Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous free essay sample

Alcoholics Anonymous (A. A. ) is a worldwide fellowship for individuals to share their experiences, and to gain strength and support from one another in an effort to recover from alcoholism. A. A. is based upon a Twelve Step program to recovery that acts as a personal guide to sobriety. Countless individuals find their sobriety in this volunteer fellowship, in fact many find the Twelve Steps to be their personal miracle; this is eloquently articulated in Understanding the Twelve Steps: Working the Steps can create the miracle of sobriety, but the miracle isn’t magic. The miracle occurs because working the Twelve Steps allows people to use powerful principles of recovery. Those who are willing to dig beneath the surface and truly understand the principles upon which the Steps are based are better able to use the principles in their lives (Gorski, 1989, p. 2). To reiterate what Terence T. Gorski has expressed, those who are willing to truly adopt and ‘work’ the Twelve Steps experience the persuasive nature of one of the most powerfully rhetorical texts of modern society1 To gain perspective on this very unfamiliar rhetorical text, I accepted an invitation to attend an open A. We will write a custom essay sample on Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A. meeting as a guest. Before entering this meeting I underestimated and misunderstood Kenneth Burke’s complex notion of rhetoric as a phenomenon dependant on audience self-persuasion. I attended the meeting with this simplified notion of rhetoric in mind. I mistakenly expected to experience individual alcoholics express their personal gratitude to the Twelve Steps for their healing and sobriety. However, in opposition I experienced a fellowship, one where numerous individuals are able to understand and reiterate each other’s successes and failures, struggles with the Twelve Steps and above all, they share utmost gratitude for the honest and supportive community created through the Twelve Steps. While my first understanding of Burkean rhetoric is true, I ignorantly had not understood the power of a collective voice. Furthermore, Burke emphasizes that words are only effectively persuasive when they â€Å"speak the language of the voice within. Persuasion is only complete when an audience member convinces himself or herself of what has been said by others†(Burke in Borchers, 2006, p. 151). This experience reminds me of the African proverb: It takes a village to raise a child; it takes the collective fellowship of A. A. for the Twelve Steps to rhetorically foster successful sobriety for so many individuals. With this I am able to understand that discourse of any sy mbolic form involves rhetorical action as the means for an individual to link oneself to another and to collective social environments. The A. A. culture that embraces the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous does just this, it weaves together a number of individuals battling alcoholism forming a collective; â€Å"It is a fundamental means through which we create identification- what Burke sometimes calls ‘consubstantiation,’ whereby identification is achieved through a sharing of the ‘substance’ (the terms, the meaning potentials) of text† (Stillar, 1998, p. 6). I liken Michael Halloran’s theory of ‘spectacle’ with Burke’s theory of ‘substance;’ Halloran explains ‘spectacle’ as, â€Å"a public gathering of people who have come to witness some event and are self-consciously present to each other as well as to whatever it is that has brought them together† (Halloran, 2001, p. 5). With this in mind, for the purpose of this analysis let us understand A. A meetings as a ‘spectacle’ where members of the A. A fellowship collectively understand the ‘substance’ of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Identification through and with this rhetorical text, one that is a communal substance, aids each individual to be stronger in their sobriety together as a fellowship, than he or she is able to be apart. I am inspired by Glenn F. Stillar’s Analyzing Everyday Texts: Discourse, Rhetoric, and Social Perspectives, in which he proposes a framework that stems from Kenneth Burke’s work which further extends theories of discourse analysis to understand how and why symbolic action occurs. I will utilize this framework for a rhetorical analysis of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. In particular I will pay specific attention to the Burkean perspective that focuses on a social agent(s)’ dual relationship with symbolic systems and symbolic action. This perspective will prevalently influence my dissection of the Burkean System including: Grammar, Rhetoric and Logology (p. 60). In extension, I will breakdown these three rhetorical theories to better understand how the combination of environment, relationships and hegemonic ideology create the rhetorical nature of the Twelve Steps of A. A. Grammar seeks to understand how a motive is constructed in discourse, based in Burke’s pentad and theory of ratio I will analyze how elements are selected and combined into ratios to create meaning. In addition, I will attempt to dissect Burke’s idea of substance and how the classification of such creates meaning. Next under the theory of rhetoric, I will analyze the importance of identification and construction of unity by means of substance also known in Burkean terms as consubstantiation. Finally I will discuss logology, where I will attempt to understand what rhetorical effect motives inherent to symbol systems especially language, have on an audience. Dramatism is Burke’s method of analysis to understand how language and other symbol systems (i. e. text) embody and construct