June 1976

As others see us.. . Excerpted with permission from “What’s in Store for the Chemophilic Society?,” by Andrew Malcolm, which appeared in the Winter 1975 issue of Addiction, the quarterly publication of the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario

ill advised to borrow ideas and tech- attending the clinics should not be niques from the more fashionable invited to take a personal interest in Advice to AA clinics, I do not doubt that the others who have recently applied for clinics could make good use of some assistance at such places. A plan to WOULD LIKE to predict that, as publicized in recent years. In par- I fellow workers in the field of drug dependence, we will cease altogether ticular, AA should cease to hold to the antique notion that the member of the ideas of AA. In the future, for example, it may be that our clinics will introduce the immensely make use of such helpers would serve to revitalize and humanize our clinics, which, at the moment, seem our occasional belittling of Alcohol- must simply stop drinking without valuable concept of the sponsor. ‘

ever discovering why he or she was to be either too impersonal and sterics Anonymous. We should know by There is no reason at all why people ile or too vulgar and combative. now that AA has a record infinitely compelled to drink in the first place. better than our own in actually h e l p Many people, most of them clini- A Mischievous Suggestion ing people to stop drinking. AA, of cians, have advised AA to incorpo- Also, I think it is very likely that, rate the techniques of sensitivity has resulted in failure. It is only sucourse, is an especially comfortable in the near future, we will reject the perficially humane to offer such peotarget, because it is very large, training into the program. The AA mischievous suggestion that alcomeeting should come to resemble an ple this particular kind of hope. It relatively easy to dissect, and entire- holics might reasonably seek to be- is, in fact, to play cruelly with their ly unwilling to defend itself. AA encounter session, so that the mem- come social drinkers. This, by the bers might not merely stop drinking, lives to offer them such an illusory never asks for either criticism or ad- way, is one of the newest fashions on goal. We must simply be more realvice, and although 1 am disinclined but be cured of all their neuroses as the scene at the moment. It is unwell. istic about this matter. We do not to attack it, I am urged to offer some civilized and indecent, according to yet have the ability to solve the unsolicited advice. Now such suggestions, well-mean- this view, to condemn a man to a ing though they might be, are ex- problem of compulsiveness in any There has been some discomfort life of sobriety. It is far more hu- significant number of people, and within AA in recent years regarding ceedingly foolish and dangerous. mane to offer him the hope that They attack the essential genius of until we do, the exciting concept of what has been considered by some eventually he might be able to drink social drinking as a goal will have to its antiquated image. AA should AA. They violate a fundamental sanely like everyone else. Yet every principle of the organization, to the be regarded as premature. In my evolve, these critics have suggested. alcoholic I have ever worked with opinion, to think otherwise is to be It should let itself be informed by effect that no one should ever take has tried social drinking a thousand another person’s inventory. fundamentally unserious and lacking some of the dazzling advances in times, and in almost every case this in common sense and humanity. psychotherapy that have been much Although I feel that AA would be