The effectiveness of A.A. as demonstrated by an A.A. board member
Ken Ragge
1992, 2005 Ken Ragge .
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A most revealing study of the over-all success of AA was done by
Harvard psychiatrist and prominent authority on the disease of
alcoholism, George Vaillant. In one of the longest studies of its size
and type, Vaillant followed 100 men for eight years. The men selected
were the first 100 consecutive admissions for detoxification at an
alcoholism clinic. They were followed up annually. Praised for his
candidness, Vaillant wrote of his project in his book, “The Natural
History of Alcoholism,”
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“It seemed perfectly clear...by turning to recovering alcoholics
[AA members] rather than to Ph.D.'s for lessons in breaking self-
detrimental and more or less involuntary habits, and by inexorably
moving patients...into the treatment system of AA, I was working for
the most exciting alcohol program in the world.
But then came the rub. [We] tried to prove our efficacy. ...
After initial discharge, only 5 patients in the Clinic sample
never relapsed to alcoholic drinking, and there is compelling evidence
that the results of our treatment were no better than the natural
history of the disease. ...Not only had we failed to alter the natural
history of alcoholism, but our death rate of three percent a year was
appalling.”63
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Stanton Peele, an investigator independent of Vaillant's study, after
examining some of Vaillant's unpublished data found,
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“Of those who quit drinking on their own, none of the twenty-one
men followed up since the end of the study were abusing
alcohol. ...Relapse was more common for the AA group: 81 percent of
those who quit on their own either had abstained for ten or more years
or drank infrequently, compared with the 32 percent of those who
relied on AA who fall in these categories.”64
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Despite the fact his own data shows people do worse with AA than
without it, in the same book where he presents the failure of
“inexorably moving patients... into the treatment system of AA,”
Vaillant goes into detail telling how AA works. Perhaps even odder, he
stated,
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“...if we have not cured all the alcoholics who were first
detoxified over 8 years ago, the likelihood of members of the Clinic
sample attending AA has been significantly increased.”65
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Odd indeed, for a doctor to discount not having cured or ameliorated
the symptoms of an illness, but to instead boast of getting the
patients to join AA. How can this be?
One possibility is that George Vaillant is “God-controlled.” He gives
indications that this may be so. In attempting to explain the division
between those (like himself) who believe that AA works and those who
don't, he offers, “[F]or AA to work, one must be a believer.”66
Perhaps the problem with his alcoholic patients dying at an
“appalling” rate wasn't because of a failure of AA but because of a
failure on the part of his patients to believe in AA. This is in spite
of the fact that those who didn't believe, and wouldn't go, did
better.
Also indicative of his being a present-day grouper is that he advises,
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“Clinicians and relatives alike need to take the first ‘step’ of
Al-Anon seriously: they must admit their own ‘powerlessness over
alcohol.’”67*
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It seems he himself takes the first step seriously and has admitted
his powerlessness. Did he take the second? The third? Whether he did
or not, he certainly seems to be “working the twelfth.” The Twelfth
Step is “to carry the message,” meaning to work to bring new people
into “the program.” To this end, George Vaillant, as a medical expert
on alcoholism, advised in the prestigious Harvard Medical School
Health Letter,
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“Sooner or later, and preferably sooner, the alcoholic should be
induced to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.”68
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The references for the above cites from A.A. Board member, Harvard
psychiatrist and Al-Anon Dr. George Vaillant are on line at the url
above.