Alcoholics Anonymous - Big Book 4th Edition by AA Services Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Alcoholics Anonymous - Big Book 4th Edition
Book Review: Cult Based Literature
Summary: 1 Stars
Orange papers verbatim:
1. The Twelve Steps do not work as a program of recovery from drug or alcohol problems.
The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:
One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless -- that it didn't help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested -- a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as "appalling". While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. After 8 years of A.A. treatment, the score with Dr. Vaillant's first 100 alcoholic patients was: 5 sober, 29 dead, and 66 still drinking.
(Nevertheless, Vaillant is still a Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he still wants to send all alcoholics to A.A. anyway, to "get an attitude change by confessing their sins to a high-status healer." That is cult religion, not a treatment program for alcoholism.)
The A.A. dropout rate is terrible. Most people who come to A.A. looking for help in quitting drinking are appalled by the narrow-minded atmosphere of fundamentalist religion and faith-healing. The A.A. meeting room has a revolving door. The therapists, judges, and parole officers (many of whom are themselves hidden members of A.A. or N.A.) continually send new people to A.A., but those newcomers vote with their feet once they see what A.A. really is. Even A.A.'s own triennial surveys, conducted by the A.A. headquarters (the GSO), say that:
81% of the newcomers are gone within 30 days,
90% are gone in 3 months, and
95% are gone at the end of a year.
That automatically gives A.A. a failure rate of at least 95%. But the GSO does not count all of those people who only attend a few meetings before quitting -- they don't qualify as "members". (That amounts to "cherry-picking".) If we included them, then the numbers would be much worse.
First there is the propaganda technique of "everybody's doing it": "AA or a similar Twelve-Step program is an integral part of almost all successful recoveries".
That is a complete falsehood. The vast majority of the successful people recover without A.A. or any "support group". It's what "everybody" is doing.
Then they use the propaganda techniques of use of the passive voice and vague suggestions: "It is widely believed that not including a Twelve-Step program in a treatment plan can put a recovering addict on the road to relapse."
It is widely believed by whom? And what do those unnamed people know? What are their qualifications? Are they doctors? Medical school professors? Or salesmen for a 12-Step treatment center? Why should we care what some unnamed invisible fools allegedly believe, anyway?
The authors also use the propaganda technique of fear-mongering: you will be "on the road to relapse" -- you will probably die -- unless you practice Bill Wilson's Twelve Step cult religion.
And then the fluff-headed Pollyanna attitude is outrageous: Just going to the wonderful A.A. meetings is supposedly all that is needed to fix some alcoholics.
But since A.A. has a zero-percent success rate above and beyond the normal rate of spontaneous remission, that cannot possibly be true.
One problem that any Christian will have with Alcoholics Anonymous is the organization's abandoning of the Bible. The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is their new Bible. Some members claim to still use the Bible; I sometimes hear a bit of lip service to the Bible like, "Keep the Big Book next to the Good Book," but you won't see a Bible at a meeting, and you won't hear it quoted. Everybody is carrying the Big Book, and all readings come from it, or from a similar book of daily meditations, also written by Bill Wilson and other members of A.A..
In fact, reading aloud from the Bible at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings is usually forbidden. The Bible is considered "outside literature". Reading aloud at meetings from anything but A.A. "Council Approved" (and A.A.-published) literature is forbidden.
In addition, A.A. has essentially abandoned Jesus Christ. The A.A. faithful believe that Bill Wilson is superior to Jesus Christ when it comes to dealing with alcoholism, and you will hear Bill Wilson quoted a hundred times more often than Jesus Christ. (As a matter of fact, I can't really remember the last time I heard Jesus Christ quoted in an A.A. or N.A. meeting...)
The third edition of the A.A. Big Book does not contain the word "Jesus" anywhere, not even once. Bill Wilson raved constantly about "God", but didn't talk about Jesus Christ at all. There is one and only one mention of "Christ" in the entire book, and it is Bill Wilson's statement that before his hallucinatory experience on belladonna, his so-called "spiritual experience," he didn't have much use for Christ:
With ministers, and the world's religions, I parted right there. When they talked of a God personal to me, who was love, superhuman strength and direction, I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory. To Christ I conceded the certainty of a great man, not too closely followed by those who claimed Him. His moral teaching -- most excellent. For myself, I had adopted those parts which seemed convenient and not too difficult; the rest I disregarded.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, chapter 1, Bill's Story, pages 10-11.
