Ray A.'s Blog
January 4, 2024
Slogans: Feelings Are Not Facts
At a recent meeting, someone brought up a slogan I hadn’t heard since my days as a newcomer back in the mid 80’s: “Feelings are not facts.” The person was trying to be helpful. It was his way of trying to ease the intense feelings of guilt another AA had shared about regarding a difficult family situation. He was in effect suggesting that the guilt was unwarranted, because “feelings are not facts.”
Slogans are rife in AA, and they are generally helpful, but when we are new to the program, we can’t tell which are genuine AA slogans that originated in AA experience and can be traced to the primary AA literature, and which originated elsewhere and were later imported into the rooms. The difference matters, for in the case of the former, we can expect the slogan to accurately reflect the program, while in the case of the latter it may have little or nothing to do with—indeed, may even contradict, that program.
“Feelings are not facts” figures among this latter group. It is to be found nowhere in the Big Book or the 12&12. The origins of the expression can be traced to two philosophical traditions that are popular in the self-help movement and which form the foundation of most of the secondary recovery literature. These traditions share a tendency to question the value of emotions and to be dismissive of them.
One is Stoicism, an early form of rationalism which considers emotions to stand against what it sees as the rational order of the universe and hence to be inherently irrational. On this view, the facts of life are what they are, and there is no sense crying over them. Death is a fact of life, hence grieving someone’s passing away is pointless. For the true Stoic, the right attitude to take is one of apathy or indifference (cf. PTP 4, pp. 107-110). The other tradition is of an eastern orientation and identifies emotions with a different sort of irrationality, namely, illusion. Like the self from which they proceed, emotions are supposedly not real, that is, they do not correspond to anything in the real world. They are figments of our duality-deceived imagination (ibid.).
Again, Those who avail themselves of this slogan mean well. They want to help people who are feeling very badly not to feel so badly by questioning the objective validity of their emotions. However, our intentions can often have unintended consequences, and before using non-AA tools it would be wise to think these through and ascertain that they are faithful to the AA program and can make a positive contribution to recovery.
If we do that with the slogan “Feelings are not facts,” we will discover a number of problems. First, the way AA proposes we deal with our emotions is clearly to take inventory of them. But, by questioning any connection between feelings on the one hand, and facts and reality, on the other, the slogan is likely to add to the confusion already besetting the minds of newcomers and undermine their ability to properly examine their emotions when working Step 4. For one of the main tasks in making a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves is to establish the right or true relationship between our emotions and the situations that arouse them. That is, we want to examine the extent to which our emotions are based on the facts of a situation, the extent to which they correspond to reality. That determines whether they are morally right or wrong, that is, whether they do justice to a situation, or do not.
That is why the Big Book insists that establishing the right connection between fact and emotion is essential to our inventory. Comparing a commercial with a moral inventory, we read in “How It Works” that “Taking a commercial inventory is a fact-finding and a fact-facing process. It is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade. . . . We did exactly the same thing with our lives. We took stock honestly.” (p. 64). Taking inventory is all about facts, and first among these facts are the three emotions— anger, resentment, and fear—which the Big Book says led us to cause the most harm as active alcoholics, and which as such it takes up first in its sample inventory (ibid., pp. 64-65).
In this search for the truth about ourselves, we are to be guided by three questions which seek to establish very specific facts: Where were we wrong? Where were we to blame? Whom had we harmed? (ibid., p.67) But if feelings have nothing to do with facts, with the truth about the situation which arouses them, how am I to know the answer to these questions, how am I to know the truth? For me to find out where my anger is wrong and where I am to blame for my emotion and the harm it caused, there must be the possibility of a correspondence between my feelings and the facts surrounding them.. Otherwise, there is no way to judge, and therefore no way to do an honest inventory, by which we are obviously to understand one that adheres to the truth and the facts.
Thus it would be more accurate to say that feelings are not always or not necessarily facts. Of course, we would no longer have a pithy and catchy slogan. But we would be closer to the truth. How close depends on our ability to be clear about the ambiguity at the heart of the slogan and to distinguish between feelings and emotions. For once we do, we will see that, as a generalization, the slogan is fundamentally wrong.
Achieving such clarity begins by defining the terms in question. In Practice These Principles, we define an emotion as a concern-based construal of a situation, or in the less technical terms of the Big Book: the way we see a situation affect something we value, deem important, or care about. Feelings, on the other hand, we define as physiological or sensory events (of an electrochemical nature) that take place within our bodies and which may or may not be the result of an emotion.
Consider the following situation. Our neighbor Marie, who is having trouble staying sober, is involved in an altercation in the building where we live and is subsequently evicted from her apartment. When we find out, our first reaction is to get angry with management. According to our definition, our anger can be explained in terms of our concern for Marie and for justice, and in terms of our construal of the eviction as an injustice. Simply put, we care about Marie, who is our friend and fellow alcoholic, and we care about justice, about right and wrong, about people being treated fairly. And as far as we can tell, the way we see the situation (our construal of it), Marie is not being treated right. From what we know, Marie is normally quiet and inoffensive, and this is the first time she’s been involved in a problem in the building. Besides, she’s elderly and in poor health, and the eviction will be very hard on her. As we see it, she should have been issued a warning and given another chance. Being evicted outright is unfair, and we are ticked off.
So that’s anger the emotion. Now, That emotion may or may not be accompanied by certain feelings or physiological events in our body, depending on its intensity. We may feel a rush of adrenaline; our face may turn red; our blood pressure may go up and we may feel agitated when talking about the situation and perhaps start using foul language to convey our anger. These are all symptomsof the emotion, not their cause. The intensity of these feelings depends on the intensity of the emotion, which in turn depends on the depth of our concern (how much we care about Marie and about people being treated fairly) and the sharpness of our construal of the situation ( how clearly we see it as an injustice, how keen is our perception that Marie’s being wronged.)