motives. Furthermore, this method of analysis focuses on language as a ‘species of action’ inspiring the receiver to act rather than simply define the cluster of words that create a text (Stillar, 1998). Within this method of analysis, language is a strategic mode of symbolic action rather than a mode of individual definition (Stillar, 1998). This notion is shared and placed into context by Terence T. Gorski author of Understanding the Twelve Steps, he reiterates that individual digestion and usage of the Twelve Steps of A. A. is not the text’s only purpose; â€Å"Twelve Step programs are not just meetings; they are a sober, recovery-focused, social network. And this, together with the Steps and sponsorship, creates a sobriety-oriented community that makes recovery happen†(1989, p. 6). Burke’s pentad is a tool of analysis to help us understand how motives are constructed in rhetorical language. There are five elements of the pentad: Act is what happened or took place, Scene is the background of the act, Agent is the person(s) who performed the act, Agency is the means through which the act took place and Purpose is the reason the act took place (Borchers, 2006). Additionally, Timothy Borchers notes that the pentad should not be used to identify the elements of rhetoric, but instead to explore the motives of the rhetor. It is important to remember that the pentad is a strategic tool utilized by a rhetor to shape text by arranging pentadic elements into ratios. Therefore as Burke suggests, the rhetor or social agent will construct a ratio to determine reality by selection and deflection; â€Å"A particular pentadic pattern in a text is both a ‘selection’ and a ‘deflection’: A text deploys selected pentadic resources and the elements can combine in different ways, each leading to a different construction of motive†¦Ratios are principles of ‘determination’ and ‘selectivity’† (Burke in Stillar, 1998, p. 4). Furthermore, because pentadic elements are interchangeable, so too is the rhetorical message within text. The Twelve Steps have a linear nature in which the rhetorical motive of the text is constantly transforming along with the progress or regress of rhetor’s recovery; ratio mirrors these alterations pending on environment, relat ionship or ideologic influence. It is necessary that we understand the self-persuasive nature of this text and therefore, the alcoholic as the rhetor. Again, from Halloran’s perspective, â€Å"Members of the audience become rhetors through their visible and audible reactions, transforming the event as it transpires into an enactment of their social order†(Hallorin, 2001, p. 6). An example of this can be noted in the first step: 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. To be able to successfully ‘work’ through the steps this individual must first understand this step as andagent: act’ ratio. What this means is the individual (agent) understands that he or she is at fault for the act of his or her alcoholism. For the alcoholic to successfully complete this step and move forward to ‘work’ through the remaining eleven steps, he or she must determine a ratio such as this to provide an appropriate frame. The second aspect of grammar is assigning substance, similar to a pentadic ratio; substance requires both ‘selection’ and ‘deflection. ’ Glenn Stillar clarifies these relationships: He defines a selection as, â€Å"the ways in which motives may be attributed or understood, and it is a deflection because it impels us to see in its terms, not in others† (1998, p. 7). Again much like ratio, substance is a socially constructed phenomenon that also produces identities (Stillar, 1998). To identify with someone or something is to be united by a similar substance. This self-persuasive phenomenon can be likened to a domino effect, when multiple social actors identify with one another through similar experience the substance’s rhetorical power is compacted. In this sense, the definition of substance within Alcoholics Anonymous is not the substance of the text, but instead the text as the ‘substance. Each individual member is encouraged to work with and interpret the Steps in a fashion appropriate to the individual (Gorski, 1989). Furthermore as an A. A. fellowship comes into formation, common ground is based on each member’s relationship with this text and one’s ability to discuss this text with other members. For example, if Member A was struggling to work through Step five: 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs, then perhaps he or she needs to reassess completion of the first four Steps and discuss this with his or her fellowship. Terence Gorski insists that when Member A has succeeded in indentifying his or her mistaken beliefs and character defects he or she should discuss these things with other Members: â€Å" It’s self-defeating to keep it a secret. One recovering person put it this way: â€Å"We are only as sick as our secrets. † Why? Because keeping secrets forces us to live in isolation†¦Your addictive self keeps you out of touch with yourself and isolated from other people. The Fifth Step is the path out of isolation (Gorski, 1989, p. 4-95). Therefore, it can be said that the rhetorical characteristics of the Twelve Steps of A. A. lie within this communal ‘substance’ shared by all members of A. A. This social dimension must not be underestimated, the rhetorical power lies within the collective commitment to this individual process. Admitting and accepting this idea is the only possible way to begin the process of sobriety; to begin the ‘work’ of the Twelve Steps; to join the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. To relate oneself to the substance of a particular group or community, Burke suggests that the rhetorical practice of