The Semantics of the Twelve Step Neurosis (part 1)

[JimB...@google.com]

From:
http://www.morerevealed.com/archives/the-semantics-of-the-twelve-step-ne
urosis-by-clifton-kurtis-aka-dr-x-ray.html

The Semantics of the Twelve Step Neurosis

Surrender, Disease, Denial and other dysfunctional 12-step pathways to
personal disempowerment and cult dependency by Clifton W. Kirton (Dr.
X-ray)

OUR COMMON WELFARE COMES FIRST

Our traditions are key elements in the ego deflation process necessary
to achieve and maintain sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. The first
tradition reminds me not to take credit, or authority, for my recovery.
...Deferring my personal desires for the greater good of group growth
contributes toward A.A. unity that is central to allrecovery. It helps
me to remember that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
(1)[Italics mine]

This statement from a fully indoctrinated A.A. member sounds like
something you'd learn the first day in Principles of Brainwashing 101,
doesn't it? For those who are not comfortable with this viewpoint, or
who would put a positive spin on the self invalidating principles
inextricably bound to what Alcoholics Anonymous calls "recovery," let us
examine further some of the mental shenanigans, evasive tactics, and
thought control techniques from which the fabric of A.A. is woven. Of
course, we know and humbly accept that the brilliant light A.A. shines
on us all with only the best intentions, but we also know the stuff with
which the road to hell is paved.

"The other day, someone told me that A.A. was a brainwashing
organization. I figure my brain is so messed up it could use a good
washing." Direct quote from a member at a Toledo, Ohio A.A. meeting.

If we acknowledge, as do most thinking people, that language, and the
chosen vocabulary of any movement or philosophical system are important
determinants of its thought and action, and that the semantics common to
a group or society reveals much about the inner workings of any
organization or culture, we can draw meaningful insight into the
fundamental nature of any such group by examining the words and phrases
it uses to express itself, as well as the sub-texts implicit in these
expressions, sub-texts which, in Alcoholics Anonymous, are clearly
crippling and destructive.
Powerlessness, Twelve-Steppism, and the Siege Mentality

"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become
unmanageable."(2)

The idea that he is powerless over alcohol lets the user off the hook by
absolving him from personal responsibility for his addiction while
simultaneously granting ultimate power to the addiction itself, power so
great as to be invincible by human standards. Only the supernatural is
credited with having power enough, not to defeat the addiction, but to
hold the monster at bay under caveat that the individual must completely
relinquish personal autonomy or die of his addiction. The drug itself,
in this case alcohol, is anthropomorphized. It is not only characterized
as being powerful, but is imbued with the skills to be cunning and
baffling. These concepts are so basic to Twelve Step theology that they
have become ritualized and are read at the opening of virtually all A.A.
meetings. This flawed premise, impotence of the individual, forms the
basis of all A.A. indoctrination and must be reinforced constantly, not
only in group meetings, but also in the day to day lives of the
membership at large.

"AAers seek a relationship with the supernatural in order to cease
managing their own lives...The AA concept of control differs
significantly from the concept of control presented to drunkards by the
rest of society...AA...tells the newcomer that his life is unmanageable
and that it is ridiculous for him to try to manage it....By deliberately
denying the ability to control their lives, Aaers' former drunken
situations are [hypothetically] brought under control...Most
importantly, abstinence is not considered a kind of control...Aaers
insist that abstinence is possible only when powerlessness is conceded.
AA offers supportive interaction in which powerlessness comes to be
positively valued." (3) (4)

Firmly entrenched in this irrational mind-set, the AAers circle the
wagons, rigorously proscribing all communication which may question cult
teachings, even to the point of ritualistically defining the method of
expression and framework within which anything may be said in a meeting.
"People disagreeing with [the] ideology...are likely to be criticized,
punished, and eventually excluded or shunned by the group."(5)
Denial, Defeat and Surrender: A Twelve Step Exercise in Distorted
Meanings and Hidden Agendas

In A.A.'s myopic view, if an alcohol habituated individual controls his
or her own destiny, makes his own decisions, elects for sound reasons to
discontinue alcohol use, he is in denial. In taking control of his
personal life and destiny he is denying, according to A.A. dogma, the
irrefutable fact of his own powerlessness. This is an A.A. no-no and
inspires much wringing of hands and name calling within the cult. One of
the main functions of the word denial as used in Twelve Step
indoctrination is to defend against the intrusion of reality
contradictory to the rigidly delineated format of A.A. group-think. The
concept is highly ranked in the Twelve Steppers' cliche` based line of
defense against reason and logic. The term is dismissive and absolutist
and, like most A.A. sloganeering, allows the cult follower to evade any
logical challenge to group dogma, as well as any other meaningful
dialogue for that matter. This phenomenon is analogous to Mark Twain's
observation about Mary Baker Eddy, faith healer and founder of Christian
Science, [They have]..."a perfectly astonishing talent for putting words
together in such a way as to make inquiry into their intention
impossible."

