institution was a bit unbelievable. But then, so was Pat's being able to talk himself out of getting 2P'ed back into the institution. The nature of obsession was brilliantly portrayed. The most realistic scene was Pat's dad beating on him. Tiffany was quite an interesting character and I thought the acting of her part was top notch. The shrink was a typical shrink. Pat's mother was an Edith Bunker type without the frou-frou and thick accent. And I liked his dad being a bookie. I'm fond of Philly and so I enjoyed the setting. The movie moved a bit slowly for my tastes but I'm glad he wound up with Tiffany in the end.  

    
p.s. Both movies had some striking weaknesses in them. I liked Silver Linings Playbook better than The Life of Pi. I am glad that I did not pay cinema prices to see either movie. I suspect that many people will enjoy both movies better than I did. 


If you want info about the actors and stuff like that, here are the wiki entries for the two movies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Linings_Playbook

     


     

Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist by Hank Fox

Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist: Simple Thoughts About Reason, Gods and Faith, Hank Fox.  [self-published]: Hank Fox Books, 2011.  e-book, 498 pps.


http://www.HankFoxBooks.com


http://www.Blue-Collar-Atheist.com


Hank Fox has written a most practical and excellent book.  Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist offers up a simple autobiography and then immediately plunges into explanations sprinkled liberally with gems of wisdom.  Twenty five chapters delve into such topics as morality [the thing that atheists are routinely charged with not having], what the costs are of believing, and why having "respect" for the beliefs of others isn't such a great idea after all.  Along the way are easy-to-understand analogies and explanations of a few common cognitive fallacies.

sapphoq reviews says:  Hank Fox is the common man's Richard Dawkins.  Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist deserves a place along side the more scholarly atheist volumes in any freethinker's library. Highly recommended without hesitation.