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Macey Colavecchio
ENC 3315 / Prof. Marinara / Assignment 4

A Rhetorical Analysis of Story Telling and The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholism is a global health risk. Although it can be arrested, alcoholism has no

cure.1 The use of the word alcoholism was popularized after the founding of Alcoholic
Anonymous, an international fellowship of men and women who have a drinking problem
in 1935.2 In a foreword to the first edition of their basic text, commonly referred to as the
Big Book, Dr. William Silkworth described the heartbreaking affliction of alcoholism
along with remarkable examples of recovery in the program of AA. Through abstinence,
an entire psychic change, and reliance in a power great than themselves, he maintained
that an alcoholic could live an addiction-free life. 3
Almost 80 years later, today AA maintains a worldwide presence with more than 2
million members and 110,000 groups in 180 countries. A.A. describes alcoholism as a
family disease, and ultimately, it is the families, not just the alcoholic, who recover from
and abnormal or neurotic life.4 The families who experience recovery in A.A. seem to
move from being highly dysfunctional to being exceptionally close and well adjusted.
When the drinker attends AA and the spouse or loved one attends Al-Alon, something
dramatic happens, something that cannot be accounted for simply by the absence of
alcohol. How is it that being a member of A.A. and telling ones story can contribute to the

How Al-Anon Works for Families and Freidns of Alcoholics, pg. 16

Alcoholics Anonymous, website accessed on 11November 2014.
3 AAWS, 2001, p.xxviii
4 AAWS, 2001, p.xxvi
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formation of a new identity? In this paper, I will rhetorically analyze the mechanisms that
contribute to positive outcomes in this program and the importance of storytelling as a
form of healing in Alcoholics Anonymous.
Alcoholics Anonymous is for individuals that seek to recover from alcoholism, to
share their experiences and to gain strength from one anothers stories. A.A. is based upon
a Twelve Step program to recovery. Through working the twelve steps, individuals find
their sobriety and use powerful principles of recovery; often referred to as a miracle by
members. 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.5 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 society,
according to Terence T. Gorski.
I have not attended an A.A. meeting, but only Al Anon. Al Anon is a sister of A.A.
for anyone who is affected by the excessive drinking of someone close. Although a
separate entity, we should always co-operate with Alcoholics Anonymous, states the Al
Anons Twelve Traditions. In the meetings, I experienced a fellowship where numerous
individuals are able to understand and reiterate each others success and failures, struggles
with the Twelve Steps, and above all, gratitude for the honest and supportive community
created through the Twelve Steps. According to Nancy Badger, Ph.D, Al Anon provides a
sense of belonging by identifying with others who have experience the same kind of
dilemmas and difficulties. It helps individuals develop a relationship that most members of
alcoholic families dont learn otherwise.

Gorski, 1989, p.2

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The severity of alcoholism and its effects are explained on the website of the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In the United States, 17 million
adults ages 18 and over had an Alcohol Use Disorder in 2012. That same year, an
estimated 855,000 adolescents also had an AUD. Alcohol has been identified as a risk
factor for the following types of cancer: mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, liver, and
breast. More than 10 percent of U.S. children live with a parent with alcohol problems,
according to a 2012 study. 6 Alcoholism is the third leading preventable cause of death in
the United States. These numbers just show an inch of the mile that is the devastating
effects of alcoholism. Alcoholism is a physical dependence on alcohol, a condition in
which the body becomes dependent on alcohol to function physically. As a result of this
dependency, alcohol is consumed obsessively and in uncontrolled amounts. It is a disease
that results in detrimental mental, physical, and emotional consequences to the man or
woman who may be suffering and their friends and family. 7
As a spiritual and social movement, A.A. was founded on the principle of one
alcoholic helping another. The tripartite legacy of A.A. is found in the Preamble,
composed of recovery, unity, and service. In terms of personal recovery, it has been
suggested that the active alcoholic must first hit bottom, which means they acknowledge
the hopelessness of his or her current situation and surrender in order to avail themselves to
a spiritual program of action. The newcomer is encouraged to stay sober one day at a
time, and this has helped members avoid that first drink which could lead to alcoholic
relapse. The Twelve Steps are principles for personal recovery. The Twelve Traditions of
A.A. ensures unity among groups. Tradition Three states that, The only requirement for
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NIAAA
Ekern, MS, LPC, published on Addiction Hope

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membership is a desire to stop drinking.

