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Not God A History of Alcoholics Anonymous Secure Download

Not God is a comprehensive history of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), detailing its origins, development, and key figures involved in its formation. The author, Ernest Kurtz, utilizes extensive research and personal interviews to document the evolution of A.A. and its impact on American society. The book emphasizes the significance of community and personal growth within the fellowship of A.A. as a program for recovery from alcoholism.

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685 views14 pages

Not God A History of Alcoholics Anonymous Secure Download

Not God is a comprehensive history of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), detailing its origins, development, and key figures involved in its formation. The author, Ernest Kurtz, utilizes extensive research and personal interviews to document the evolution of A.A. and its impact on American society. The book emphasizes the significance of community and personal growth within the fellowship of A.A. as a program for recovery from alcoholism.

Uploaded by

ghuynhghoangro.ong.nam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Not God A History of Alcoholics Anonymous

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Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following:
Excerpts from Bill W. by Robert Thomsen. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Copyright 1975 by
Robert Thomsen. Reprinted by permission of the publishers.
Excerpts from Alcoholics Anonymous. Copyright 1939, 1955, 1976 by Alcoholics Anonymous World
Services, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Excerpts from Twelve Steps And Twelve Traditions. Copyright 1952, 1953 by Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
Excerpts from Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. Copyright 1957 by Alcoholics Anonymous
World Services, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
The “A.A. Preamble,” copyright © 1958 by the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. Reprinted by permission.

Copyright 1979 © by Ernest Kurtz

First Published 1979


Expanded Edition First Published 1991

Appendix B First Published


by Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., San Francisco,
in AA: The Story, by special arrangement
with the Hazelden Foundation.

All rights reserved.


No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
without the written permission of the publisher,
Hazelden, Box 176,
Center City, Mn. 55012.

ISBN13: 978-0-89486-065-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-59285-902-3
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 79-88264

Printed in the United States of America


To
G.H.

with gratitude
About the Book
Not-God is a fascinating, fast-moving, and authoritative account of the
discovery and development of the program and fellowship that we know
today as Alcoholics Anonymous.
Easily readable, Not-God contains more anecdotes and excerpts from the
diaries, correspondence, and occasional memoirs of A.A.’s early figures
than are heard in a hundred A.A. meetings. Kurtz traces the interesting
debts that A.A. owes to such persons and groups as the psychiatrist Carl
Jung, American philosopher William James, Akron social matron Henrietta
Seiberling, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., as well as the Oxford Group of
Frank Buchman, a few Irish-American Catholic priests, and fundamentalist
religion.
Beginning with the well-known visit between the sober Ebby T. and the
drunken Bill Wilson, Kurtz documents Wilson’s spiritual awakening (or
“hot flash” as the first fifty A.A.s called it), his desire to tell other alcoholics
what he had discovered, and his ever-growing conviction that to stay sober
he must work with other alcoholics.
The story relates the importance of the Oxford Group to the development
of A.A., the painful writing of the Big Book, even the problems caused over
the years by Wilson’s unofficial status as “Head of A.A.,” and the fight
involving the A.A. Board of Trustees. All is told in the context of two
important points: Wilson and the first recovered alcoholics were keenly
aware of their own limitation as alcoholics, and—more important—they
discovered a health and wholeness, a maturity, as sober individuals within
the fellowship of A.A.
Ernest Kurtz was given full and complete access to the archives of the
General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous in New York. His
unhindered research, coupled with extensive interviews of surviving early
members and friends of A.A., has resulted in an account with documented
accuracy.
Not-God clearly details the slow but unswerving development of a
program of recovery for alcoholics, and it carries the message that
Alcoholics Anonymous as a program and fellowship has to give to the
United States of America in the middle third of the twentieth century.

