Calls for Restatement of AA Purposes |
November 1989 Vol. 46 No. 6 |
AA helps the individual alcoholic create within himself a spiritual and physiological change. AA is not trying to start a mass movement for the betterment of the whole human race.
AAs are banded together not for the purpose of educating the general public on the problems of alcoholism but for the prime purpose of helping the individual alcoholic with his individual alcoholic problem.
AA as a Society is not primarily interested in hospitalization, psychiatry, or theology. Those are all a part of the education of the individual alcoholic and he learns to use as much or as little of them as he needs as an individual in the solution of his personal alcoholic problem.
AA is not a cure for alcoholism. There is no known cure for the disease of alcoholism. AA is a Society of alcoholics who have found a successful method of staying sober and who are trying to pass that information on to other alcoholics who are honestly looking for a way to rid themselves of the obsession to drink.
AA did not come into being to make a public show of the alcoholic--he can and does that job expertly himself--but rather to give the individual alcoholic a sanctuary where he could find the help he needed from other individuals.
AA exists today, not because of the vast amount of publicity it did and does receive, but rather in spite of it. The reason it does exist today is because it does continue to help the individual alcoholic and shows him how he can not only help himself but can help others who have the same disease, and shows him how he can in this way make amends for some of the havoc he has created in the world--shows him how he can do this and still remain anonymous himself if that is his wish.
AA does not exist today because of the misguided efforts of some individuals in AA who wish to hang the alcoholic up on a clothes line.
AA needs today to take an inventory of itself and find out whether or not we have or are being crowded off the main course by these misguided individuals who, seeking self-aggrandizement, are using AA for their own selfish interests and, not caring who knows about them, are forgetting that maybe the newcomer and some of the others do not care to wash their dirty linen in public.
Don't misunderstand me; I am not as an individual ashamed of the fact that I'm an alcoholic. As an individual I'm proud of the fact that I had courage enough to admit it and then did something about that admission by joining AA. I'm very much of the belief that AA has done its part in arousing the interest of the general public, the medical profession, the ministry, and the judiciary.
Having accomplished that, we should turn the scientific part of the alcoholic problem over to the agencies that have been created for this express purpose, and go back to the original and prime purpose for which AA came into being.
AA must leave to others the answers to: What is the disease of alcoholism? How can it be prevented? How can it be cured? What causes some individuals to become alcoholic?
AA has only one reason for its existence, that is to help the individual alcoholic with his individual alcoholic problem. If we lose sight of that or allow AA to be crowded off that main course we will be guilty of killing the goose that laid the golden egg for us. And when we kill that goose we will kill ourselves.
AA cannot do its job and allow itself to become involved in the mass alcoholic problem because that job involves organization, finance, and leadership, all of which are dynamite to the program of life set forth in the book Alcoholics Anonymous.
AA teaches us the broad principles of true democracy, and those go out the door when we build an organization out of AA.
Every member of AA today should ask himself this question: Am I doing what I'm doing in the name of AA because of a true desire on my part to help the individual alcoholic or am I, deep inside me, looking forward to the time when I will be known as the person who helped put AA on the map as a big time organization, with hopes that I will receive the homage due me as a great benefactor of mankind.
AA's continued existence depends on our coming up with the right answer, and that answer must be an honest, fearless, and lasting one.
