Not-God (73 page)

35
    On Heisenberg’s Principle of Indeterminacy — and Bohr’s Principle of Complementarity and the impact of Gödel —
cf
. William Barrett,
Irrational Man
(New York: Doubleday-Anchor, 1962), pp. 36-41.

36
    The “need others” component as the essential dynamic of why attending meetings “works” in keeping members sober has been well analyzed by M.A. Maxwell:
cf
. the final citation in note #4 to
Chapter Eight
, p. 370, above, and “Alcoholics Anonymous: An Interpretation” in David J. Pittman (ed.),
Alcoholism
(New York: Harper & Row, 1967), pp. 211-222.
Cf
. also E. Hanfman, “The Life History of an Ex-Alcoholic — With an Evaluation of Factors Involved in Causation and Rehabilitation,”
QJSA
12: 405-443 (1951); and especially W. Madsen, “A.A.: Birds of a Feather,” in Madsen,
The American Alcoholic
, pp. 168 ff.

A.A.’s General Service Conference in 1967 devoted itself to the question of “Sponsorship” in a way that makes clear this point:
cf
. “Pinal Report,” especially pp. 8-12.

“do not require actual separation”: on the possibility of the A.A. group or program serving as “Higher Power,”
cf
. above, p. 206.

37
    
Cf
. the treatment of this point in the Introduction to
Part Two
, p. 158, above, and the citations in note #1 to that Introduction, p. 363, above.

38
    As the fundamental criticism of Alcoholics Anonymous,
cf, e.g.
, Stanton Peele (with Archie Brodsky),
Love and Addiction
(New York: Taplinger-Signet, 1975), p. 232; also note #31, above. The fundamental nature of the criticism is most clear in the contribution by Margaret Bean cited
ibidem
.

39
    For depth concerning the theme of this paragraph,
cf:
M. P. Murray,
The Concepts of Self-Acceptance and Self-Respect in Karen Homey’s Theory of Neurosis
(Rome: Dissertation Angelicum, 1961); Sidney Jourard,
The Transparent Self
(New York: Van Nostrand, 1971, rev. ed.); Henri J. M. Nouwen,
The Wounded Healer
(New York: Doubleday, 1972).

40
    Much of what is said here and in the following paragraphs about what I have termed “joyous pluralism” may be found discussed without this specific term and from a different point of view in Roberto Mangabeira Unger,
Knowledge and Politics
(New York: Free Press, 1975) and
Law in Modern Society
(New York: Free Press, 1976). For an explicit treatment of pluralism in its historical and ideological context,
cf
. Robert Nisbet,
The Social Philosophers
(New York: Thos. Y. Crowell, 1973), pp. 385-442, and the treatment of “mutuality” on pp. 365-382.

Anyone seriously interested in thinking on the implications and possibilities of “joyous pluralism” can do no better than to begin with a careful reading of Peter Kropotkin,
Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution
(London: Wm. Heinemann, 1908).

Concerning the living out of “joyous pluralism” in A.A., beyond the meeting practice described above, pp. 214-215, note the way three favorite A.A. aphorisms are used: “First Things First;” “Live and Let Live;” and “Easy Does It.” These may be found in
AA
, p. 135, italicized. That these “little mottoes” are meant to reach beyond life in A.A. itself is clear from their placement in the 1st edition of
AA
(p. 149): at the conclusion of the chapter on “The Family Afterwards.”

41
    On the centrality of “tolerance” in A.A.,
cf
.
Chapter Six
, above, pp. 151-153, and note #47.

42
    On the “shared honesty of mutual vulnerability openly acknowledged,”
cf
. above pp. 61, 197-198, and 214-215.

43
    That strength arises precisely from weakness is of course especially the insight of the Evangelically Pietist style of religious insight. An explanation of this, and the exploration of this vision’s incorporation in A.A., have been offered in
Chapter Eight
;
cf
. also pp. 150-151.

44
    For this understanding of anonymity,
cf
. in
Chapter Eight
pp. 195-197, on the age of “me” and “more,”
cf
. the material on narcissism cited in note #34, above, and by Leslie H. Farber, cited in note #20, above.

