Not-God (75 page)

44
    Bob P., “Closing Talk: Our greatest danger: rigidity,”
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, pp. 6-7.

45
    
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, pp. 10-11;
cf
. also
Box 4-5-9
33:2 (April/May 1987), for the transition to 1987’s Conference.

46
    How Alcoholics Anonymous derives its estimates of membership was best described in a response to an Ask-It-Basket question —
cf. Final Report of the 1975 General Service Conference
, pp. 38-39: “A.A. makes no effort to keep complete membership records at either the group or international level, but in response to demand, we do make an annual estimate. This is based on the actual reported figures of groups and members. Where some of the groups in an area do not include membership figures, an average is made of the reporting groups in each state or province and this average is assigned arbitrarily to the groups which omit membership figures. The total figure for reported members obtained by this method is then factored to account for the members who do not regularly attend meetings to obtain an
estimated
membership for public release. We believe the resulting estimate of membership is an extremely conservative figure.”

47
    All figures are from each year’s
Final Report of the General Service Conference
.

48
    
Cf. Box 4-5-9
18:3 (June/July 1973), 1: “Millionth Big Book at White House,” and picture of Dr. John Norris presenting that copy to President Richard Nixon.

49
    This projection does not take into account the impact of the first paperback edition of the Big Book, which sold over 81,000 copies in the less than three months after it appeared in late 1986, apparently without denting the sales of the regular edition. Early sales indicate that its availability will increase overall sales so that “every fifteen months” may prove an under-estimate.

50
    
Cf. Final Report of the 1972 General Service Conference
, p. 33.

51
    Reports of numbers of groups and members divided into “United States, Canada, Loners and Internationalists, Correctional Facilities and Overseas” can be found in each year’s General Service Conference
Final Report; cf
. also
Box 4-5-9
33:3 (June/July 1987), p. 2.

52
    For the briefest summary of significance,
cf
. Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin,
Drinking in America
(New York: Macmillan Free Press, 1982), pp. 189-195;
cf
. also Carolyn Wiener,
The Politics of Alcoholism: Building an Arena Around a Social Problem
(New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1981), p. 28, for the context and
passim;
also
United States Code, Congressional and Administrative News
, vol. 3, 91st Cong., 2d sess. (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1970), pp. 5724-5726;
Congressional Quarterly Almanac
, vol. XXIX, 1973, pp. 557-564;
idem
, vol. XXXIII, 1977, p. 483, vol. XXXIV, 1978, p. 592, and vol. XXXV, 1979, p. 512; also
United States Code, Congressional and Administrative News
, 95th Cong., 2d sess., vol. 6 (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1978), p. 7413. Mark H. Moore and Dean R. Gerstein, eds.,
Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition
(Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1981), discuss public policy planning as flowing from the legislation. I am grateful to Professor Linda Farris Kurtz of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis for summarizing the research literature represented in this paragraph and note.

For a more detailed historical description of the background of this process,
cf
. Bruce Holley Johnson,
The Alcoholism Movement in America: A Study in Cultural Innovation
, unpublished dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: University Microfilms # 74-5603, pp. 370-371.

53
    On Alcoholics Anonymous as “way of life,”
cf
. the original title of the book now distributed as
As Bill Sees It
(New York: A.A.W.S., 1967) and
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
, p. 15; also
AACA
, p. 127.

54
    
Cf
. Donald Meyer,
The Positive Thinkers
(New York: Doubleday, 1965).

55
    Walter Houston Clark,
Chemical Ecstasy
(New York: Sheed & Ward, 1969); David Musto,
The American Disease
(New Haven: Yale, 1973); and Thomas Szasz,
Ceremonial Chemistry
(London: Routledge and Kagan Paul, 1975) — all afford good introductions to this topic. For a much larger but also very useful perspective,
cf
. Christopher Lasch,
The Culture of Narcissism
(New York: Norton, 1978) and
The Minimal Self
(New York: Norton, 1984); and Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton,
Habits of the Heart
(Berkeley: Univ. of California, 1985). For the final point, John Mack and Edward Khantzian in Bean and Zinberg,
Dynamic Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Alcoholism
(New York: Free Press, 1981).