This open invitation represents a radical

philosophy of inclusion whereby anyone who says that he or she is a member of AA, is
one. Another important legacy of A.A. is that of service. In various ways it has been said
you have to give it away to keep it. In other words, for the alcoholic to stay sober, he or
she needs to help others. The Twelve Concepts were designed to help ensure that various
elements of A.As service structure remain responsive and responsible to those they serve.
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When I attended my first Al-Anon meeting, I was surprised at the amount of willingness

to share stories, praises, heartbreaks, and challenges. As members read through an

approved piece of literature, they shared experiences that were triggered by the piece they
read. There were not that many members at the meeting, but still it went on as usual;
started promptly on time; read through Al Anons own Twelve Steps and Traditions
(family and friends of alcoholics are encouraged to follow the same program A.A.
members do in order to find an understanding of the alcoholic, and therefore forgiving
heart), and ended exactly one hour later. This sense of routine and structure is intention by
the Twelve Steps, to provide a safe haven for those who live in chaos.
From its humble beginnings in 1935, A.A. has been rooted in the telling and retelling of stories, and in the reciprocal healing that can take place when one alcoholic
speaks to another. 10 This dynamic occurred when William Griffith Wilson (Bill W.) in
order to remain sober himself, went to extraordinary lengths to get in touch with another
alcoholic. Through another person, Bill was introduced to Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith (Dr.
Bob), whom he had never met before, and who was still drinking at the same time. The

(AAWS, 1952, pg. 139

AAWS, 2001, p. 574
10 Kurtz, 1991, p.68
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result was a momentous meeting between the two unlikely cofounders and what later
became known as Alcoholics Anonymous was born. Dr. Bob wrote, he was the first
living human whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regards to
alcoholism from actual experience. In other words, he talked my language.

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This

language, one of communication, identification, and the hope of liberation, was later
named by Bill W. the language of the heart. Here, an individual can begin to see the
potential for positive identification between a narrator (Bill W.) and his initially reluctant
audience (Dr. Bob), even though was they held in common was a seemingly hopeless
state of mind and body.12
Inside the first chapter of the Big Book is, Bills Story. The Big Book, the basic
text for the society, was published in 1939 with editions released in 1955, 1976, and 2001.
With each edition, some stories were carried over, some deleted, and some added. Two
accounts have been retained for decades and still stand as archetypes., Bill W. and Dr. Bob
Bill W. offers a chilling depiction of alcoholism, as well as his eventual recovery by way
of spiritual experience, a moral program for personal change, and service work. His life
story
In an article published by the New York Times, Daphne Merkin describes her
response to therapy. When she stopped trying to be an entertainer, always trying to joke
about traumatic situations to help her defuse her anger, and took the risk of narrating her
life more straightforwardly, she found a sense of self and was able to move forward. I did
so because I was growing older and more desperate for relief, she stated. One of the thing

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12

AAWS, 2001, p. 180

AAWS, 2001, xiii

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therapy allows for is the repetitive nature of a persons inner life, where her problems
receded into the distance as she tackled them more directly. 13
It has been said that humans have a natural impulse to narrate 14 and that the
telling of stories can help us organize and make sense of our lives. This is particular true
when coming to terms with difficult times or transitions. The stories we tell about
ourselves have the power to shape and change present and future behaviors, potentially
altering who we are and who we will become. Narrative encounters occur during meetings
of A.A, where participants tend to weigh in briefly on an identified step or topic that often
prompts the inclusion of autobiographical anecdotes. At speaker meetings, a member of
AA is invited to tell his or her story of alcoholism and recovery, as prospective newcomer
may or may not be still in the process of trying to decide whether they have a drinking
problem and are ready to do something about it. In some aspects, open talks can be
categorized as public speech acts or performances conducted before a select audience,
similar to those described by the sociologist Erving Goffman. More recently, Jenson
(2000) applied rhetorical analysis, focusing on the interactions between the author,
audience, and text, to storytelling in A.A. Jenson suggests that it is a kind of true
confessional self-accounting that leads to spiritual growth
According to Cain, there is said to be a general AA story, based on a sample of
personal accounts from the third edition of Alcoholics Anonymous and several AA
pamphlets. She indicated that the general structured included categories such as first
drunk, negative effects of drinking, progression of drinking, suggestion (by others)