identification must occur. Thomas Harte summarizes this Burkean notion, â€Å"Persuasion takes place only as the result of some variant of the process: You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his. Through the employment of stylistic identification strategies the speaker establishes rapport with his audience, causing it to identify its interests with his† (Harte, 1977, p. 5). It is key to reiterate that in our discussion of the rhetorical nature of the Twelve Steps, the speaker and the audience are the same social actor. Thus far we have dismantled top-down rhetorical practice, we have blurred the roles of rhetor and audience, and we understand that lived experience has a heavy influence on the rhetorical nature of text. All of the above have utilized one form or another of identification, let us now dismantle Burkean rhetoric and understand this theory’s true persuasive power. Identification is the tool we use to reduce the division between ourselves and to construct our own reality united by a similar substance. Kenneth Burke eloquently illustrates the process of identification, â€Å"A is not identical with his colleague, B. But insofar as their interests are joined, A is indentified with B. Or he may identify himself with B even when their interests are not joined, if he assumes that they are, or is persuaded to do so† (Stillar, 1998, p. 73). The function of rhetoric is to overcome separation and create social realities, collective communities in which we must operate. Alcoholics are usually people who have been collectively socially identified and outcast as diseased. With this in mind, we must acknowledge the refreshingly positive nature of identification that is utilized within the Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship. To counter this societal narrative and renegotiate the individual’s relationship within society one must join the other team; the recovery team and this is possible, â€Å"so long as the ‘sufferer’ agrees to take on responsibility for the sickness†(Cloud, 1998, p. 2). The Twelve Steps are separated in a rhetorical fashion as to speak a different sermon for a different Sunday; any given step is never interpreted in the same way, instead each step is intended to give new insight each and every time it is worked with (Gorski, 1989). Appropriately, the first three steps ask newcomers to admit their powerlessness and surrender control to a higher power, and in doing so begin the process of identification as an alcoholic. The Twelve Steps are a launch pad for a relationship of consubstantiality between members of the A. A. ellowship and therefore, if the steps are to be misinterpreted the fellowship should self-correct. George Jensen emphasizes this consubstantiality that exists within the fellowship, â€Å"When a newcomer is making the steps too cryptic or onerous, and old-timer will simplify them. When a newcomer claims to have mastered the steps, an old-timer will, in some way, suggest that they are too complex and difficult to have mastered so quic kly†(Jensen, 2000, p. 53). Without judgment, the communal process that surrounds the steps gently guides new or old members onto their rightful path by way of the Steps. As we have seen, the process of releasing one’s personal power throughout the first three steps, allows the individual rhetor to identify as an alcoholic. However the second set of steps challenge this consubstantial progress. Steps four through and including nine ask the alcoholic to examine one’s moral character, challenge one’s character defects, and make amends. These six steps are key because they allow the individual an opportunity to understand who he or she really is and it is this rigorous honesty that forms the foundation of recovery. For example the problematic Step four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of Ourselves, it proves to be one of the more difficult steps to ‘work’ through because it forces members to move past denial towards honesty (Jensen, 2000). This is the case for two reasons, for one because this step is acutely focused on the individual member opposed to the previous steps that reiterate the fellowship’s strength. Second, while the individual rhetor will continue to align oneself as a member of the A. A. fellowship, momentarily he or she must come to terms with their past before A. A. While difficult, this step allows the individual an opportunity to reflect and understand one’s personal strengths and weaknesses so as to build upon the strengths and overcome the weaknesses (Jensen, 2000). The interesting aspect of this process is as the individual grows, so too does the fellowship, the substance morphs and changes strengthening the consubstantiality. Jensen confirms this reality and suggests, â€Å"some members claim that those who have completed-really completed- a fourth step never relapse† (Jensen, 2000, p. 5). With every member’s success the fellowship grows in spirit. The final three steps can be described as spiritual maintenance; â€Å"Members of the program work these steps, often on a daily basis, as a means of continuing their spiritual progress and staying in touch with the fellowship† (Jensen, 2000, p. 56). At this point within the fellowship, not only has a member conquered the majority of the steps, he or she has a safe ty net of a sponsor and/or friends to call at anytime if any need arise. Within the final leg of the Twelve Steps I think it is safe to agree with Halloran’s notion that lived experience sometimes overwhelms the persuasive nature of the text (2001). Step twelve extends is rhetorical power to the experience of a spiritual awakening as a result of working through the Twelve Steps: 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. As we can see the Twelve