To further appreciate that feelings are not the same as emotions, we may consider that some of the same feelings generated by my anger may also be generated in situations not connected with anger the emotion, or connected with other, different emotions, such as fear or anxiety. For instance, running on a treadmill, drinking a double shot of expresso, or having sex may all cause our blood pressure to go up and our heart to beat faster. Similarly, our face may turn red as a result of our being embarrassed rather than angry. And we may feel agitated just by the mere fact of rushing around, rather than moving calmly, or because we are anxious about an anticipated event, or still reeling from a very scary experience.
Distinguishing between feelings and emotions enables us to make a better assessment of the slogan under consideration. For one thing, properly understood as what they are, as physiological events, feelings are always facts: they do take place in the real world (namely within our bodies); they can be observed, sometimes even measured; and in some cases, they have actual, real-life consequences, such as suffering a heart attack or stroke if the events are sufficiently intense, be these the result of the emotion anger or of strenuous physical exertion.
For another thing, in and of themselves, as physiological events, feelings are not necessarily moral; they don’t necessarily have to do with right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice; hence, they are not the proper subject of a moral inventory. Emotions, by contrast, are typically moral. This is implied by the very fact that we are being asked to examine them as part of a specifically moral inventory. And yet, the way in which they are moral is not obvious to most of us. This makes it all the more difficult to take inventory of them, a difficulty which is aggravated when they are conflated with feelings and thence categorically disconnected from facts. What usually happens is that we let ourselves be guided by pop psychology and the secondary recovery literature, which following an outmoded behaviorism, tend to reduce emotions to their expression, which is a function of bodily sensations or feelings.
According to this reductionist view, there is nothing wrong with anger, but only with the way we express and act on it. Hence the prescription of "anger management" as the secular solution—by which is meant managing the expression of our anger, the feelings we feel, so as to diminish their harmful consequences. Such reductionism is common in secular psychology, which sees emotions in purely materialistic terms and in denying their moral underpinnings also deny their fundamentally spiritual nature.
The problem with the secular prescription is that it doesn’t get to the root of our problem. When it comes to working Step 4, it would reduce our inventory to listing the things we did wrong when we got angry without paying due attention to the things that caused us to do them. That would not be a moral inventory. For a moral inventory is principally focused not just on what we do, but on what we are
The distinction we make in Practice These Principlesbetween feelings and emotions, and the understanding of the latter as concern-based construals, enable us to probe into the moral nature of emotions and thus facilitate the task of taking inventory of them; for their rightness or wrongness in a given situation depends on the rightness or wrongness of the way we care about things and the rightness or wrongness of the way we see them affected, and both the concern(s) and the perception are a function of our character. We may care for the wrong thing, or for the wrong reason, or care for it too much or not enough; or at the wrong time, or for too long. All of these wrong ways of caring render our concerns defective and can be traced further back to defects of character. Moreover, such defects will inevitably impair the way we look at a given situation—how we perceive our concerns to be affected—making our anger wrong on both counts: in terms of its concerns and of its construal.
As a tool of recovery, then, the slogan “Feelings Are not Facts” is both misguided and misleading. It blurs the relation between feelings and emotions. It suggests there’s no factual basis for our emotions and thus hinders the task of making an objective assessment of them when taking inventory. It suggests there’s no truth to our emotions, undermining our ability to be honest in our search for the defects of character underlying them; for If there’s no truth, neither can there be any honesty.
If we wish to help a fellow alcoholic who is deeply disturbed by the emotions he or she is feeling and we want to carry the AA message in such situations, we would do well to dispense with the slogan and instead remind the person of AA’s “spiritual axiom.” We’ll find it appropriately enough in Step 10 of the 12&12: “It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us” (p. 90). The diagnosis of the problem is very direct and leaves no room for ambiguity or confusion: there is something wrong with us, period. Furthermore, the diagnosis implies the solution: we have to find out what is wrong with us: we have to take inventory of ourselves. This can be done immediately, while we’re under the influence of the emotion, as the book suggests: “a spot-check inventory taken in the midst of such disturbances can be of very great help in quieting stormy emotions.” (ibid.) As the book further suggests, the spot-check inventory can be followed with a fuller Step 10 inventory later on, perhaps with the help of our sponsor.
In addition to providing this guidance about the "spiritual axiom,” we may refer our fellow alcoholic to the passage on acceptance on p. 417 of the Big Book, where a possible defect underlying our disturbance —and the solution to it—are clearly explained:
“When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, thing or situation—some fact of my life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it it is supposed to be at this moment. .”
If we are to work the Steps and practice the principles of the program with a view to achieving emotional sobriety, we need to have an understanding of emotions that allows us to probe deeply into how they work and to restore them to their spiritually intended moral purpose, which in keeping with God's will for me is simply to do good and avoid doing harm.
[Posted 12/16/23. Image: Bill and Lois's Stepping Stones home in Katonah, NY. For related post see The Slogans of Step 3]
Slogans are rife in AA, and they are generally helpful, but when we are new to the program, we can’t tell which are genuine AA slogans that originated in AA experience and can be traced to the primary AA literature, and which originated elsewhere and were later imported into the rooms. The difference matters, for in the case of the former, we can expect the slogan to accurately reflect the program, while in the case of the latter it may have little or nothing to do with—indeed, may even contradict, that program.
“Feelings are not facts” figures among this latter group. It is to be found nowhere in the Big Book or the 12&12. The origins of the expression can be traced to two philosophical traditions that are popular in the self-help movement and which form the foundation of most of the secondary recovery literature. These traditions share a tendency to question the value of emotions and to be dismissive of them.
One is Stoicism, an early form of rationalism which considers emotions to stand against what it sees as the rational order of the universe and hence to be inherently irrational. On this view, the facts of life are what they are, and there is no sense crying over them. Death is a fact of life, hence grieving someone’s passing away is pointless. For the true Stoic, the right attitude to take is one of apathy or indifference (cf. PTP 4, pp. 107-110). The other tradition is of an eastern orientation and identifies emotions with a different sort of irrationality, namely, illusion. Like the self from which they proceed, emotions are supposedly not real, that is, they do not correspond to anything in the real world. They are figments of our duality-deceived imagination (ibid.).
