ANALYSIS OF
THE TWELVE STEPS OF
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS*
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
A must move from arrogance and pride to humility. Without this step the prognosis is poor because A will feel that others are imposing the treatment for a nonexistent problem.
Step 2:Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step 3:Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
A must believe in a higher power and make a conscious decision to surrender to it.
Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our selves.
A engages in a process of humble soul searching, fully expecting to find flaws. This self examination must be critical and must not allow for excuses to be made.
Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Confession to God and to another person. AA members find sponsors, who listen to them and help them if they slip.
Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
A must show a willingness to change with the help of a higher power. In the new state of humility, A beseeches God to change him/her.
Step 8: Made a list of all persons we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to tham all.
Now A thinks of his/her wrongdoings in terms of people they have harmed. The focus now shifts to others rather than the self.
Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
A must make amends. This is a kind of penance.
Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
Specifies that the process of taking personal inventory is a continuous one and confession is a continuous process.
Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
A's life must take on a specifically religious tone. A must not ask God for what he/she wants, but must ask that he/she be shown what God wants. Once again, the tone of humility and atonement is struck.
Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
A agrees to become God's servant by "showing the way" to other alcoholics. By "working the steps," the alcoholic makes his/her life a model of humility and atonement. This mirrors a Puritan belief that the only evidence that one's spiritual condition has changed is visible evidence of a new responsibility toward others in one's outward practice.
*The analysis of the Steps (italics)
is taken primarily from
The above analysis shows that AA
has many components of religious conversion and ritual.
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