About the Author


Ernest Kurtz received his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization
from Harvard University in 1978 and came to the study of history after
professional experience in both religion and psychology.
He is on the faculty of the Rutgers University Summer School of Alcohol
Studies, and holds the title of Adjunct Research Scientist at the Center for
Self-Help Research and Knowledge Dissemination at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.
“First of all we had to quit playing God.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 62
Contents

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


PART ONE: The History
Introduction
I Beginnings: November 1934-June 1935
The Limitations of the Drinking Alcoholic
II First Growth: June 1935-November 1937
The Limitations of the Sober Alcoholic
III Independent Existence: November 1937-October
1939 Finding Wholeness in Limitation
IV Prelude to Maturity: October 1939-March 1941
Needing Others — The Era of Publicity
V Attaining Maturity: 1941-1955
The Limitations of Alcoholics Anonymous
VI Responsibilities of Maturity: 1955-1971
Alcoholics Anonymous and the Wholeness
of Limitation

PART TWO: The Interpretation


Introduction
VII The Larger Context of American History
VIII The Context of the History of Religious Ideas
IX The Meaning and Significance of
Alcoholics Anonymous
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
Hazelden Foundation, a national nonprofit organization founded in 1949,
helps people reclaim their lives from the disease of addiction. Built on
decades of knowledge and experience, Hazelden’s comprehensive approach
to addiction addresses the full range of individual, family, and professional
needs, including addiction treatment and continuing care services for youth
and adults, publishing, research, higher learning, public education, and
advocacy.

A life of recovery is lived “one day at a time.” Hazelden publications, both


educational and inspirational, support and strengthen lifelong recovery. In
1954, Hazelden published Twenty-Four Hours a Day, the first daily
meditation book for recovering alcoholics, and Hazelden continues to
publish works to inspire and guide individuals in treatment and recovery,
and their loved ones. Professionals who work to prevent and treat addiction
also turn to Hazelden for evidence-based curricula, informational materials,
and videos for use in schools, treatment programs, and correctional
programs.

Through published works, Hazelden extends the reach of hope,


encouragement, help, and support to individuals, families, and communities
affected by addiction and related issues.

For questions about Hazelden publications,


please call 800-328-9000
or visit us online at hazelden.org/bookstore.
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is always out of place to attempt to justify or to demonstrate the