Again, Those who avail themselves of this slogan mean well. They want to help people who are feeling very badly not to feel so badly by questioning the objective validity of their emotions. However, our intentions can often have unintended consequences, and before using non-AA tools it would be wise to think these through and ascertain that they are faithful to the AA program and can make a positive contribution to recovery.
If we do that with the slogan “Feelings are not facts,” we will discover a number of problems. First, the way AA proposes we deal with our emotions is clearly to take inventory of them. But, by questioning any connection between feelings on the one hand, and facts and reality, on the other, the slogan is likely to add to the confusion already besetting the minds of newcomers and undermine their ability to properly examine their emotions when working Step 4. For one of the main tasks in making a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves is to establish the right or true relationship between our emotions and the situations that arouse them. That is, we want to examine the extent to which our emotions are based on the facts of a situation, the extent to which they correspond to reality. That determines whether they are morally right or wrong, that is, whether they do justice to a situation, or do not.
That is why the Big Book insists that establishing the right connection between fact and emotion is essential to our inventory. Comparing a commercial with a moral inventory, we read in “How It Works” that “Taking a commercial inventory is a fact-finding and a fact-facing process. It is an effort to discover the truth about the stock-in-trade. . . . We did exactly the same thing with our lives. We took stock honestly.” (p. 64). Taking inventory is all about facts, and first among these facts are the three emotions— anger, resentment, and fear—which the Big Book says led us to cause the most harm as active alcoholics, and which as such it takes up first in its sample inventory (ibid., pp. 64-65).
In this search for the truth about ourselves, we are to be guided by three questions which seek to establish very specific facts: Where were we wrong? Where were we to blame? Whom had we harmed? (ibid., p.67) But if feelings have nothing to do with facts, with the truth about the situation which arouses them, how am I to know the answer to these questions, how am I to know the truth? For me to find out where my anger is wrong and where I am to blame for my emotion and the harm it caused, there must be the possibility of a correspondence between my feelings and the facts surrounding them.. Otherwise, there is no way to judge, and therefore no way to do an honest inventory, by which we are obviously to understand one that adheres to the truth and the facts.
Thus it would be more accurate to say that feelings are not always or not necessarily facts. Of course, we would no longer have a pithy and catchy slogan. But we would be closer to the truth. How close depends on our ability to be clear about the ambiguity at the heart of the slogan and to distinguish between feelings and emotions. For once we do, we will see that, as a generalization, the slogan is fundamentally wrong.
Achieving such clarity begins by defining the terms in question. In Practice These Principles, we define an emotion as a concern-based construal of a situation, or in the less technical terms of the Big Book: the way we see a situation affect something we value, deem important, or care about. Feelings, on the other hand, we define as physiological or sensory events (of an electrochemical nature) that take place within our bodies and which may or may not be the result of an emotion.
Consider the following situation. Our neighbor Marie, who is having trouble staying sober, is involved in an altercation in the building where we live and is subsequently evicted from her apartment. When we find out, our first reaction is to get angry with management. According to our definition, our anger can be explained in terms of our concern for Marie and for justice, and in terms of our construal of the eviction as an injustice. Simply put, we care about Marie, who is our friend and fellow alcoholic, and we care about justice, about right and wrong, about people being treated fairly. And as far as we can tell, the way we see the situation (our construal of it), Marie is not being treated right. From what we know, Marie is normally quiet and inoffensive, and this is the first time she’s been involved in a problem in the building. Besides, she’s elderly and in poor health, and the eviction will be very hard on her. As we see it, she should have been issued a warning and given another chance. Being evicted outright is unfair, and we are ticked off.
So that’s anger the emotion. Now, That emotion may or may not be accompanied by certain feelings or physiological events in our body, depending on its intensity. We may feel a rush of adrenaline; our face may turn red; our blood pressure may go up and we may feel agitated when talking about the situation and perhaps start using foul language to convey our anger. These are all symptomsof the emotion, not their cause. The intensity of these feelings depends on the intensity of the emotion, which in turn depends on the depth of our concern (how much we care about Marie and about people being treated fairly) and the sharpness of our construal of the situation ( how clearly we see it as an injustice, how keen is our perception that Marie’s being wronged.)
To further appreciate that feelings are not the same as emotions, we may consider that some of the same feelings generated by my anger may also be generated in situations not connected with anger the emotion, or connected with other, different emotions, such as fear or anxiety. For instance, running on a treadmill, drinking a double shot of expresso, or having sex may all cause our blood pressure to go up and our heart to beat faster. Similarly, our face may turn red as a result of our being embarrassed rather than angry. And we may feel agitated just by the mere fact of rushing around, rather than moving calmly, or because we are anxious about an anticipated event, or still reeling from a very scary experience.
Distinguishing between feelings and emotions enables us to make a better assessment of the slogan under consideration. For one thing, properly understood as what they are, as physiological events, feelings are always facts: they do take place in the real world (namely within our bodies); they can be observed, sometimes even measured; and in some cases, they have actual, real-life consequences, such as suffering a heart attack or stroke if the events are sufficiently intense, be these the result of the emotion anger or of strenuous physical exertion.
For another thing, in and of themselves, as physiological events, feelings are not necessarily moral; they don’t necessarily have to do with right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice; hence, they are not the proper subject of a moral inventory. Emotions, by contrast, are typically moral. This is implied by the very fact that we are being asked to examine them as part of a specifically moral inventory. And yet, the way in which they are moral is not obvious to most of us. This makes it all the more difficult to take inventory of them, a difficulty which is aggravated when they are conflated with feelings and thence categorically disconnected from facts. What usually happens is that we let ourselves be guided by pop psychology and the secondary recovery literature, which following an outmoded behaviorism, tend to reduce emotions to their expression, which is a function of bodily sensations or feelings.
According to this reductionist view, there is nothing wrong with anger, but only with the way we express and act on it. Hence the prescription of "anger management" as the secular solution—by which is meant managing the expression of our anger, the feelings we feel, so as to diminish their harmful consequences. Such reductionism is common in secular psychology, which sees emotions in purely materialistic terms and in denying their moral underpinnings also deny their fundamentally spiritual nature.