45
    On modernity and the problem of limiting the sense of limitation,
cf
.
Chapter Seven
, pp. 171-172, with the citations in note #29, p. 369.

46
    For this and the following paragraphs,
cf
. the treatment of
12&12
in
Chapter Five
, pp. 124-126, with citations. That this understanding perdured in Wilson’s thought is attested to by the fact that the direct quotations here and just below are taken, generally, from later correspondence: Wilson to Charlie B., 4 December 1961; to Eleanor R., 12 December 1961; to Fr. Dowling, 25 May 1954; to Glen W., 22 July 1960.

47
    Within
12&12
, the instincts and moods are treated especially in the discussion of Step Four, pp. 43-55;
cf
. also in the discussion of Step Twelve, pp. 119-120.

48
    Wilson applies his deepest analysis to domestic life, in a letter to Helen H., 24 March 1965: “Asking for love [can be] the deep clamor for a state of mutual possession.”

49
    On limited control and limited dependence,
cf
. above, pp. 105-106, 211.

50
    
AACA
, pp. 26 ff. and 83 ff.;
cf
. note #22 to
Chapter Eight
, p. 375, also H. M. Tiebout, “Alcoholics Anonymous — An Experiment of Nature,”
QJSA 22:
52-68 (1961) and “Hitting Bottom: Its Therapeutic Significance,” paper read before the meeting of the American Psychological Association held in Chicago, Illinois, 8 May 1961, printed in revised form as “Intervention in Psychotherapy,”
American Journal of Psychoanalysis
22: 1-7 (1963).

For a deeper grasp of Tiebout’s thought as developing,
cf
. his unpublished Ph.D. dissertation: “Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: Theories of Human Nature and Conduct in Freud’s Psychology,” Columbia University, 1951. The thesis is especially germane to the point at hand, for it reveals Tiebout’s thoughts on the meaning of religion (
cf
. especially its
Chapters 5
and
6
), and his understanding of “the general philosophical situation in the West,” just before his interest in Buddhism was awakened by the A.A. development treated here.

51
    The attractiveness of Buddhist thought is especially witnessed to by the brief popularity of E. F. Schumacher,
Small Is Beautiful
(New York: Harper & Row, 1973),
cf
. especially the essay, “Buddhist Economics,” pp. 53-62.

52
    “The spreading diversity of A.A.’s appeal and the increasing variety of its membership” are themselves best attested to by aspects of the “special group” phenomenon treated in
Chapter Six
, pp. 146-147, and by analysis of A.A.’s numerical membership increase after 1973 — a phenomenon especially interesting because the number of members seemed to have reached a plateau during the 1960s. These data are derived from A.A. General Service Office figures; so far as I know, there has been no sociological exploration of their possible interpretation.

53
    The “quite necessarily” is philosophical:
cf
. the citations of David Noble and Morton White, note #26 to
Chapter Seven
, p. 368, above; also note #15 to
Appendix A
, p. 389, below.
Cf
. also William Barrett and Leslie H. Farber as previously cited in this chapter.

54
    The most recent explicit exploration of the “perennial philosophy” is by E. F. Schumacher,
A Guide for the Perplexed
(New York: Harper & Row, 1977). Fundamentally, the perennial philosophy is an extrapolation of Aristotelian thought.

55
    Partially because of the philosophical point being made as well as the historical reality noted, there is little modern literature on “temperance.” Helpful may be Josef Pieper,
Fortitude and Temperance
, tr. David F. Coogan (New York: Pantheon, 1954), pp. 47-53 and 115-118.

56
    “all or nothing people”:
cf.,e.g.
, Wilson to Howard C., 15 November I960; to Patricia N., 7 January 1963; to Bob C., 23 June 1964. The final quotation is attributed to Dr. Daniel J. Anderson, director of the Hazelden treatment center.

57
    The “End of Absolutes” in many ways began in America with the phenomena chronicled and analyzed in Morton White,
Social Thought in America;
its more recent meaning may perhaps best be grasped from
Chapter One
, “Modernization,” in C. E. Black,
The Dynamics of Modernization
(New York: Harper & Row, 1966), or — more popularly — from Allen Wheelis,
The End of the Modern Age
(New York: Basic Books, 1971), especially pp. 79 ff., “Relativity of Knowledge;” Unger,
Knowledge and Politics
, offers philosophical rather than historical depth and perspective on the point. On the “Age of Limits,”
cf
. in
Chapter Seven
, above, pp. 170-171, with notes #7 and 29.

