Twelve step recovery was viewed not only with suspicion but perhaps even more with condescension by the mental health community following World War II. Prior to that, for the most part, the mental health community ignored it. Since the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in 1935, it was small and active in only few places and had little mass appeal until after World War II. In those days, “mental health professional community” meant psychiatrists. But the fact was that alcoholics were getting sober in AA and psychiatry seemed to have no answers. AA began to get some professional recognition after E. Morton Jellinek published his study of AA in 1946. Flawed though that study was, it was the first formal professional recognition of what AA was accomplishing.
As time went on, it was not just the psychiatrists who attacked twelve step work. Twelve step advocates over-reached claiming more territory than we believe was justified. Read more, Go to Full Article (Member access)
Navigation Links:
These are related to Substance abuse and Addiction:
- Go to full article on The Destructive Battle over Recovery Methods (Member access)
- Return to Substance Abuse and Addiction (MSN)
- See Related article on Twelve Step Resources
- See Related article on Twelve Step Alternatives
- See Related article on the The Destructive Battle over Recovery Methods
- See related article on The Seven Challenges
- See related article on Motivational Interviewing, Stages of Change, Transtheoretical Model
- See related article on Harm Reduction Model
Last update November 1, 2014