Paradoxically, in the twelve step model, denial is actually encouraged
in a much more tangible sense than observed in the usual A.A. style name
calling that surrounds the evasive form of the concept. Denial may be
viewed as a necessary precursor to surrender and the ultimate
abandonment of personal power. The addict is encouraged to pretend he
did not know the reality of his addiction as if the drug had put an
impenetrable veil of mystery over his/her perceptive abilities until
A.A. revealed the truth and the light—that only abandonment of the self
and immersion in cult theology can open the door to divine intervention
necessary to the spiritual salvation of the addict. There may be some
perverse comfort in denying awareness of one's own addiction, but it is
a lie, or more precisely, a cop-out. The self fulfilling prophecy of
A.A. is that one must accept hopeless lifelong addiction as an
infallible postulate on which to base one's continued existence. i.e.
Only by becoming a lifelong addict can one attain freedom from lifelong
addiction. This sort of circular reasoning is referred to by Shaler.

"The counter argument to the heretic involves scientific and
philosophical reductionism to the point that few, if any, conclusions
regarding the issues at hand can ever be reached. Circuitous arguments
evolve. Blatant contradictions emerge, e.g., "the alcoholic cannot
willfully control his drinking, therefore, he must be abstinent." Yet
people choose to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages. "The
alcoholic allegedly cannot choose to control his drinking, therefore, he
should choose to control his drinking."(6)

In truth, every addict knows the most intimate nature of the beast
whether s/he wants to or not. Nevertheless, within every A.A. group
there are those who have convinced themselves that they did not know
they were alcohol dependent prior to the miraculous awakening they
experienced under the wing of A.A. This idea begs the question, "Were
they in denial before they entered A.A., or are they now in denial
because A.A. put them there?"—and how can A.A. punitively discourage
denial, when in fact A.A. brainwashing is, in no small measure, enabled
by denial?

But there is a more meaningful, deep and willful denial, denial which is
mandatory if one is to live the A.A. lifestyle. Denial that one is
capable of, and responsible for altering the course of his own existence
constitutes abandonment of one's very essence. A.A. dogma postulates
that from this empty, dis-empowered state, "surrender" and salvation
naturally follow. In religious/spiritual terms, this may be reasonably
perceived as absolution conditional upon the death of the soul.

Such is the paradox of A.A. regeneration: strength arising out of
complete defeat and weakness, the loss of one's old life as a condition
for finding a new one.(7)

The principle that we shall find no enduring strength until we first
admit complete defeat is the main taproot from which our whole Society
has sprung. ...Many less desperate alcoholics tried A.A., but did not
succeed because they could not make the admission of hopelessness.(8)
[The sub-text here is that individuals who refuse to accept personal
defeat and embrace the hopelessness of the A.A. lifestyle are
characterized as being failures.]

The idea that he is defeated having been relentlessly reinforced by
group disapproval of the personhood of the individual, group sponsored
self deprecation, humiliation, abasement, and confession, the group's
expectation is that the individual will simply give up. (Fake it 'til
you make it.) Now the person is ready to be "saved." Group-think
replaces personal philosophy, creativity and growth, with obsessive
lifelong preoccupation with the drug of choice and the certainty of
re-addiction should the cult follower ever stray from the fold. The door
is opened to an imaginary rescuing deity who, conditional upon the
addict's complete surrender, will prevent re-addiction from happening.
Since this irrational artifice cannot stand alone and does nothing to
empower the individual over the addiction, he must go to endless
meetings where the big lie is perpetually reinforced by a steady stream
of religious pseudo-psychobabble lest the house of cards come tumbling
down.

