AA Criticism

Moderation or abstinence

Stanton Peele argued that some AA groups apply the disease model to all problem drinkers, whether or not they are "full-blown" alcoholics. Along with Nancy Shute, Peele has advocated that besides AA, other options should be available to problem drinkers who can manage their drinking with the right treatment. The Big Book, however, acknowledges "moderate drinkers" and "a certain type of hard drinker" are able to stop or moderate their drinking. The Big Book suggests no program for these drinkers, but instead seeks to help drinkers without "power of choice in drink."

Cultural identity

One review of AA warned of detrimental iatrogenic effects of twelve-step philosophy and concluded that AA uses many methods that are also used by cults. A subsequent study concluded, however, that AA's program bore little resemblance to religious cults because the techniques used appeared beneficial. Another study found that the AA program's focus on admission of having a problem increases deviant stigma and strips members of their previous cultural identity, replacing it with the deviant identity. A survey of group members, however, found they had a bicultural identity and saw AA's program as a complement to their other national, ethnic, and religious cultures.

Other criticisms

• "Thirteenth-stepping" is a pejorative term for AA members approaching new members for dates or sex. The Journal of Addiction Nursing reported that 50% of the women that participated in a survey (55 in all) experienced 13-stepping behavior from others. AA's pamphlet on sponsorship suggests that men be sponsored by men and women be sponsored by women.

• In 1964, Arthur H. Cain – by his own count – had attended over 500 AA meetings since 1947. Cain insisted that "I do not suggest for a moment that a single A.A. quit the fellowship. On the contrary, I strongly urge sticking with it. To anyone who is having trouble with alcohol I say: try A.A. first; it's the answer for most people". Even so Cain thought that AA had become the domain of irreligious misfits "Dogmatic and opinionated in their nonbeliefs", who scorned other societies such as the Kiwanis Club. Cain said AA had come to rely heavily on dogmatic slogans and the group. Without referencing or fashioning a definition of the term, Cain called AA a "cult" and "a hindrance to research, psychiatry, and to many alcoholics who need a different kind of help".

Source Cited: "Alcoholics Anonymous." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholics_Anonymous>.