The problem with the secular prescription is that it doesn’t get to the root of our problem. When it comes to working Step 4, it would reduce our inventory to listing the things we did wrong when we got angry without paying due attention to the things that caused us to do them. That would not be a moral inventory. For a moral inventory is principally focused not just on what we do, but on what we are
The distinction we make in Practice These Principlesbetween feelings and emotions, and the understanding of the latter as concern-based construals, enable us to probe into the moral nature of emotions and thus facilitate the task of taking inventory of them; for their rightness or wrongness in a given situation depends on the rightness or wrongness of the way we care about things and the rightness or wrongness of the way we see them affected, and both the concern(s) and the perception are a function of our character. We may care for the wrong thing, or for the wrong reason, or care for it too much or not enough; or at the wrong time, or for too long. All of these wrong ways of caring render our concerns defective and can be traced further back to defects of character. Moreover, such defects will inevitably impair the way we look at a given situation—how we perceive our concerns to be affected—making our anger wrong on both counts: in terms of its concerns and of its construal.
As a tool of recovery, then, the slogan “Feelings Are not Facts” is both misguided and misleading. It blurs the relation between feelings and emotions. It suggests there’s no factual basis for our emotions and thus hinders the task of making an objective assessment of them when taking inventory. It suggests there’s no truth to our emotions, undermining our ability to be honest in our search for the defects of character underlying them; for If there’s no truth, neither can there be any honesty.
If we wish to help a fellow alcoholic who is deeply disturbed by the emotions he or she is feeling and we want to carry the AA message in such situations, we would do well to dispense with the slogan and instead remind the person of AA’s “spiritual axiom.” We’ll find it appropriately enough in Step 10 of the 12&12: “It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us” (p. 90). The diagnosis of the problem is very direct and leaves no room for ambiguity or confusion: there is something wrong with us, period. Furthermore, the diagnosis implies the solution: we have to find out what is wrong with us: we have to take inventory of ourselves. This can be done immediately, while we’re under the influence of the emotion, as the book suggests: “a spot-check inventory taken in the midst of such disturbances can be of very great help in quieting stormy emotions.” (ibid.) As the book further suggests, the spot-check inventory can be followed with a fuller Step 10 inventory later on, perhaps with the help of our sponsor.
In addition to providing this guidance about the "spiritual axiom,” we may refer our fellow alcoholic to the passage on acceptance on p. 417 of the Big Book, where a possible defect underlying our disturbance —and the solution to it—are clearly explained:
“When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, thing or situation—some fact of my life—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it it is supposed to be at this moment. .”
If we are to work the Steps and practice the principles of the program with a view to achieving emotional sobriety, we need to have an understanding of emotions that allows us to probe deeply into how they work and to restore them to their spiritually intended moral purpose, which in keeping with God's will for me is simply to do good and avoid doing harm.
[Posted 12/16/23. Image: Bill and Lois's Stepping Stones home in Katonah, NY. For related post see The Slogans of Step 3]
March 16, 2023
Emotional Sobriety: The Concept
When Bill W. coined the term emotional sobriety and made it the ultimate goal of recovery in Step 12, he finally gave voice to an idea that until then had only been latent in the Big Book and the 12&12. Sobriety was more than not drinking, those books had intimated all along. But they hadn’t articulated what that was. Now it had been given a name.
Recognizing that it stood for an aspiration more than a reality, Bill later called it "the next frontier.”
As we argue in PTP, it remains that: the next frontier. The expression never caught on in the rooms, where it is seldom used. The reason is simple. Nobody knows what it means. It was never explained. The idea was never developed. . . .
Though much has been written about emotional sobriety in the secondary recovery literature, little of it has anything to do with the 12-Step program described in the Big Book and the 12&12. That’s where we have to look if we are going to gain an understanding of emotional sobriety that’s grounded in the Steps and the principles they embody and is thus truly representative of AA.
Since as we have noted the concept is not explained in either book, the only way we can do that is by inferring what is implicit about it in them. And we can only do that if we adhere to a close and faithful reading of those texts.
That’s what we do in Practice These Principles especially in chapter 2 of PTP123 and chapter 7 of PTP4, where the subject is systematically, discussed (including Bill’s take in the Grapevine’s article “Emotional Sobriety: The Next Frontier”) and ample illustrations are provided. We refer the reader to those chapters for a full understanding of the concept. .
Here we can only provide a synopsis. . . . .”
[Excerpt from "Emotional Sobriety: The Concept," posted 02/26/23 in "Emotional Sobriety" at https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
For full article, (including Bill’s take on the subject in “Emotional sobriety: the Next Frontier’) please click on link.
Recognizing that it stood for an aspiration more than a reality, Bill later called it "the next frontier.”
As we argue in PTP, it remains that: the next frontier. The expression never caught on in the rooms, where it is seldom used. The reason is simple. Nobody knows what it means. It was never explained. The idea was never developed. . . .
Though much has been written about emotional sobriety in the secondary recovery literature, little of it has anything to do with the 12-Step program described in the Big Book and the 12&12. That’s where we have to look if we are going to gain an understanding of emotional sobriety that’s grounded in the Steps and the principles they embody and is thus truly representative of AA.
Since as we have noted the concept is not explained in either book, the only way we can do that is by inferring what is implicit about it in them. And we can only do that if we adhere to a close and faithful reading of those texts.
That’s what we do in Practice These Principles especially in chapter 2 of PTP123 and chapter 7 of PTP4, where the subject is systematically, discussed (including Bill’s take in the Grapevine’s article “Emotional Sobriety: The Next Frontier”) and ample illustrations are provided. We refer the reader to those chapters for a full understanding of the concept. .
Here we can only provide a synopsis. . . . .”
[Excerpt from "Emotional Sobriety: The Concept," posted 02/26/23 in "Emotional Sobriety" at https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
For full article, (including Bill’s take on the subject in “Emotional sobriety: the Next Frontier’) please click on link.
