AA Conference 2014 Committee No. 1 Q 2
(See the new aacultwatch forum)
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The Oxford Group and Moral Rearmament philosophy with its Fundamental Christian Values continued to be of great importance to the American drug-free Therapeutic Communities movement:
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“Concept vs. Social learning
From the beginning of the drug-free TC, the ‘concept’ of the TC which is closely linked to the ‘values’ of the community, has played an important role. In Synanon: The Tunnel BackJournal of Psychoactive Drugs, Volume 32(4) December 2000, p.414) A pre-published pdf download is available (with slightly different wording) for free at http://www.ortserve.ugent.be/img/doc/definitiefpsychoactief.pdf
It appears the rise of a fundamentalist Tough Love/ Back to Basics/ Big Book Study movement in AA in recent decades, and which incorporates Oxford Group revival, has something to do with the rise of the Synanon cult and its influence in the US addiction Treatment Industry. Like a cancer cut out of a body and the cancerous cells then spreading to all parts, Synanon, although cut out of society in 1991, continued to live on in cells which spread throughout the treatment industry and in AA. It continues to evolve and mutate in various forms in an ever growing more powerful paradigm, now emerging as the “new” organising paradigm called “recovery” or the “recovery community” of which “Recovery Champions” is a recent cell mutation. – If learning from the US experience of 12-step facilitation is anything to go by, Mark Gilman’s “Recovery Champions” could be seen as a government and National Health Service backed “Cults in the Community” care plan. Therefore, I think AA groups in the UK will need to keep a vigilant eye open for any trained para-professional “Recovery Champions” who might try to use AA meetings in order to recruit newcomers to their own organisations.”
Note: Conference Questions can be downloaded in pdf from the GSO (GB) website. They are on pages 5-11, AA Service News, Issue 157, Winter 2013 http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/download/1/Library/Documents/AA%20Service%20News/157%20Winter%202013.pdf
Conference 2014 background material can be found on the GSO (GB) website. Follow the “Background Material for Conference 2014” link in the Document Library. http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Members/Document-Library
Cheers
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
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