56
    Lender and Martin,
Drinking in America
, p. 189; for the N.C.A.,
cf
. Bruce Holley Johnson,
The Alcoholism Movement in America: A Study in Cultural Innovation
, unpublished dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: University Microfilms # 74-5603, especially the detailed and comprehensive
Chapter Five
.

57
    
Cf
. Carolyn Wiener,
The Politics of Alcoholism: Building an Arena Around a Social Problem
(New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1981);
cf
. also Mark H. Moore and Dean R. Gerstein, eds.,
Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition
(Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1981).

58
    This impression derives from comparing over time meeting lists from all over the country. The sampling is unscientific, resulting from my own research in local archives while traveling and from those copies of meeting lists preserved in the G.S.O. archives or in other scattered places such as the
A.A. Grapevine
files.

59
    
Cf. Box 4-5-9
20:4 (August/September 1975), 4: “Share Your Detox Center Experience — It’s Needed.”

60
    
Final Report of the 1973 General Service Conference
, p. 32.

61
    
Final Report of the 1978 General Service Conference
, pp. 13—14.

62
    
Final Report of the 1973 General Service Conference
, p. 10;
AAGV
43:8 (January 1987), 26-35;
Final Report of the 1976 General Service Conference
, p. 25;
Final Report of the 1979 General Service Conference
, p. 43.

63
    D. J. Armor, J. M. Polich, and H. B. Stambull,
Alcoholism and Treatment
(Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corp., 1976).

64
    
Cf. Final Report of the 1977 General Service Conference
, p. 26.

65
    D. L. Davies, “Normal Drinking in Recovered Alcohol Addicts,”
QJSA
23:94-104 (1962); R. G. Bell, “Normal Drinking in Recovered Alcohol Addicts;” Comment on the Article by D. L. Davies,
QJSA
24:321-322 (1963); M. Sobell and L. Sobell, “Alternative to Abstinence,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
235:2103-2104 (1974); E. M. Pattison, M. B. Sobell, and L. C. Sobell,
Emerging Concepts of Alcohol Dependence
(New York: Springer, 1977); E. Mansell Pattison,
Selection of Treatment for Alcoholics
(Piscataway NJ: Center of Alcohol Studies, 1981).

The usual comment heard within A.A. on this topic runs, “There are people dying because they think like that;” and often a specific story is told illustrating that point and reminding of the pervasiveness of the alcoholic’s pathognomonic denial.

66
    Robert E. Tournier, “Alcoholics Anonymous as Treatment and as Ideology,
JSA
40:3 (March 1979), 230-239. The commenting articles by Donald W. Goodwin, Mark B. Sobell, Linda C. Sobell, William Madsen, Robert A. Moore, Chaim M. Rosenberg, Harold W. Demone, Jr., and Gerald D. Shulman appear on pages 318-338 of the same issue. Tournier’s “Reply to Comments” appeared in
JSA
40:7 (July 1979), 743-749.

67
    
Cf
. Alan C. Ogborne, Ph.D., and Frederick B. Glaser, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C), “Characteristics of Affiliates of Alcoholics Anonymous: A Review of the Literature,’
JSA
42:661-675 (July 1981);
Final Report of the 1974 General Service Conference
, p. 23;
Final Report of the 1977 General Service Conference
, p. 44.

68
    “Results of Recent Survey,”
Box 4-5-9
13:5 (October/November 1968), 3.

69
    
Final Report of the 1977 General Service Conference
, p. 40;
cf
. also
Box 4-5-9
, 20:1 (February/March 1975), 1: “1974 A.A. Survey Does Massive Twelfth-Step Job, Proves Again That ‘A.A. Works.’”

70
    
Cf. Box 4-5-9
October/November 1972, February/March 1975, October/ November 1978, October/November 1981, October/November 1984.

71
    Interview of John B., 22 April 1987, at which the point was also made that beginning in 1983, A.A. has hired a statistician to design the survey according to accepted standards. The scientifically chosen sample for 1986 numbered 6977.