APPENDIX A

1
     
Cf
. discussion in Chapters Five and Six, pp. 116-117 and 145-146.

2
     The quotations are from Denys W., (Cambridge, England) to Wilson, 31 July, 2 October, and 12 October 1963. On “responsibility” as a special concern of Wilson at this time,
cf
. the treatment in
Chapter Six
, pp. 139-142.

3
     The draft from which the quotations are taken was an attachment to the letter of Denys to Wilson of 2 October 1963.

4
     Jon R. Weinberg, “AA: An Interpretation for the Nonbeliever,” published in pamphlet form (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1975), pp. 4 and 6, italics Weinberg’s.

5
     Information based on interviews given only on the promise that those interviewed would remain anonymous. Although at first skeptical on hearing this tale, I became convinced of its general accuracy because of the similarities of details in its telling by different individuals who clearly were not drawing on some other single source.

6
     Little more can be said about these pamphlets, or the Cleveland one on “The Four Absolutes,” than is offered in the text. All are available from the Cleveland A.A. District Office, One Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44113.

7
     “Manual,” p. 1 (emphasis added).

8
     “Spiritual Milestones,” pp. 1-2.

9
     “Second Reader,” p. 3 (emphasis there).

10
    “The Four Absolutes,” pp. 1, 14.

11
    These descriptions are slightly edited but basically
verbatim
from interviews with Warren C. and Dick P. on 7 and 8 September 1977.

12
    Smith, “Last Major Talk,” pp. 16-17 of the mis-dated private reprinting.

13
    Although, as noted in the Bibliography, my contacts with Clarence S. were many and diverse and for the history recorded in Chapters Three and Four mainly by mail and telephone, what follows is based primarily on personal meeting with him over 5 and 6 October 1978. On these two days, I observed Clarence mingling with patients and staff at an alcoholism treatment facility; attended an open A.A. meeting at which he was the sole speaker, telling his story and offering his interpretation of A.A. for about two hours; interviewed him about some of the points in his presentation and his thoughts concerning the dissertation on which the present book is based, which he had at that time read through twice. I hold tapes of the meeting presentation and interview, and Clarence’s story as it appears below is drawn directly from my tape of that presentation although edited for brevity. All other quotations in this and the following paragraphs are also drawn from these tapes.

14
    Clarence bases his understanding of “qualifying” on the second and third paragraphs of “How It Works,”
AA
, p. 58:

On Tiebout’s understanding,
cf
. above, pp. 183-184, with citations.

15
    In
Chapter Eight
,
cf
. especially pp. 182-186. On the problems of “absolute relativism,”
cf
. beyond David Noble’s
The Paradox of Progressive Thought
, his
Historians Against History
(Minneapolis, Univ. of Minnesota, 1965), especially
Chapter Eight
on Carl Becker. Of the wealth of literature on this topic, I find most fascinating Becker’s review of Maurice Mandelbaum,
Philosophical Review
40: 363-364 (1940), and the historiographic studies of Becker offered by Burleigh Taylor Wilkins and Charlotte Watkins Smith.

16
    The relationship between “The Survivors Program,” “The Church of The Way,” and “East Ridge” (a treatment center, but one aimed more at life-style than active addiction) may become clear in the following paragraphs. If it does not, it is because I am not clear about it in my own mind. After some correspondence and telephone conversations in late 1977 and early 1978, I visited East Ridge on 13 October 1978 to discuss with its staff their concerns over what I had written of them in an earlier version of this Appendix.

The interpretation that follows is “unofficial,” and the people at East Ridge would very much prefer to offer their own, but such is unavailable. I have based what follows as scrupulously as possible on my conversations with three of the community’s leaders and their literature as cited in this and note #20. What follows in the text does not attempt profound historical interpretation of East Ridge etc. themselves; yet it does offer sufficiently deep investigation of their philosophy to clarify a point about Alcoholics Anonymous.