Contrary to what Twelve Step Recovery Movement proponents, counselors,
and therapists would have us believe, the artifice collapses in the vast
majority of cases—that is unless A.A.'s own statistics and voluminous
anecdotal evidence related by long term devotees of A.A. are to be
discounted as untrue. An interesting thing about these people is that
they will go on and on about how few people succeed in A.A. If you've
been to even a few meetings, you've heard about how easy it is to give
up on the program and descend again into the terrible darkness of
"alcoholism." Only the chosen very few who are willing to dedicate their
entire lives to the cult and follow its approved life directives have
any chance of remaining "sober," and even these remain in constant peril
of slipping backward into the abyss. I think they perceive this line of
robotic conversation as a sort of scary story designed to put fear in
the hearts of the newcomers and to reinforce it in themselves. They are
like conscious automatons so conditioned against objective thought they
never realize what they are really saying, "This program doesn't really
work at all." The consistent failure on the part of A.A. to successfully
indoctrinate the vast majority of individuals speaks not only to the
weakness of the A.A. program, but also to the basic indomitability of
the human spirit which, in many cases, seems to prefer almost any fate
to the intolerable regimen of abasement, confession, ritualized verbal
abuse, and thought control promoted by the recovery movement zealots.
The reader is directed to Charles Bufe's compelling analysis of A.A.'s
success rates set forth in his book Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult of
Cure?(9)
The Death Threat: A.A. Fright Night, Very Scarey

A.A. postulates the disease theory of chemical dependency as fact. The
disease is defined as life-long, incurable, and fatal. Death is the
wages of sin, and much is made of the specter of death in A.A. circles.
The death threat is integral to A.A. coercion. Not a meeting goes by
where it is not reinforced. The certitude that one will die if one
continues to drink is continually reaffirmed. More scary stories,
right?...and to what end? An indisputable fact of existence is that no
one here gets out alive. A credible measure of individual maturity is
the acceptance of one's own mortality. There is nothing to fear in
death—it is part of life. Of course, nobody wants to be maimed to death
by chainsaw, eaten to death by a large fish, or set upon by beasts of
prey, but these fears are not of death itself. They involve the means
rather than the end. Additionally, we are all concerned about the effect
our deaths may have on our loved ones and dependents. We all hope to
have prepared sufficiently so that our deaths do not create upheaval in
the affairs of those near and dear to us, but again, this has nothing to
do with death per se. Given that personal maturation involves the
acceptance of mortality, A.A. fosters stagnation and immaturity in its
members by using the fear of death as a manipulative tool. This fosters
externalization of control and is simply another means A.A.
intimidation.
Triggers, Responses, Character Defects and The Theology of Helplessness

Coaching sessions involving what are referred to in A.A. parlance as
triggers are a nauseatingly prominent feature of the Twelve Step
experience. In actuality a trigger may be considered a stressor which
the individual uses as an excuse to indulge himself in the pleasure of
intoxication—an opportunistic, wholly volitional reaction to what is, in
fact, a common daily life experience. The rational individual, when
confronted with a stressor, can bring effective coping mechanisms to
bear. He can take action appropriate to the situation. With experience,
the ability to cope grows stronger and increasingly integrated into our
day to day functioning. This is simply a part of the natural course of
events. It is called growth. In dealing with a stress inducing
situation, a person may either decide to use it as an opportunity to
drink, or decide upon another course of action. Nothing "triggers" us to
consume toxic substances. The action we take is the direct consequence
of personal choice. Whether or not we choose wisely dictates our course
beyond the crossroads.

In A.A. theology, however, the exercise of free choice and development
of personal coping mechanisms are discouraged. The individual is told he
has no control over the effects life's experiences have on him, "Let go
and let God." and such personally degrading cliche`s as "It's your best
thinking that got you here." are mainstays in the slogan riddled
vocabulary of A.A. based personal powerlessness. In the rigidly defined
philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous, there is only one way to deal with
these life's ups and downs, and it is mandatory. "Get to a meeting as
soon as possible." In other words, reinforce the big lie—the lie that
says "Because I am defective—because I have character defects which only
God can remove, I am incapable of handling the stress of everyday life
and must rely on others to do it for me."
Disease: Socially Acceptable, Covertly Punishable. The "Wolf in Sheep's
Clothing Effect"

In Alcoholics Anonymous, the concept of addiction as disease is
analogous to the doctrine of original sin. The disease model offers
explanation and absolution rolled into one and serves to reinforce the
addict's perception of himself as a victim. Absolution and salvation are
temporary (One Day at a Time) and are possible only through the
structured ritual religious behaviors of the cult, the Twelve Steps.

The wide acceptance of alcoholism as disease by society reflects a
tendency to sweep the problem under the rug. This is a fairly
predictable characteristic of the American psyche, which does not
tolerate discomfort very well, and is prone to accept any theory, no
matter how irrational, which can explain the discomforting problem away.
It is the rule in society, rather than the exception, that given the
choice, most people will prefer facade over substance. It gives us
something for nothing, something to feel good about without having to do
the intellectual work necessary to arrive at a functional dynamic
understanding of any given set of problems. Whether this reflects human
nature, willful ignorance, or plain stupidity I leave to the reader's
judgment. Real work and critical thinking are anathema to a society
which wants easy answers.