August 4, 2022
Practice These Principles Steps 1, 2, 3 – 2nd Edition
The 2nd edition of Practice These Principles – Steps 1, 2, 3 is now available on Amazon. The Kindle version was published July 12 and the paperback July 25, 2022. A hardcover version was published August 3, 2022.
March 20, 2022
Emotional Sobriety
"Here we begin to practice all Twelve Steps of the program in our daily lives so that we and those about us may find emotional sobriety.” With that simple sentence the 12&12 (Step 12, p. 106) introduces the subject of emotional sobriety, links it to the daily practice of the Steps in all areas of our lives, and makes it the ultimate goal of our recovery—not only for ourselves but for those to whom, by such practice, we would carry the message of our spiritual awakening.
By his own admission, when Bill W. wrote those words (ca. 1952) he was far from being emotionally sober. Neither was anybody else in the program. That’s why he wrote them. In fact, that’s why he wrote the 12&12 (published in 1953). By that time a number of alcoholics had attained double-digit sobriety, and yet they were still struggling with many of the emotions that had beset them when they drank. Their lives had improved, but their emotions had remained unmanageable, undermining what progress they had made. Bill himself had spent many of his 18 years sober in a deep state of depression. He desperately wanted the program to bring him release. But it didn’t. This compelled him to reexamine the Steps in greater depth and explore how they could help the alcoholic move beyond physical to a higher level of sobriety that would encompass the whole person, what in Step 12 he comes to identify as emotional sobriety.
That issue was not on the table when the Big Book was written in the late 1930s. Understandably, the fledging fellowship was singularly focused on helping drunks to stop drinking. This is reflected in the fact that Step 12 in the Big Book is devoted exclusively to carrying the message, as its title indicates (“Working with Others”). That, the reader is told, is “our twelfth suggestion” (p. 89, italics in the original). But of course, that is only one half of the “suggestion.” The other half is to practice the principles in all our affairs. That, however, is not mentioned at all. The overriding goal was to stop drinking and stay stopped. If you did that, you had recovered. You were sober. That’s the only sense in which recovery and sobriety were understood at the time. You were on the wagon, as the expression went. You were dry, an expression that had none of the negative connotations it has today.
Understandably here again, many thought that’s all the program was about: pure and simple abstention. Not surprisingly, that translated itself into people not working the Steps—except for the powerless part of Step 1 and the carrying the message part of Step 12. The 12&12 would come to describe that as two-Stepping (Step 12, p. 113), a bare-minimum approach which is still widely followed today and which is unwittingly fostered by the “Don’t drink and go to meetings” mantra to which the program is often reduced.
Yet, from the very beginning the Big Book had made it clear that approach would not suffice. “We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough,” we read in Chapter 6 (p. 83), not incidentally titled “Into Action.” Earlier, in Chapter 5, it had described it as “an easier, softer way” (p. 58) which was bound to fail. Alcoholics had to work the Steps so that they could clean house, put their lives in order, and avoid relapsing into active alcoholism. Yet none of this work was linked to the goal of achieving emotional sobriety, a phrase which appears nowhere in that book.
While the 12&12 finally establishes that connection, it unfortunately does not go on to flesh it out and develop the concept. “Emotional sobriety” is mentioned once in the sentence we quoted and is then dropped. There’s a subsequent allusion to it with a single reference to “emotional stability” (p. 116), where stability can be inferred to be synonymous with sobriety, but the parallel is not pursued either. . . .
Above is excerpt from “Emotional Sobriety,” posted 03/17/22 at https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo.... For full text, please click on link.
By his own admission, when Bill W. wrote those words (ca. 1952) he was far from being emotionally sober. Neither was anybody else in the program. That’s why he wrote them. In fact, that’s why he wrote the 12&12 (published in 1953). By that time a number of alcoholics had attained double-digit sobriety, and yet they were still struggling with many of the emotions that had beset them when they drank. Their lives had improved, but their emotions had remained unmanageable, undermining what progress they had made. Bill himself had spent many of his 18 years sober in a deep state of depression. He desperately wanted the program to bring him release. But it didn’t. This compelled him to reexamine the Steps in greater depth and explore how they could help the alcoholic move beyond physical to a higher level of sobriety that would encompass the whole person, what in Step 12 he comes to identify as emotional sobriety.
That issue was not on the table when the Big Book was written in the late 1930s. Understandably, the fledging fellowship was singularly focused on helping drunks to stop drinking. This is reflected in the fact that Step 12 in the Big Book is devoted exclusively to carrying the message, as its title indicates (“Working with Others”). That, the reader is told, is “our twelfth suggestion” (p. 89, italics in the original). But of course, that is only one half of the “suggestion.” The other half is to practice the principles in all our affairs. That, however, is not mentioned at all. The overriding goal was to stop drinking and stay stopped. If you did that, you had recovered. You were sober. That’s the only sense in which recovery and sobriety were understood at the time. You were on the wagon, as the expression went. You were dry, an expression that had none of the negative connotations it has today.
Understandably here again, many thought that’s all the program was about: pure and simple abstention. Not surprisingly, that translated itself into people not working the Steps—except for the powerless part of Step 1 and the carrying the message part of Step 12. The 12&12 would come to describe that as two-Stepping (Step 12, p. 113), a bare-minimum approach which is still widely followed today and which is unwittingly fostered by the “Don’t drink and go to meetings” mantra to which the program is often reduced.
Yet, from the very beginning the Big Book had made it clear that approach would not suffice. “We feel a man is unthinking when he says that sobriety is enough,” we read in Chapter 6 (p. 83), not incidentally titled “Into Action.” Earlier, in Chapter 5, it had described it as “an easier, softer way” (p. 58) which was bound to fail. Alcoholics had to work the Steps so that they could clean house, put their lives in order, and avoid relapsing into active alcoholism. Yet none of this work was linked to the goal of achieving emotional sobriety, a phrase which appears nowhere in that book.
While the 12&12 finally establishes that connection, it unfortunately does not go on to flesh it out and develop the concept. “Emotional sobriety” is mentioned once in the sentence we quoted and is then dropped. There’s a subsequent allusion to it with a single reference to “emotional stability” (p. 116), where stability can be inferred to be synonymous with sobriety, but the parallel is not pursued either. . . .
