Affiliation with Alcoholics Anonymous parallels religious conversion, according to David R. Rudy in this timely study of the most famous self-help organization in the world.
Drinkers who commit themselves to Alcoholics Anonymous embrace the radically different life-style, the altered world of the convert.
To understand this conversion and, more important, to get a grip on the even deeper mystery of alcoholism itself, Rudy sought to answer these three questions: What processes are involved in becoming alcoholic? How does the alcoholic affiliate with, and become committed to, A. A.’s belief system? What is the relationship between the world of A. A. members and that constructed by alcohologists?
Rudy establishes the history and structure of A. A. and examines the organization’s relationship to dominant sociological models, theories, and definitions of alcoholism.
This review is from: Becoming Alcoholic: Alcoholics Anonymous and the Reality of Alcoholism (Paperback)
I found this book to be an EXCELLENT sociological study of AA that is a must read for anyone seriously researching AA, or the "12-Steps" method of addiction recovery. Unfortunately, it is a bit dated, and I wish something like it was completed to reflect more current statistics and examples. Aside from its "datedness" (1986), it is an excellent piece of academic research on AA.
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This review is from: Becoming Alcoholic: Alcoholics Anonymous and the Reality of Alcoholism (Paperback)
It was pretty dry and it was what I expected from that time and place in AA. It was written well with the writers non-AA perspective taken into account.
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