Apparently, Bill continued to disregard a lot of that stuff even after he "saw the light," or saw "the God of the preachers", because Bill never mentioned Jesus or Christ again, not anywhere in the Big Book, not ever.
The first edition of the Big Book contained one story, "My Wife and I," that contained a line mentioning Jesus Christ:
Here were these men who visited me and they, like myself, had tried everything else and although it was plain to be seen none of them were perfect, they were living proof that the sincere attempt to follow the cardinal teaching of Jesus Christ was keeping them sober.
That story was dropped from the second, third, and fourth editions.
The word "God" appears in the first 164 pages of the Big Book (which William G. Wilson either wrote, co-authored, or edited) 106 times,
the word "Power", as in "Higher Power" or "that Power, which is God" appears 22 times,
the divine "Him" appears 26 times,
and the divine "His" is used 15 times,
but there is no mention of "Jesus Christ", not one single mention.
Alcoholics Anonymous is not a Christian religion, no matter what some members like to say. It is a religion all right, in spite of the denials of the members who claim that it is only a "spiritual program." Alcoholics Anonymous is a Buchmanite religion. Alcoholics Anonymous is just Frank Buchman's crazy "Oxford Group / Moral Re-Armament" religion, only slightly edited by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert H. Smith.
Basically, Alcoholics Anonymous believes in and practices the teachings of Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman, another man who had little use for Jesus Christ, because he preferred his own beliefs and teachings to those of Jesus. Bill Wilson did not invent the theology of A.A. -- he merely copied it from Frank Buchman.
In spite of that fact that Bill Wilson tried to hide the strong connections between Frank Buchman and A.A., Buchman's Oxford Group got three mentions in the third edition of the Big Book, while Christ got only one. (The first two mentions of the Oxford Group are in the Forward to the Second Edition, and the third is on page 218 of the third edition, in the story "He Thought He Could Drink Like A Gentleman".)
For that matter, when you consider the fact that Jesus' first miracle was changing water into wine at a wedding party, there might be a real problem with Jesus being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous... (John 2:1 to 2:11.)
I am reminded of a contemporary critic of Frank Buchman's Oxford Group, Pastor H. A. Ironside, who criticized Buchmanism by saying that it was not a Christian religion, in spite of Buchman's claims that it was, because everything in Buchmanism would still be possible even if Jesus Christ had never been born. The same thing is true of Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A. would not have to change one word of the official church dogma even if Jesus Christ had never been born. The sacred Twelve Steps of Bill Wilson do not mention Jesus Christ, and do not require Jesus Christ in order to work, and the Twelve Steps don't even require Jesus Christ to have ever existed.
Neither are the Twelve Steps based on any of the teachings of Jesus Christ. (They are based on the teachings of Dr. Frank Buchman.)
Alcoholics Anonymous simply has no need for, and no use for, Jesus Christ. A.A. worships Bill Wilson and Doctor Bob, not Jesus Christ.
Book Review: ?? What Good is This? ??
Summary: 2 Stars
I purchased these thinking that I was buying the AA Big Book; there are distinct similarities upon initial (online) inspection. However, this isn't the entire Big Book; certain passages that I've found to be most relevant are absent. What good is this, then? Most dismaying is that their purchase price is the same as the standard AA Big Book. I've returned this purchase; it's far more practical for me to return them than it is to try to fit these 'round pegs' in the square holes that are best filled with a bona fide AA Big Book. Better luck next time. :)Book Review: Mindless garbage...
Summary: 1 Stars
I am embarrased to say it, but I've read this book at least 10 times. The nightmare began some 8 years ago when at the urging of a "friend" I entered rehab for what would become the first of many such "treatments". The indoctrination process began immediately. "The first 163 pages will save your ..." was just one of the things I was told by some washed up alcoholic who once resorted to drinking Sterno while living homeless in some ravine. It never stopped. Go to enough AA meetings and you'll hear the same things over and over and over...you get the idea. How quickly we (newcomers) were brainwashed. For me there was always an uneasy feeling. It was creepy to hear those who were only days out of rehab sound off parroting the same sentiments and cliches of their sponsors. An ominous warning I should have paid attention to.