significance of a subject in the introduction to its study. If this statement
could be intensified, that strengthening would apply preeminently to the
subject of Alcoholics Anonymous. Similarly, simple acknowledgment rarely
does justice to the depth and the breadth of the assistance enjoyed by any
student in the pursuit of his or her subject. If this second observation can be
enhanced, that heightening applies especially to this writer on this topic.
Professor Milton Maxwell and Professor George Gordon of the Trustees’
Archives Committee of the General Service Board of Alcoholics
Anonymous did more than introduce me to “official” A.A. They offered
interest, encouragement, and tempered enthusiasm as well as the approval
necessary for research in the primary sources. As the custodian of sensitive
materials, the Trustees’ Archives Committee bears great responsibility to the
hundreds of thousands of members of Alcoholics Anonymous who have
placed implicit trust in their professional judgment. Before the present
project, never had any researcher been granted the access to materials that I
requested as necessary to this endeavor. Yet, over several meetings I felt not
so much screened as welcomed into a sharing of their responsibility. For
such trust, I am grateful.
Beyond archival research, this study required immersion in the
alcoholism literature and attendance at many meetings of Alcoholics
Anonymous. My appreciation of Alcoholics Anonymous as “fellowship” as
well as “program” was born at the latter, and for this I am especially
grateful to six friends. They have insisted that their names remain
completely unmentioned, and I accede to their wish. However I wish to
honor their contribution by the simple observation that there is but one term
adequate to describe their dedication to this project at its deepest level —
love. Their evident commitment to sobriety as honesty and their patience
with my early challenges to their beloved program in many ways gave birth
to the decision to pursue this project at this depth.
My research in the alcoholism literature, begun at the Center of Alcohol
Studies of Rutgers University, was carried on most intensively at the
Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minnesota. As a treatment center for
alcoholism and other chemical addictions as well as a research center for
problems of addiction and their treatment, Hazelden afforded the most
helpful as well as a most congenial setting for my research. I am grateful to
the director of Hazelden, Dr. Daniel J. Anderson, to his staff, and especially
to the late Sr. Mary Leo Kammeier, C.S.J., of Hazelden’s Research
Department for their cheerful good will, profound trust, and enthusiastic
assistance.
The historical study of a subject of less than fifty years’ existence
necessarily involves extensive research by interview. Especially the
following people, significant in the early history of Alcoholics Anonymous,
gave generous and infallibly courteous help — at times in the face of
questioning that no doubt too often seemed impertinent: Lois Wilson,
Henrietta Seiberling, Marty Mann, Clarence S., Warren C., and Dick P. I am
deeply grateful to each of these kind individuals for their assistance,
honesty, and trust.
A very special acknowledgment must be reserved for Nell Wing, long-
time secretary to A. A. co-founder Bill Wilson and present archivist of
Alcoholics Anonymous. Her deep knowledge of the materials, her
generosity in sharing personal recollections, her faithful devotion to
assisting this project, her help with introductions and contacts, her ready
response to occasionally desperate requests for verification: all these were
exceeded by only one thing — her unfailing cheerfulness in her dedication
to service.
At this moment of history, the term “mentor” seems in danger of
destruction by cliché. Such a loss would be tragic, for the concept bears a
meaning that is profound. It has been my privilege and good fortune to
profit as person as well as student from the mentoring guidance of two
skilled historians, Professor Oscar Handlin and Professor William R.
Hutchison. Each labored tirelessly and far beyond ordinary responsibility to
improve a style that was initially opaque. Each challenged assumptions and
laid bare tortuous reasoning. Each encouraged or chastised as one or the
other impetus was needed; and each carefully shared his own developing
enthusiasm for the project as my ardor at times waned in the labors of
research and writing. To both, I am grateful: beyond the requirements of
any academic relationship, these dedicated scholars have taught me that —
and how — scholarship is humanizing.
In its final stages, this manuscript was read by Dr. Daniel J. Anderson,
Dr. Sarah E. Williams, Professor Philip Natale, and Professor John J. Quinn.
Their comments, offered from their deep knowledge of the field of
alcoholism studies, of Alcoholics Anonymous, and of literary acceptability,
led to many minor changes and one major revision. If this study has
usefulness to workers in the alcoholism field, it is largely due to the
informed suggestions of Dr. Anderson, who also guided the early stages of
my research into the alcoholism literature. Dr. Williams at a critical moment
facilitated my understanding more deeply an aspect of my subject that until
our meeting had eluded me. Professor Natale, beyond encouraging this
study in its earliest stages, shared the burden of late stylistic revision.
Professor Quinn guided the revision of Part Two, offering substantial as
well as stylistic guidance and the encouragement of his contagious
enthusiasm for some of the larger ideas attempted in that interpretation. To
each of them, I am grateful for much.
The staff of the Hazelden Press, especially Mr. John Burns who exercised
final editorial responsibility, offered their skill, patience, and enthusiasm,
rendering more enjoyable than tedious the task of turning a technical
dissertation into a readable book. I am especially grateful to them for their
willingness and care to make available to a wide variety of readers the
scholarly apparatus that, on the topic of Alcoholics Anonymous, should
interest many readers who are not themselves scholars.
Finally, especially for the beginning of several of the interpretive insights
explored in Part Two, I am grateful to my sister, Mary Ann Kurtz, who at
the time of this research was Research Instructor in Psychology,
Department of Pediatrics, The Medical College of Pennsylvania. Beyond
the requirements of siblinghood, she gave generously of her time and
skilled insight in drawing on her knowledge of the psychological literature
to direct my attention to and aid my exploration of valuable and productive
ideas deriving from current research. Whatever contribution this study
might make to psychological thinking on alcoholism is largely due to her
generosity and patience in assisting this endeavor in the midst of her own
continuing responsibilities.
Despite all this diligent assistance from mentors, readers, and others, I
am aware that very probably some flaws of citation and infelicities of style
remain: the responsibility for these is, of course, only my own.
14 July 1979 ERNEST KURTZ

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