Above is excerpt from “Emotional Sobriety,” posted 03/17/22 at https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo.... For full text, please click on link.
March 5, 2022
12&12 Changed
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was published April 1953, almost 14 years after the Big Book. The need for a second book to supplement the first was strongly felt by Bill W. and other alcoholics.
When the Big Book first came out, Bill had only 4 ½ years sober, Dr. Bob 4, and most others in the fledging fellowship considerably less than that. Not drinking was a totally new experience and the book understandably concentrated on that.
However, as the years rolled on and some began to accumulate double-digit sobriety, they discovered that, by itself, abstention from alcohol was just not enough. The dry-drunk syndrome was becoming all too obvious. One could be sober and still be miserable and lead less that satisfactory lives. Bill himself was a prime example of this. His sobriety had been undermined by more than a decade of unrelenting depression.
So the question was on the table. Could the 12 Steps help us to achieve more than physical sobriety? Could they help us grow spiritually, build character, become more stable emotionally, be happy?
The Steps portion of the 12&12 was written to address those questions. The Traditions portion was written to address a related question which had arisen as the “one hundred men and women” of 1939 had grown to tens of thousands by 1953. Could such a large and disparate continue to work together to help each other stay sober and achieve the goals of a full recovery?
The book’s Foreword explains:
“This startling expansion brought with it very severe growing pains. Proof that alcoholics could recover had been made. But it was by no means sure that great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.
Everywhere there arose threatening questions of membership, money, personal relations, public relations, management of groups, clubs, and scores of other perplexities. It was out of this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.’s Twelve Traditions took form and were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.’s First International Convention in Cleveland in 1950. The Tradition section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present form, substance, and unity” (p. 18).
In June 2021, a revised edition of the 12&12 was published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. For the first time, it alters the text.
An accompanying introduction explains:
“In recent years some members and friends of A.A. have asked if it would be wise to update the language, idioms, and historical references in the book to present a more contemporary image for the Fellowship. However, because the book has helped so many alcoholics find recovery, there exists strong sentiment within the Fellowship against any change to it. In fact, the 2002 General Service Conference discussed this issue and it was unanimously recommended that: ‘The text in the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, written by Bill W., remain as is, recognizing the Fellowship’s feelings that’s Bill’s writing remain as originally published.’ However, with a focus on inclusivity, the 2021 General Service Conference updated and footnoted some of the original language for clarity.”
Two passages were changed, each accompanied by an explanatory footnote. They are highlighted in red [on website].
[Image: Bill W.’s 1953 letter to The Alcoholic Foundation soliciting comments on 12 Steps manuscript he was submitting. He mentions a plan under discussion to combine the manuscript with the earlier one on the 12 Traditions and publish both as a single book by April. For readings of Steps 6 and 12 and for a related post, AA Preamble Changed, please click on website links.]
When the Big Book first came out, Bill had only 4 ½ years sober, Dr. Bob 4, and most others in the fledging fellowship considerably less than that. Not drinking was a totally new experience and the book understandably concentrated on that.
However, as the years rolled on and some began to accumulate double-digit sobriety, they discovered that, by itself, abstention from alcohol was just not enough. The dry-drunk syndrome was becoming all too obvious. One could be sober and still be miserable and lead less that satisfactory lives. Bill himself was a prime example of this. His sobriety had been undermined by more than a decade of unrelenting depression.
So the question was on the table. Could the 12 Steps help us to achieve more than physical sobriety? Could they help us grow spiritually, build character, become more stable emotionally, be happy?
The Steps portion of the 12&12 was written to address those questions. The Traditions portion was written to address a related question which had arisen as the “one hundred men and women” of 1939 had grown to tens of thousands by 1953. Could such a large and disparate continue to work together to help each other stay sober and achieve the goals of a full recovery?
The book’s Foreword explains:
“This startling expansion brought with it very severe growing pains. Proof that alcoholics could recover had been made. But it was by no means sure that great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.
Everywhere there arose threatening questions of membership, money, personal relations, public relations, management of groups, clubs, and scores of other perplexities. It was out of this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.’s Twelve Traditions took form and were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.’s First International Convention in Cleveland in 1950. The Tradition section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present form, substance, and unity” (p. 18).
In June 2021, a revised edition of the 12&12 was published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. For the first time, it alters the text.
An accompanying introduction explains:
“In recent years some members and friends of A.A. have asked if it would be wise to update the language, idioms, and historical references in the book to present a more contemporary image for the Fellowship. However, because the book has helped so many alcoholics find recovery, there exists strong sentiment within the Fellowship against any change to it. In fact, the 2002 General Service Conference discussed this issue and it was unanimously recommended that: ‘The text in the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, written by Bill W., remain as is, recognizing the Fellowship’s feelings that’s Bill’s writing remain as originally published.’ However, with a focus on inclusivity, the 2021 General Service Conference updated and footnoted some of the original language for clarity.”
Two passages were changed, each accompanied by an explanatory footnote. They are highlighted in red [on website].
[Image: Bill W.’s 1953 letter to The Alcoholic Foundation soliciting comments on 12 Steps manuscript he was submitting. He mentions a plan under discussion to combine the manuscript with the earlier one on the 12 Traditions and publish both as a single book by April. For readings of Steps 6 and 12 and for a related post, AA Preamble Changed, please click on website links.]
12&12 Changed
The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was published April 1953, almost 14 years after the Big Book. The need for a second book to supplement the first was strongly felt by Bill W. and other alcoholics.
When the Big Book first came out, Bill had only 4 ½ years sober, Dr. Bob 4, and most others in the fledging fellowship considerably less than that. Not drinking was a totally new experience and the book understandably concentrated on that.
However, as the years rolled on and some began to accumulate double-digit sobriety, they discovered that, by itself, abstention from alcohol was just not enough. The dry-drunk syndrome was becoming all too obvious. One could be sober and still be miserable and lead less that satisfactory lives. Bill himself was a prime example of this. His sobriety had been undermined by more than a decade of unrelenting depression.