72
    
Cf
. above, p. 89;
Box 4-5-9
20:4 (August-September 1975), “Share Your Detox Experience — It’s Needed;” “Is your group doing enough about prospective new A.A. members sent to you by a detox center — in comparison to what your group does about helping an alcoholic who walks in off the street on his or her own?

“… as shown in the
Final Report
of the 1975 Silver Anniversary General Service Conference, the sponsorship needed for professionally referred problem drinkers is of increasing concern in A.A., as professional interest in helping alcoholics steps up.”

Cf
. also
Final Report of the 1975 General Service Conference
, pp. 19—20;
Final Report of the 1976 General Service Conference
, pp. 9—10.

73
    
Cf. Box 4-5-9
33:3 (June/July 1987), 2, and treatment below, pp.185-186.

74
    
Final Report of the 1975 General Service Conference
, p. 19;
cf. Final Report of the 1970 General Service Conference
, pp. 18-19.

75
    J.G., “That Fabulous Convention!”
AAGV
, 32:5 (October 1975), 20-25; and “Convention Vignettes,”
idem
, 26-27; also Bill Pittman, “Sobriety Celebrations,”
Alcoholism/the National Magazine
5:5 (May/June 1985), 26-27.

76
    “The Language of the Heart,”
A.A. Today
(New York: A.A.W.S., 1960), pp. 7-11; “A.A. Communication Can Cross All Barriers,”
AAGV
, 16:5 (October 1959), 2-5.

On Bill’s intention to write a final book on “Practicing These Principles in All Our Affairs,”
cf
. his late-1960 correspondence with Dr. John Norris. Bill began the project in a series of
A.A. Grapevine
articles that appeared in 1961 and 1962;
cf
. “God As We Understand Him: The Dilemma of No Faith, by Bill,”
AAGV
17:11 (April 1961), 3-7.

77
    
Cf. Final Report of the 1976 General Service Conference
, p. 45;
The A.A. Service Manual Combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service
, by Bill W. (New York: A.A.W.S., “1985-1986 edition”), p. 28; also, how the 1987 General Service Conference approached its theme, “The Seventh Tradition — A Turning Point,” with presentations on “Being Aware of Changes/Trends Within A.A.” and “Our Primary Purpose: Is It Changing in a Changing World?”

78
    
Cf. Box 4-5-9
33:3 (June/July 1987), 1.

79
    
Final Report of the 1974 General Service Conference
, p. 18.

80
    
Final Report of the 1971 General Service Conference
, p. 13.

81
    
Cf
. e.g., Dennis Wholey,
The Courage to Change
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984); on the “Creating a Sober World” project,
cf
. below, p. 202;
Final Report of the 1982 General Service Conference
, pp. 19—20: “Anonymity Breaks — How Are We Handling Them?” Answer: “G.S.O. Sends Friendly Reminder.”

82
    
Final Report of the 1972 General Service Conference
, p. 22;
Final Report of the 1978 General Service Conference
, p. 13.

83
    
Cf
. the heading, “Never Received Salary” in the
Box 4-5-9
16:2 (Memorial Issue, January 1971), 4; also the consistent publication, until 1971, of “Bill’s Statement On His Finances” in each year’s
Final Report of the General Service Conference
, e.g., in 1970, p. 42.

84
    
Cf. Final Reports
of the years listed;
Box 4-5-9
12:5 (October/November 1967);
A.A. Exchange Bulletin
8:5-6 (1963).

85
    John B., General Manager, G.S.O., presentation: “Problems and Solutions in A.A.’s Literature Operation,” notes provided at First A.A.W.S./Intergroup Seminar, 5 September 1986, Chicago, Illinois.

86
    
Final Report of the 1977 General Service Conference
, p. 26.

87
    
Final Report 1978 General Service Conference
, p. 45.

88
    
Cf
. John B., General Manager, G.S.O., presentation: “Problems and Solutions in A.A.’s Literature Operation,” notes provided at First A.A.W.S./Intergroup Seminar, 5 September 1986, Chicago, Illinois.