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Getting on the Program

A Biocultural Analysis of Alcoholics Anonymous

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The American Experience with Alcohol

Abstract

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a large, well-known self-help organization. A coherent set of beliefs forms the core of what AA members call “The Program.” These beliefs offer alcoholics a path to recovery. My purpose here is to examine the convergence of two aspects of recovery from alcoholism. The first aspect is the process by which alcoholics begin to restructure their identities and reinterpret their experiences in terms of the AA ideology. The second aspect is the physiological event occurring during the early stages of sobriety, when most AA members first come to the organization. My approach will be to show how the AA meeting constitutes a dramatic performance that is tailored to the biological state of alcoholics in early recovery.

This research was supported in part by an extramural research grant from the State of Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Drs. D.B. Shimkin, M.B. Rodin, and J. Lowe co-principal investigators.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, University of Illinois Health Sciences Center, Chicago, Illinois, 60680, USA

    Miriam B. Rodin

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  1. Miriam B. Rodin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Family Research, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C., USA

    Linda A. Bennett

  2. Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Berkeley, California, USA

    Genevieve M. Ames

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© 1985 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Rodin, M.B. (1985). Getting on the Program. In: Bennett, L.A., Ames, G.M. (eds) The American Experience with Alcohol. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0530-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0530-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0532-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0530-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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