So the question was on the table. Could the 12 Steps help us to achieve more than physical sobriety? Could they help us grow spiritually, build character, become more stable emotionally, be happy?
The Steps portion of the 12&12 was written to address those questions. The Traditions portion was written to address a related question which had arisen as the “one hundred men and women” of 1939 had grown to tens of thousands by 1953. Could such a large and disparate continue to work together to help each other stay sober and achieve the goals of a full recovery?
The book’s Foreword explains:
“This startling expansion brought with it very severe growing pains. Proof that alcoholics could recover had been made. But it was by no means sure that great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.
Everywhere there arose threatening questions of membership, money, personal relations, public relations, management of groups, clubs, and scores of other perplexities. It was out of this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.’s Twelve Traditions took form and were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.’s First International Convention in Cleveland in 1950. The Tradition section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present form, substance, and unity” (p. 18).
In June 2021, a revised edition of the 12&12 was published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. For the first time, it alters the text.
An accompanying introduction explains:
“In recent years some members and friends of A.A. have asked if it would be wise to update the language, idioms, and historical references in the book to present a more contemporary image for the Fellowship. However, because the book has helped so many alcoholics find recovery, there exists strong sentiment within the Fellowship against any change to it. In fact, the 2002 General Service Conference discussed this issue and it was unanimously recommended that: ‘The text in the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, written by Bill W., remain as is, recognizing the Fellowship’s feelings that’s Bill’s writing remain as originally published.’ However, with a focus on inclusivity, the 2021 General Service Conference updated and footnoted some of the original language for clarity.”
Two passages were changed, each accompanied by an explanatory footnote. They are highlighted in red [on website].
[Image: Bill W.’s 1953 letter to The Alcoholic Foundation soliciting comments on 12 Steps manuscript he was submitting. He mentions a plan under discussion to combine the manuscript with the earlier one on the 12 Traditions and publish both as a single book by April. For readings of Steps 6 and 12 and for a related post, AA Preamble Changed, please click on website links.]
[Posted 01/26/22 on https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
When the Big Book first came out, Bill had only 4 ½ years sober, Dr. Bob 4, and most others in the fledging fellowship considerably less than that. Not drinking was a totally new experience and the book understandably concentrated on that.
However, as the years rolled on and some began to accumulate double-digit sobriety, they discovered that, by itself, abstention from alcohol was just not enough. The dry-drunk syndrome was becoming all too obvious. One could be sober and still be miserable and lead less that satisfactory lives. Bill himself was a prime example of this. His sobriety had been undermined by more than a decade of unrelenting depression.
So the question was on the table. Could the 12 Steps help us to achieve more than physical sobriety? Could they help us grow spiritually, build character, become more stable emotionally, be happy?
The Steps portion of the 12&12 was written to address those questions. The Traditions portion was written to address a related question which had arisen as the “one hundred men and women” of 1939 had grown to tens of thousands by 1953. Could such a large and disparate continue to work together to help each other stay sober and achieve the goals of a full recovery?
The book’s Foreword explains:
“This startling expansion brought with it very severe growing pains. Proof that alcoholics could recover had been made. But it was by no means sure that great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.
Everywhere there arose threatening questions of membership, money, personal relations, public relations, management of groups, clubs, and scores of other perplexities. It was out of this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.’s Twelve Traditions took form and were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.’s First International Convention in Cleveland in 1950. The Tradition section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present form, substance, and unity” (p. 18).
In June 2021, a revised edition of the 12&12 was published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services. For the first time, it alters the text.
An accompanying introduction explains:
“In recent years some members and friends of A.A. have asked if it would be wise to update the language, idioms, and historical references in the book to present a more contemporary image for the Fellowship. However, because the book has helped so many alcoholics find recovery, there exists strong sentiment within the Fellowship against any change to it. In fact, the 2002 General Service Conference discussed this issue and it was unanimously recommended that: ‘The text in the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, written by Bill W., remain as is, recognizing the Fellowship’s feelings that’s Bill’s writing remain as originally published.’ However, with a focus on inclusivity, the 2021 General Service Conference updated and footnoted some of the original language for clarity.”
Two passages were changed, each accompanied by an explanatory footnote. They are highlighted in red [on website].
[Image: Bill W.’s 1953 letter to The Alcoholic Foundation soliciting comments on 12 Steps manuscript he was submitting. He mentions a plan under discussion to combine the manuscript with the earlier one on the 12 Traditions and publish both as a single book by April. For readings of Steps 6 and 12 and for a related post, AA Preamble Changed, please click on website links.]
[Posted 01/26/22 on https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
February 19, 2022
AA Preamble Changed
The AA Preamble dates back to 1947. It was written by Tom Y., editor of the Grapevine, and introduced in the June issue of the magazine that year. According to aa.org, much of the phrasing was borrowed from the Foreword to the First Edition of the Big Book.
This is obviously the case with the first paragraph of the Preamble. However, the second paragraph clearly shows that the Foreword’s language was significantly altered by Traditions 5 and 10, which Bill had already written. In fact, the magazine had published the 12 Traditions in summary form in 1946 and would start publishing their final, longer versions in December of 1947.
We can see the influence of Tradition 10 in the Preamble's broadening of the “not allied” principle in the Foreword. This now applies not only to religion (“faith, sect or denomination”) but also to any “politics, organization or institution.” According to the Tradition, all of these involve “outside issues” on which AA has no opinion. Hence it neither endorses nor opposes any causes associated with them. Borrowing a keyword from the Tradition, the Preamble declares that AA does not wish to engage in any “controversy.”
The point is driven home with a key phrase borrowed from Tradition 5: our “primary purpose.” This is simply to “stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.”
The reasons for not getting involved with any outside issues, avoiding controversy, and sticking to our primary purpose, are explained in Tradition 10 of the 12&12 and illustrated with the story of the Washingtonian Society, a predecessor of AA.
Below [on website] is the Preamble as it stood until 2021, when the General Service Board changed it as noted in red. The change is ascribed to a desire to use inclusive language that represents the current composition of the Fellowship.
