Is A.A. based totally on your own
experiences?
Answer
Let's look. Dr. Bob recovered. Then we two
set to work on alcoholics in Akron. Well,
again came this tendency to preach, again
this feeling that it has to be done in some
particular way, again discouragement, so our
progress was slow. But little by little we
were forced to analyze our experiences and
say, "This approach didn't work very well
with that fellow. Why not? Let's try to put
ourselves in his shoes and stop this
preaching and see how he might be approached
if we were he." That began to lead us to the
idea that A.A. should be no set of fixed
ideas, but should be a growing thing,
growing out of experience. After a while we
began to reflect: "This wonderful blessing
that has come to us, from what does it get
its origin?" It was a spiritual awakening
growing out of adversity. So then we began
to look harder for our mistakes, to correct
them, to capitalize on our errors. Little by
little we began to grow so that there were 5
of us at the end of that first year; at the
end of the second year 15; at the end of the
third 40; and at the end of the fourth year,
100.
During those first four years most of us had
another bad form of intolerance. As we
commenced to have a little success, I am
afraid our pride got the better of us and it
was our tendency to forget about our
friends. We were very likely to say, "Well,
those doctors didn't do anything for us, and
as for these sky pilots, well, they just
don't know the score." And we became
snobbish and patronizing.
Then we read a book by Dr. Carrell (Man, The
Unknown). From that book came an argument
which is now a part of our system. Dr.
Carrel wrote, in effect; The world is full
of analysts. We have tons of ore in the
mines and we have all kinds of building
materials above ground. Here is a man
specializing in this, there is a man
specializing in that, and another one in
something else. The modern world is full of
wonderful analysts and diggers, but there
are very few who deliberately synthesize,
who bring together different materials, who
assemble new things. We are much too shy on
synthetic thinking - the kind of thinking
that's willing to reach out now here and now
there to see if something new cannot be
evolved.
On reading that book some of us realized
that was just what we had been groping
toward. We had been trying to build out of
our own experiences. At this point we
thought, "Let's reach into other people's
experiences. Let's go back to our friends
the doctors, let's go back to our friends
the preachers, the social workers, all those
who have been concerned with us, and again
review what they have got above ground and
bring that into the synthesis. And let us,
where we can, bring them in where they will
fit." So our process of trial and error
began and at the end of four years, the
material was cast in the form of a book
known as Alcoholics Anonymous. (Yale Summer
School of Alcohol Studies, June 1945)