The disease model has the added benefit of cloaking the societal
condemnation long associated with addiction, in effect moving it into
the background where it can be exercised covertly, insidiously, and
punitively under the guise of helping the afflicted — a great way to get
your ya-ya's out, don't you think? A good literary example of this
phenomenon is to be found in Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest, in which the protagonist is offered the choice between
imprisonment and treatment in a mental institution. Thinking hospital
time will be easier than prison time he elects to be placed in
"treatment" under the supervision of well intentionedclinicians and
staff only to discover that rather than serving a short prison sentence
for a questionable statutory rape charge, after which he would have been
a free man, he now belongs to the system for as long as they want to
keep him. In the end he is defeated, lobotomized and mercifully
dispatched by a fellow inmate. Those who have been involved in a
coerced, hospital based, structured chemical dependency "rehabilitation"
program will appreciate the chilling similarities between this story and
their experiences.

"If you think that's what Alcoholics Anonymous is all about, you're
really missing the point. Religion has nothing to do with it. Your
higher power can be anything. You are not being coerced. Your
participation in A.A. is entirely voluntary. I must caution you,
however, that your failure to internalize recovery concepts will place
your transplant candidacy status in great jeopardy."(10)

This was the response, not necessarily verbatim, but most assuredly
accurate in content, from the coordinator of the Chemical Dependency
Unit of a major organ transplant center when confronted, by the author,
with her own coercive tactics and with the idea that A.A. is a coercive,
proselytizing, religious cult whose main purpose is to strip individuals
of personal autonomy and to brainwash them into acceptance of irrational
group ideology. This same individual also had the arrogance to state "We
can't always like our 'teachers' but we must accept what they have to
teach us." When I protested that if she insisted on forcing me to jump
through these ridiculous hoops to prove myself worthy of organ
transplant recipient status, there were other avenues available, she
replied that she was aware of these other avenues, but that I was too
early "...in recovery" to start getting "creative" with the process,
this despite my having consumed no alcohol for a year before she ever
laid eyes on me. The fact is that this author is not "in recovery" never
has been "in recovery" and never will be "in recovery." Like the vast
majority of people who give up bad habits, I simply stopped drinking
when I recognized it was imperative to do so. Any association between
the disease/recovery paradigm and the realities of addiction is
spurious.

In fact, excessive long term consumption of alcohol is associated with a
wide spectrum of chronic diseases affecting virtually every system in
human physiology. Hepatic, pancreatic and other gastrointestinal
problems, renal, circulatory, dermatological, neurological abnormalities
etc. are among the well known sequellae to regular consumption of the
toxin. But excessive consumption of alcohol, a poison, qualifies no more
as a disease than the excessive consumption of chocolate ice cream, a
yummy treat. Both are acts of personal volition. Disease has nothing to
do with it.

My father used to eat a lot of fat. He would trim the fat from a steak,
fry it and eat it, after which he would consume the steak followed by a
pint of ice cream, almost daily. He suffered a massive heart attack at
age 49 and died, the result of coronary arterial occlusive disease. Now
that's a disease!—a real disease, a giant among diseases, a classic! To
say that his consumption of fat was in and of itself a disease is a
pretty wild leap of logic, though I'm sure more than a few twisted
Twelve Steppers, being highly skilled in fallacious assumption and used
to accepting logical non sequiturs as valid, would advocate that
position. The fact is, he developed, for personal enjoyment, a bad habit
which, over time, gave him a disease which eventually killed him. The
habit and the disease were not one in the same.

If an individual challenges the disease concept of Alcoholism in the
company of A.A. devotees or treatment industry personnel, he/she is more
often than not, attacked vituperatively by these self appointed
guardians of sobriety.

"Members of the cult are like a colony of insects when disturbed. A
frenzy of activity and protective measures are executed when core
concepts are challenged. The stronger the evidence challenging the
truthfulness of the group ideology, the more likely members of the cult
are to...lash out in a more or less predictable fashion."(11)

If the heretic happens to be an addict or former addict, he is
characterized by the faithful as being in denial, and his logical
exposition and sound reasoning (Stinkin' thinkin') are defined as
expressive of his disease process. This hyper-reactivity to non
group-sanctioned thought exemplifies a central, clearly cult-like
feature of Alcoholics Anonymous, the group's insistence on the absolute
infallibility of its ideological/theological base into which the disease
concept (sin) and faith healing (absolution) are inextricably woven. The
extent to which the health care establishment and public policy makers
have embraced this absurd doctrine is astounding.