The Society of Alcoholics Anonymous - Pamphlet

The Society of Alcoholics Anonymous

This pamphlet was printed by Alcoholics Anonymous through the Works Publishing, Inc. in 1949.

This pamphlet contains the speech that AA cofounder Bill Wilson gave at the 105th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Montreal, Quebec in May 1949.

In this talk, Bill shares the history of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous and its growth over 15 years.

Here is an excerpt from the speech:

“ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS is grateful for this invitation to appear before The American Psychiatric Association. It is a most happy circumstance. Being laymen we have naught but a story to tell, hence the quite personal and unscientific character of this narrative. Whatever their deeper implications the attitudes and events leading to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous are easy to portray.

Two alcoholics talk across a kitchen table. One is drinking, the other not. Severe chronics, the threat of commitment hangs over both. The time is November 1934. The active drinker became, years later, the writer of this paper. My sober visitor was an old friend and schoolmate, long catalogued by physicians and family as hopeless. I enjoyed the same rating and well knew it.

My friend had arrived to tell how he had been released from alcohol. In truth, the quality of his sobriety seemed “different.” Having made contact with the Oxford Group, a nondenominational, evangelical movement, my friend had been specially impressed by an alcoholic he had met, a former patient of C. G. Jung. Unsuccessfully treating this individual for a year, Dr. Jung had finally advised him to try religious conversion as his last chance.

While disagreeing with many tenets of the Oxford Group, my former schoolmate did, however, ascribe his new sobriety to certain ideas that this alcoholic and other Oxford people had given him. The particular practices my friend had selected for himself were simple:

1. He admitted he was powerless to solve his own problem.
2. He got honest with himself as never before; made an examination of conscience.
3. He made a rigorous confession of his personal defects.
4. He surveyed his distorted relations with people, visiting them to make restitution.
5. He resolved to devote himself to helping others in need, without the usual demand for personal prestige or material gain.
6. By meditation he sought God's direction for his life and help to practice these principles at all times.

This sounded pretty naive to me. Nevertheless my friend stuck to the plain tale of what had happened-no evangelizing. He related how, practicing these precepts, his drinking had unaccountably stopped. Fear and isolation left and he had received considerable peace of mind. With no hard disciplines nor any great resolves, these attributes began to appear the moment: he conformed. His release was a byproduct. Though sober but months, he felt he had a basic answer. Wisely avoiding any argument, he then took leave. The spark that was to be come Alcoholics Anonymous had been struck.“

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The pamphlet is in excellent condition with minimal wear. The staples in the spine are rusted.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.