Years later I realize that I was one of the unfortunate souls that was swept away into a religious cult with the help of counselors, social workers, 12 steppers and even doctors. I became sicker, despondent and my drinking and using worsened. My sanity was replaced with the belief that I was powerless and my only hope was within "the Program". There's a good reason they call it your "Program". I became a 12 step automaton immersing myself deeper into the religiousity of AA with each successive relapse. I did it all. A meeting every day, working the steps, attending step studies, service work, conventions, retreats...you name it-I did it. I surrendered common sense and reason and followed the direction of 12 step fruitcakes.
If you are newly sober and looking for help look elsewhere. This book is a waste of time and may even be hazardous to your health. If it's a support group you think you need go to a Life Ring meeting or better yet stay home and read Rational Recovery or one of Ellis' books. Do not go to 12 step meetings. I haven't been to an AA meeting in close to 2 years and I am finally sober and happy. Go figure.
Stay away from 12 steppers. It took me years to come to this realization and that is this - Members of Alcoholics Anonymous are more concerned with AA than they are with helping people stay sober. Just take a look at the numbers. The vast majority of recovered addicts/alcoholics recover without 12 step involvement. AA and its evil spawn NA have hurt more people than they have helped.
Book Review: One of the World's Greatest Books
Summary: 5 Stars
I read the AA Big Book and joined Overeaters Anonymous thinking I was a compulsive overeater. Perhaps I would have been an alcoholic, but my body chemistry never tolerated alcohol, smoking or drugs, so I was spared that. It turned out the weight problem was also a body chemistry thing, and the time I spent in diligent application to the 12-step program led me to realize I wasn't a compulsive overeater after all.
Reading the AA Big Book was fantastic for me, and I recommend it to anyone. If you are not an addict, it will certainly not harm you to try a 12-step program. You are likely to come out, as I did after 10 months, with a deep respect for what these programs do. Miracles are everyday events in these groups.
Some of the people who have written reviews here resisted the tenets of AA because they are unwilling to submit to a higher power. That's human nature. Anything else is itself a miracle.
My concerns about AA prior to reading the book were the opposite. I am a Christian and I was under the impression that the 12 steps are in conflict with that. Such is not at all the case. No one is going to try to hypnotize you!
Nor is a 12-step program going to tell you to avoid medical help. One of AA's founders was a doctor, and right from the start AA began saving lives that doctors knew they could not save. It still happens in AA, daily.
If you are ready to be inspired, read this book. You will understand yourself and other people better. If you don't feel ready to be inspired, maybe you need to read it even more.
I noticed one of the reviews complained about archaic language in the book. It's not that archaic. You don't need a glossary to read it, as you do with the King James Bible or Shakespeare! For me, the language serves as a reminder of how long this organization has been helping people, and of its amazing roots.
Be sure to read the AA 12 Steps and 12 Traditions, too. If you know much about organizations, the 12 Traditions will blow your mind. AA is truly a non profit organization, not one just for tax purposes. Their traditions include the deliberate avoidance of accumulating wealth and property for the organization. It's about addict helping addict, without judgement but also with a centered perspective that casts light on truth.
The simple but powerful structure of meetings--including those held in online chat rooms--as well as the tradition of anonymity make AA a unique safe place. Reading this book is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself and for the people you care about, addicted or not. You can also read it free online (just Google AA Big Book and it's one of the first entries), but for me that doesn't replace a real book to hold and read. It would be hard to find a better investment than the purchase of the AA Big Book. ---Kathy Diamond Davis
Book Review: Five Stars for this Classic Text
Summary: 5 Stars
Written in the unique style of the 1940s by one of the most influential people in the world, who said his words were inspired by God.
If that is not enough, it is the text that serves as the foundation for the most successful program of life skills ever documented.
Need more? This book, along with the open mindedness, willingness to help and honesty of many others seeking a better life, helped me to change my life and become a useful member of society, One Day at a Time, since 1992.
Get it and read it. Or at least put it near your bed for the osmosis effect.
Also recommended are some of the ReXark titles you can find here on Amazon, actual recordings of speakers in some of the fellowships, they are of excellent quality and great for travelling, commuting, or if you are in a remote area where there are not a lot of meetings.