“AA began as a nonprofessional attempt to grapple with the alcoholism of its founders. It arose and took its famous twelve steps directly from the Oxford Group, a fundamentalist religious organization founded in the early twentieth century.” — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“Addiction is not a moral defect, and to suggest that does a great disservice to people suffering with this disorder.” — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“AA makes inflated claims about itself. Its foundational document, Alcoholics Anonymous (commonly referred to as the “Big Book” and a perennial best seller), spells… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“I have met and listened to a very large number of people who have “failed” at AA and some who continue to swear by… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“The degradation woven through these steps also seems unwittingly designed to exacerbate, rather than relieve, the humiliating feelings so common in addiction. If moral… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“Alcoholics Anonymous was proclaimed the correct treatment for alcoholism over seventy-five years ago despite the absence of any scientific evidence of the approach’s efficacy,… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“Every year, our state and federal governments spend over $15 billion on substance-abuse treatment for addicts, the vast majority of which are based on… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“People suffering with addictions as a rule tend to be well aware of the many “wrongs” they have committed. Awareness of this fact doesn’t… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“Going to rehab” is likewise a common refrain in music and film, where it is almost always uncritically presented as the one true hope… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“AA has managed to survive, in part, because members who become and remain sober speak and write about it regularly. This is no accident:… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“Peer-reviewed studies peg the success rate of AA somewhere between 5 and 10 percent. That is, about one of every fifteen people who enter… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“There is nothing inherently wrong with apologizing to those who have been harmed, directly or indirectly, by the consequences of addiction. The problem is… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
“He also found himself increasingly resentful of the “tally system” that AA uses to measure sobriety: every time he “slipped” and had a drink,… — Lance Dodes Copy Share Image
