The Barflies Message Board

Welcome to the Barflies Group Message Board. We encourage all alcoholics to share their experience, strength and hope in a way that is conducive to AA’s primary purpose, which is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety.

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Mixing spirituality & psychology - posted by Paul M at 01/02 03:58PM It seems to me I heard that Bob's last words to Bill were something like "let's keep this thing simple and avoid all that psychobabble." But now it appears that guests are more often inclined toward the psychology than the spirituality and I don't get why. It seems like it is AA when they talk like that. We were talking about anxiety awhile back and one guy says "You know, that's a treatable medical condition and you can take pills for that." I've heard other people say that AA is just behind the times and so many advances in psychology and medicine have come about that we should learn how to mix it in with what's left of the original message. But it seems to me that spiritual principles are over 2000 years old and we really haven't learned anything new in that area that warrants messing with the AA message. So what's the case for the other side - why should we continue to mix spirituality with psychology?

re: Mixing spirituality & psychology - posted by Gilly on 01/03 03:20PM I tend not to speak of it much any more (especially in meetings) because it just separates the fellowship. Why do I get so bent out of shape when it's talked about in a way that doesn't conform to my ideals? Spirituality has been around forever but it hasn't been useful to drunks en masse before AA was started. What did Bill W. and the founders do differently? I think they combined spirituality, and medicine in a way that could help drunks. To me psychology and psychiatry (medicine) are pretty similar. 12X12 Foreword, Page 16 "The basic principles of A.A., as they are known today, were borrowed mainly from the fields of religion and medicine, though some ideas upon which success finally depended were the result of noting the behavior and needs of the Fellowship itself." Glad to see a post again. Happy New Year!

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While we hope that all our guests share their experience as it relates to the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, we remind everyone that the contents of these message strings are strictly personal opinions of the authors. When in doubt about the nature of statements made please consult the Big Book and other AA reference materials... our motto: "If its not in the book, it doesn't count." Thank you all for sharing.