Steps have created a fellowship and an A. A. ommunity that is unshakeable, it seems that the text of the steps are mere words that set the stage for success. Dramatism is interested in how language creates and maintains collective communities of individuals (Borchers, 2006). One could say that Burkean rhetorical theory is of the same substance as dramatistic perspective; both methods of analysis favor language as the foundation for successful rhetoric by activation of the audienceâ€⠄¢s willingness to act. Similarly, logology is interested in language itself as a motive and how the rhetorical nature of language characterizes ratio, substance and identification. Furthermore, this branch of rhetorical theory questions the conditions in which language is socially constructed and explores the consequences that language impose on social actors (Stillar, 1998). If language creates and maintains collective communities of individuals we must acknowledge that this occurs because of two forms of classification: identification and division. Denise Jodlowski confirms and expands this: Identification, he argued, [Burke] inherently invites consideration of its opposite—division. Although group members will identify with one another in order to cohere as a unit, they will also necessarily define themselves in opposition to or division from other groups. Additionally, group members can divide against one another. Such is the case in storytelling, where the teller faces division if a story does not resonate with others (2007, p. 17). Such is the case for an alcoholic, he or she is often outcast from ‘normal-functioning’ society and is placed in a wasteland until he or she finds the Twelve Steps and the fellowship of A. A. Even an open and welcoming community such as the fellowship of A. A. uses language both to define identification and division between other groups; us versus them, sobriety versus illness, and alone versus fellowship. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous prevalently use the collective pronoun â€Å"We,† a word, a mere fragment of language that unites any number of people as a collective. This two-letter word frames the Twelve Steps and the A. A. ommunity as approachable and accessible, likewise George Jensen reiterates this thought: The subject of the steps is plural â€Å"we,† which is less preachy, emphasizing the importance of working the steps within a group, and its actions are expressed in the past tense, which emphasizes that this is the plan others have already followed and found effective in achieving sobriety (Jensen, 2000, p. 52). Logology is interested in just this, the use of â€Å"We† as unifying language that inspires the social actor and fu rthermore the alcoholic to commit to the Twelve Steps and to the fellowship. It is this simple word that creates and maintains collective communities of individuals. The text of the Twelve Steps of A. A. linguistically lends itself to another collective community; that being a community embraced under the umbrella term therapeutic discourse or better known as ‘self-help. ’ Under this umbrella, social actors are inherently plagued with illness, disease and moral indecency. Dana Cloud emphasizes this notion through Wendy Simonds’ research data collected from interviews with readers of self-help text; â€Å"readers are persuaded by messages in these texts encouraging them to take responsibility of their ‘illnesses’†(1998, p. 3). As a ‘self-help’ model, the very core of A. A. culture is linguistically constructed in a way as to constantly humble its members through ‘self-help’ discourse. To be able to work through the Twelve Steps, a member must first and foremost admit their illness: 1: We admitte d we were powerless over alcohol- that our lives had become unmanageable; this is the only way for a individual to truly be of the same substance as the fellowship of A. A. An example of this is as follows, the fellowship requires its members to introduce oneself as follows: â€Å"Hello my name is Marissa. I’m an alcoholic† followed by the routine response â€Å"Hello Marissa,† and by acknowledging oneself as an alcoholic and taking personal responsibility for one’s ‘illness,’ the response is a sincere welcome for who is soon to be, if not already a friend. By admitting one’s illness, he or she is commended and embraced by the A. A. fellowship. As in most ‘self-help’ texts, beauty is found amongst the wreckage, A. A. doesn’t differ, and in fact its consubstantial unity thrives upon shameless surrender. Just as there isn’t one single face to the disease of alcoholism, there certainly isn’t one single voice for successful sobriety. Instead, the power of sobriety is found in the collective voice of multiple members, the fellowship. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is the substance of which the members of the A. A. fellowship are nourished. The consubstantial nature of this text provides a stage for success; Terence Gorski insists on the simplicity of this success, â€Å"there are certain conditions that make this happen- namely, sober people, operating under free choice, discussing the principles that underlie the Steps†(1989, p. 181). The Twelve Step program is a volunteer fellowship, a community where members help themselves and others to stay sober. With confidence, I conclude that it is the Alcoholics Anonymous experience that allows a member to transform, to solidify his or her sobriety and to support one’s fellow members along the same journey. Appendix The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcoholthat our lives had become unmanageable. 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. : Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 0: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.