[Image: 1950 First International AA Convention, Cleveland Ohio, where the 12 Traditions were adopted. The Cleveland group of alcoholics was the first to adopt the name Alcoholic Anonymous. For readings of Traditions 5 and 10, and for a related post, 12&12 Changed, please click on website links.]
[Posted 01/26/22 on https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
This is obviously the case with the first paragraph of the Preamble. However, the second paragraph clearly shows that the Foreword’s language was significantly altered by Traditions 5 and 10, which Bill had already written. In fact, the magazine had published the 12 Traditions in summary form in 1946 and would start publishing their final, longer versions in December of 1947.
We can see the influence of Tradition 10 in the Preamble's broadening of the “not allied” principle in the Foreword. This now applies not only to religion (“faith, sect or denomination”) but also to any “politics, organization or institution.” According to the Tradition, all of these involve “outside issues” on which AA has no opinion. Hence it neither endorses nor opposes any causes associated with them. Borrowing a keyword from the Tradition, the Preamble declares that AA does not wish to engage in any “controversy.”
The point is driven home with a key phrase borrowed from Tradition 5: our “primary purpose.” This is simply to “stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.”
The reasons for not getting involved with any outside issues, avoiding controversy, and sticking to our primary purpose, are explained in Tradition 10 of the 12&12 and illustrated with the story of the Washingtonian Society, a predecessor of AA.
Below [on website] is the Preamble as it stood until 2021, when the General Service Board changed it as noted in red. The change is ascribed to a desire to use inclusive language that represents the current composition of the Fellowship.
[Image: 1950 First International AA Convention, Cleveland Ohio, where the 12 Traditions were adopted. The Cleveland group of alcoholics was the first to adopt the name Alcoholic Anonymous. For readings of Traditions 5 and 10, and for a related post, 12&12 Changed, please click on website links.]
[Posted 01/26/22 on https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
AA Preamble Changed
The AA Preamble dates back to 1947. It was written by Tom Y., editor of the Grapevine, and introduced in the June issue of the magazine that year. According to aa.org, much of the phrasing was borrowed from the Foreword to the First Edition of the Big Book.
This is obviously the case with the first paragraph of the Preamble. However, the second paragraph clearly shows that the Foreword’s language was significantly altered by Traditions 5 and 10, which Bill had already written. In fact, the magazine had published the 12 Traditions in summary form in 1946 and would start publishing their final, longer versions in December of 1947.
We can see the influence of Tradition 10 in the Preamble's broadening of the “not allied” principle in the Foreword. This now applies not only to religion (“faith, sect or denomination”) but also to any “politics, organization or institution.” According to the Tradition, all of these involve “outside issues” on which AA has no opinion. Hence it neither endorses nor opposes any causes associated with them. Borrowing a keyword from the Tradition, the Preamble declares that AA does not wish to engage in any “controversy.”
The point is driven home with a key phrase borrowed from Tradition 5: our “primary purpose.” This is simply to “stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.”
The reasons for not getting involved with any outside issues, avoiding controversy, and sticking to our primary purpose, are explained in Tradition 10 of the 12&12 and illustrated with the story of the Washingtonian Society, a predecessor of AA.
Below [on website] is the Preamble as it stood until 2021, when the General Service Board changed it as noted in red. The change is ascribed to a desire to use inclusive language that represents the current composition of the Fellowship.
[Image: 1950 First International AA Convention, Cleveland Ohio, where the 12 Traditions were adopted. The Cleveland group of alcoholics was the first to adopt the name Alcoholic Anonymous. For readings of Traditions 5 and 10, and for a related post, 12&12 Changed, please click on website links.]
[Posted 01/26/22 on https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
This is obviously the case with the first paragraph of the Preamble. However, the second paragraph clearly shows that the Foreword’s language was significantly altered by Traditions 5 and 10, which Bill had already written. In fact, the magazine had published the 12 Traditions in summary form in 1946 and would start publishing their final, longer versions in December of 1947.
We can see the influence of Tradition 10 in the Preamble's broadening of the “not allied” principle in the Foreword. This now applies not only to religion (“faith, sect or denomination”) but also to any “politics, organization or institution.” According to the Tradition, all of these involve “outside issues” on which AA has no opinion. Hence it neither endorses nor opposes any causes associated with them. Borrowing a keyword from the Tradition, the Preamble declares that AA does not wish to engage in any “controversy.”
The point is driven home with a key phrase borrowed from Tradition 5: our “primary purpose.” This is simply to “stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.”
The reasons for not getting involved with any outside issues, avoiding controversy, and sticking to our primary purpose, are explained in Tradition 10 of the 12&12 and illustrated with the story of the Washingtonian Society, a predecessor of AA.
Below [on website] is the Preamble as it stood until 2021, when the General Service Board changed it as noted in red. The change is ascribed to a desire to use inclusive language that represents the current composition of the Fellowship.
[Image: 1950 First International AA Convention, Cleveland Ohio, where the 12 Traditions were adopted. The Cleveland group of alcoholics was the first to adopt the name Alcoholic Anonymous. For readings of Traditions 5 and 10, and for a related post, 12&12 Changed, please click on website links.]
[Posted 01/26/22 on https://practicetheseprinciplestheboo...
July 15, 2021
PTP4 Goodreads Book Giveaway
Enter the Goodreads Book Giveaway for PTP4 to win one of 12 copies offered to readers in the U.S. and Canada. Entry dates are July 17 – August 16, 2021.
July 6, 2021
Practice These Principles Step 4 Published
Practice These Principles Step 4 was published July 4, 2021. The paperback version is now available on Amazon in the U.S. and 11 other countries. It will available through other retailers soon. The digital version will be available on Amazon worldwide shortly. For excerpts and further information, please visit the book's website and click on the sidebar’s About the Books, Step 4, and Book Orders. You may also wish to enter the Goodreads Book Giveaway of 12 copies of PTP4, which is open to readers in the U.S. and Canada starting July 17 and ending August 16, 2021.
