the technique of an addict having a sponsor to contact whenever the addictive urge threatens to gain the upper hand—the desire to have a drink or to play cards at the casino. When the addict makes that call, he recognizes his powerlessness over the compulsion—in other words, the relative weakness of the impulse-regulating parts of his cerebral cortex. Until those circuits develop some muscle of their own, the sponsor acts the regulator by talking the addict through his compulsion. Talking it out prevents acting it out.
