My dad (Dick B.—www.DickB.com)
has written two whole books on the topic of “cured” and Alcoholics Anonymous.
They are:
·
Dick B., Cured!
Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts, 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 2006): http://mcaf.ee/hpjsb;
and
·
Dick B., When
Early AAs Were Cured and Why, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 2006): http://mcaf.ee/ik64w.
Here are some points about the use of the word “cured” in
the Big Book and about its use by Bill W. and others before the first edition
of Alcoholics Anonymous was published
in April 1939.
1. A person should not be considered "naive" because
they state that the Big Book declares:
We are not cured of alcoholism. [Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 85]
That statement does occur—once—in the part of the book
before the “Personal Stories” section. However, that is not all that is stated in the
Big Book about a cure for alcoholism.
2. One aspect of how to approach the problem(s) raised by
the foregoing claim on page 85 of the Big Book is to list some other facts about the Big Book; e.g.:
a. The
entire book, Alcoholics Anonymous
(“the Big Book”), is "the basic text for Alcoholics Anonymous"--as
stated on the front cover of the dust jacket of the hardback edition of the
fourth edition of the Big Book:
“Alcoholics Anonymous. This is
the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous”
That
fact is also stated on page xi of the Preface to the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous:
“. . . [T]his book has become the
basic text for our Society . . .”
b. There
are seven other occurrences of the word “cure” in the fourth edition of the Big
Book (published in 2001) referring to the time before the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous was published in
April 1939; and they all state or imply that alcoholism was being cured by the
“old,” pre-April 1939 program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
1) "Another
feeling we are very likely to entertain is one of resentment that love and
loyalty could not cure our husbands
of alcoholism. We do not like the thought that the contents of a book or the
work of another alcoholic has accomplished in a few weeks that for which we
struggled for years.” [Emphasis added; Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 118 (chapter: “To Wives”)].
2) “Though
he [“one of our friends”] is now a most effective member of Alcoholics
Anonymous, he still smokes and drinks coffee, but neither his wife nor anyone
else stands in judgment. She sees she was wrong to make a burning issue out of
such a matter when his more serious ailments were being rapidly cured.” [Emphasis added; Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.,
135 (chapter: “The Family Afterward”)].
3) “But
this was a man [Bill W.] who had experienced many years of frightful drinking,
who had had most all the drunkard’s experiences known to man, but who had been cured by the very means I had been
trying to employ, that is to say the spiritual approach.” [Emphasis added; Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 180; (“Doctor
Bob’s Nightmare,” the personal story of A.A. cofounder and medical doctor, Dr.
Bob)].
4) “Then
she [the wife of A.A. Number Three, Bill D.] told me that these two drunks she
had been talking to had a plan whereby they thought they could quit drinking,
and part of that plan was that they tell it to another drunk. This was going to
help them to stay sober. All the other people who had talked to me wanted to
help me, and my pride prevented me
from listening to them and caused only resentment on my part, but I felt as if
I would be a real stinker if I did not listen to a couple of fellows for a
short time, if that would cure them.” [Italics in original, bolding
added; Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 185; (“Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three,” the personal story of AA Number
Three, Akron attorney Bill D.)].
5) “Two
days before this, Dr. Bob had said to me [Bill W.], ‘If you and I are going to
stay sober, we had better get busy.’ Straightway, Bob called Akron’s City
Hospital and asked for the nurse on the receiving ward. He explained that he
and a man from New York had a cure
for alcoholism. Did she have an alcoholic customer on whom it could be tried?” [Emphasis
added; Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.,
188; (“Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three,” the personal story of AA Number
Three, Akron attorney Bill D.)].
6) “Bill
[A.A. cofounder Bill W.] looked across at my wife [the wife of AA Number Three,
Bill D.] and said to her, ‘Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease,
that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.’” [Emphasis
added; Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.,
191; (“Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three,” the personal story of AA Number
Three, Akron attorney Bill D.)].
7) “That
sentence, ‘The Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep
telling people about it,’ has been a sort of a golden text for the A.A. program
and for me.” [Emphasis added; Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 191; (“Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three,” the personal
story of AA Number Three, Akron attorney Bill D.)].
[See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980), 131, for Frank Amos’s February 1938,
seven-point summary of the original Akron A.A. program; and see Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (New
York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), 162, for Bill W.’s
statement that he had written “the new version of the program, now the ‘Twelve
Steps.’”
To help you research the facts
contained in the Big Book, you might want to acquire a copy of A
Concordance to Alcoholics Anonymous, comp. Stephen E. Poe and Frances
E. Poe (Reno, NV: Purple Salamander Press: 1990): http://mcaf.ee/1supo.
It is a concordance to the third edition of the Big Book, but the page numbers
are (approximately) the same at for the fourth edition—at least until the
“Personal Stories” section. Or, you could use the concordance feature of the www.164andmore.com Web site.]
3. Present a little historical background for the use of the
word “cured” by early AAs. E.g.:
·
William D. Silkworth, M.D., a devout Christian
[Dale Mitchel, Silkworth, the Little
Doctor Who Loved Drunks (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2002), 11], had told
Bill W. during Bill’s third visit to Towns Hospital in September 1934 that “the
Great Physician” (Jesus Christ) could cure Bill of Bill’s alcoholism. [Mitchel,
Silkworth, 44; see also 43-51, 225].
·
According to Bill W., .on the morning of the
third day after he had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at Calvary
Mission (about December 7, 1934), Bill thought to himself:
“So
if there was a great Physician who
could cure the alcoholic sickness, I had better seek Him now, at once.” [Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 61].
·
Bill W. then entered Towns Hospital for his
fourth and final stay on December 11, 1934; had the experience in which his
hospital room “blazed with an indescribably white light,” and sensed the
presence of God. After that experience, he never again doubted the existence of
God and never drank again. [‘Pass It On’
(New York, N.Y.: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1984), 121]. When
he left Towns Hospital on December 18, 1934, he sought out drunks wherever he
could find them with a Bible under his arm, telling them that they needed to
give their lives to God.
·
A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob, a medical doctor,
declared that A.A. cofounder Bill W. “had been cured” of alcoholism. (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 180). And Dr. Bob told a nurse on the receiving ward of Akron’s City
Hospital that he and Bill “had a cure for alcoholism.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 188).
·
AA Number Three, Akron attorney and Sunday
school teacher Bill D., quoted Bill W. as having said to his (Bill D.’s) wife,
“Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible
disease, that I just want to keep talking about and telling people.” And that,
for AA Number Three, Bill D., Bill W.’s statement had been “a sort of a golden
text for the A.A. program and for me.” (Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 191).
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