Daphne Merkin, Making My Therapist Laugh.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/making-my-therapist-laugh/?ref=opinion
14 White, 1980, p.5
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that drinking may be a problem, denial, attempts to control drinking, entering AA,
giving AA an honest try, and becoming sober. Overtime, the individual learns to tell
his drinking according to the AA structure. Cains findings suggest that, the AA identity
is internalize the life story narrated comes to resemble the prototypic AA story more and
more closely.
According to George H. Jensen, who wrote Storytelling in Alcoholics Anonymous:
A Rhetorical Analysis outsiders may sometimes not understand the exchanges between AA
members. If someone named Jim were telling their story at a meeting today, he or she
would begin by saying, Hello, Im Jim. Im an alcoholic. The audience would respond,
Hello, Jim. Jenson states that the exchange is simple, an active participation between
speaker and audience. It may look off and sometimes outsiders may not know how to react
this exchange is often satirized in mass media, like a secret gathering of some fraternal
order. But within the culture of a meeting, Jenson argues, that this opening establishes a
dialogue between speaker and audience that is repeated again and again as roles shift. One
of the audiences becomes the speaker, and the speaker becomes one of the audiences and
each person in turn identifies himself as an alcoholic. 15 The importance of sharing life
stories is explained by Linde (1993):
Life stories express our sense of self: who we are and how we got that way. They
are also one very important means by which we communicate this sense of self and
negotiate it with others. Further, we use these stories to claim or negotiate group
membership and to demonstrate that we are in fact worthy members of those
groups, understanding and properly following their moral standards. Finally, life
stories touch on the widest social constructions, since they make presuppositions
about what can be taken as expected, what the norms are, an what common or
special belief systems can be used to establish coherence.

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Jenson, Storytelling in Alcoholics Anonymous: A Rhetorical Analysis, pg. 2

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Life stories are expanded narratives, which are told in the personal stories of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Stories about the past can be told only from the perspective of a narrator as he
or she resides in the present, and so are necessarily and constantly filtered through the
lenses of our ever-changing personal circumstances. Personal narratives are transformed
and transformative over time. What we tell others and ourselves about the past has
implications and consequences not only for the present and the future, but also for our
thoughts, feelings, memories, and evaluations about the past, according to Dissertation
Guy. He goes on and states that, with repeated iterations, our personal stories and the lives
on which they are based become increasingly consonant, consolidated, and coherent both
internally and externally. In summer, our narratives change over time, and so do we.

RH: To be honest, I totally lost track of where this paper was going. It got very confusing
for me towards the end, there does not seem to be a conclusion

Sources

Alcoholics Anonymous World Services (2001) Alcoholics Anonymous: The story

of how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. (4th
ed.). New York, NY: Author.
Strobbe, Stephen. Alcoholics Anonymous: Personal Stories, Relatedness,
Attendance and Affiliation. Diss. U of Michigan, 2009. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Jensen, George H. Storytelling in Alcoholics Anonymous: A Rhetorical Analysis.
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 2000. Print.
Nancy Badger, Ph.D., Director of Counseling and Career Planning at the University
of Tennessee in Chattanooga, article accessed on 11 November 14
o http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/al-anon-provides-a-lifelong-support-system
SAMHSA. 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Table
5.8ASubstance Dependence or Abuse in the Past Year among Persons Aged 18
or Older, by Demographic Characteristics: Numbers in Thousands, 2011 and 2012.
Available at: http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUHDetTabs2012/NSDUH-DetTabs2012/HTML/NSDUH-DetTabsSect5peTabs1to562012.htm#Tab5.8A
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alcohol use and health. Available at:
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm
Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC, Addiction Hope, March 22, 2013,
http://www.addictionhope.com/alcohol
Daphne Merkin, Making My Therapist Laugh A version of this article appears in
print on 11/09/2014, on page SR8 of the New York edition with the headline:
Making My Therapist Laugh.
o http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/08/making-my-therapistlaugh/?ref=opinion