What comes to your mind when you hear the word cult? Jim Jones Kool Aid? David Koresh? Charles Manson? The Texas Polygamist Compound? Maybe even Scientology. Do the words Alcoholic’s Anonymous come to mind? I certainly have never thought of Alcoholics Anonymous as a cult and I am a member. As many people know from my recent blog post, I have been in AA for over a year.
I received many emails and comments in response to that post. Many of those commenting believed that AA was a cult. I frankly take them with a grain of salt. 100 percent of them were from former AA members. When you are at a low point in your life and counting on something to turn that life around and it does not work, what do you do? You don’t look to yourself. You blame everyone else. You blame the program. You dismiss , you denigrate, you destroy. Anything so you can relieve yourself of personal responsibility for your failure. I know this because I have been there. That does not make AA a cult. That makes you human.
Let us start with the premise that AA as an overall organization can not possibly qualify as a cult because it has no central authority structure. No one is handing down edicts from the top saying you must do this or that to stay in the group. This is because there is no top. To be a cult an organization as a whole must have a “top” in terms of its authority structure.
This leaves us with the question of whether the AA philosophy encourages “cult like behavior” in its thousands of chapters. I do not necessarily disagree that this can not happen depending on the personality makeup of the specific chapter. I do believe that it is the very rare exception rather than the rule.
The other day someone who read my blog, sent me an article about an AA chapter in Washington D.C that was accused of being a cult. The members of this chapter of AA basically encouraged younger females members to have sex with older males members and encouraged members in general to cut off all times with anyone who was not a member of this AA chapter. Does that ring the “cult bell” in your head? It certainly does in mine. You can read that article here.
Yes I agree that this particular chapter probably qualified as a cult but to say that the actions of a isolated group within a larger group classify that larger group as a cult is ludicrous. When these allegations were made public, this group was in fact disbanded as an AA sanctioned group.
What else would classify AA as a cult? The biggest book on this subject is AA Cult or Cure By Charles Bufe.
Bufe goes through a litany of things that qualify AA as a cult. I am not going to debate his criteria. Why? Words are like statistics. You form your opinion than you make them fit to make your point. I frankly could take Bufe’s points and make a good argument that the Boy Scouts are a cult using his criteria.
Anytime you have people coming to together in a group of any kind, you are going to have formal and informal criteria for membership even at the lowest level. You are going to have a common purpose. You are going to have strong personalities and weak personalities. You are going to have strong personalties that overwhelm and dominate weaker personalities. You are going to have weaker personalties who have to adopt the essence of the stronger ones to excel in the group. Does that happen in AA? Of course it does. Does that happen in the Boy Scouts? Of course it does. Did that happen in my law school study group? You bet. That happened in my weekly poker game. That is not a cult. That is group dynamics.
These personality issues can be much more pronounced in self help groups like AA. No one is walking into an AA meeting because they are at a high point in their life. They are defeated, they are weak, they have lost self, self respect, family, life etc. They are open to almost every and any suggestion that will put them on a new track of self respect and sobriety. This certainly lends itself to the danger of domination by strong personalities with amoral motives in the group without checks and balances. AA groups have checks and balances. These checks and balances are the members themselves who are different, diverse and look out for each other, not try to conform each other.
So, is AA a cult? I don’t think so but since each person has to make it work for them as an individual, I can see how some people who fail at it would take solace in viewing it that way. Of course those who think it is a cult would argue that I am a “cult member” and cult members never think they are in a cult. I have not read Catch-22 in many years but it sounds I am certainly not going out to fly that next mission so I can get out of the army.
I can also see how people with personalities that are just not compatible with a core philosophy would not do well and view it as a cult. Is there any group out there that does not have a core philosophy? These people however probably have issues in any group setting in which some conformity is an element of reaching a common goal. Is there any group out there where some level of conformity is not needed to reach a common goal?
AA does offer a program of conformity but AA is not about conformity. AA is not about submission to others in the group. I will not dispute that AA is about submitting to the fact that you have a problem and want help. How this makes it a cult I have no idea. I submitted to that exact same thing when I studied for the Texas Bar Exam. Is the legal profession a cult? I know some that would say yes.
AA is not about shunning those who do not conform or submit. AA is about people with a desire to stop drinking helping other people with a desire to stop drinking.
If that is a cult, pass me the Kool Aid……
UPDATED BLOG NOTE TO ALL: Please do not leave “11th tradition” comments on this post. They are off topic. I have written two other blogs about AA that you can find in my archives and for which 11th tradition comments are fine.
Below are two diametrically opposed videos on AA One is by Bill W., one of the founders of AA and the other is an interview with author James Stanton Peele who argues that AA is a cult. A fascinating comparison in viewpoints.
BILL W.
JAMES STANTON PEELE
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