William James’s “Sick-Minded Soul” and the AA Recovery Paradigm
Time for a Reappraisal
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9021925 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tony Bevacqua (Los Angeles Trade Tech College, Los Angeles, CA, USA), Edward Hoffman (0000-0001-9789-5039, Yeshiva University, New York, NY, USA,, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 440-458 |
| Publication date | 2010-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Humanistic Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-1678 • E-ISSN: 1552-650X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022167810373041 |
| OpenAlex | W2042344151 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 17 |
This article focuses on William James’s influence on Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which arose 25 years after his death to dominate alcoholism treatment ever since as a lay organization. With its early leaders admiringly referring to James as AA’s “cofounder,” AA and the numerous 12-step programs it has spawned have generally enjoyed a favorable reputation among humanistic psychologists. However, the authors regard this reputation as reflexive and largely undeserved, rather than critically generated. For essentially AA’s originators selected and promulgated one particular paradigm in James’s multiarrayed approach to alcoholism—the “self-surrender of the sick-minded soul”—to the exclusion of all others. In this paradigm, the addicted individual descends into a state of utter despair and then experiences an epiphany leading to self-transformation. However, James never regarded this state—which Maslow later called the “nadir-experience”—as the only means to addiction recovery, but rather advocated a diversity of paths, reflecting the variability of human personality. In celebrating this centennial year James’s enduring legacy, it is time for humanistic clinicians to take the lead in moving beyond AA’s outmoded, “one-size-fits-all” approach to addiction recovery
Alcoholics Anonymous · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Humanism · Maslow's hierarchy of needs · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sobriety · Sociology · Soul · Spiritualism · State (computer science · Unconscious mind · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Law · Medicine · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
Maintaining Normative Functioning Alongside Drug Use
Life-changing religious and spiritual experiences
Scripting Addiction, Constraining Recovery
Balancing Recovery and Professional Practice in the Context of Substance Use Services
The Influence of William James on the Spirituality of Alcoholics’ Anonymous
Psychedelics, attachment, and enculturation dynamics
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |