Book Description
Narcotics Anonymous: White Booklet

One of NA's earliest publications became the heart of N.A. meetings and the basis for all subsequent N.A. literature.

This booklet contains the twelve steps or principles to recovery, the twelve traditions of NA, and an inspiring selection of personal stories written by men and women who are recovering from an addiction to drugs. Recommended for anyone embarking on the road to recovery, and for all who want to help themselves or someone else stay clean. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (36)

Narcotics Anonymous
Recieved Wrong Book. Got (AA) Alcoholica Annonymous, not (NA)Narcotics Anonymous. Poorer condition that was stated

Contacted sender 3 times with no response.

Very disapointed. Purchased book elsewhere.

They will make you get this book
I want to thank everyone in the fellowship for showing me how to stay clean for more than 14 years to this date of my review.I rarely go to meetings today due a new direction in spirituality, however, the foundation of this program has been grounded in my life to have kept me clean for this long.If you are new to recovery, do what I did.Go to the meetings for the coffee.I say this cause it really doesn't matter why you go to meetings in the beginning as long as you suit up and show up.You will go for the right reasons eventually and they will make you get this book.It worked for me thus far and I hope you find recovery as I did utilizing this book and my sponsor for the answers to stay clean ONE DAY AT A TIME.God Bless!

timely response
work as advisor for a group and couldnt find enough copies.Submitted the order and recieved the books in brand new condition a full day ahead of scheduled time to expect.LOVE it.

Here is your sacred origin
You narcs complain the world is against you, you won't shower, cut your hair or lose the clothes.

The truth is that a newly-sober alcoholic named William Griffith Wilson -- a down-on-his-luck former Wall Street hustler who put on airs of having once been a prosperous stock broker -- just sat down, in December of 1938, and wrote up twelve commandments for the new religious group that he and fellow alcoholic Doctor Robert Smith had started. Those commandments were simply a repackaged version of the practices of a cult religion that was popular at that time, something called "The Oxford Group", or "The Oxford Group Movement", and later, "Moral Re-Armament" -- a religious cult that was created by a deceitful fascist renegade Lutheran minister named Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman -- a nut-case who actually praised Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

Bill Wilson described the writing of the Twelve Steps this way:

Well, we finally got to the point where we really had to say what this book was all about and how this deal works. As I told you this had been a six-step program then.

The idea came to me, well, we need a definite statement of concrete principles that these drunks can't wiggle out of. There can't be any wiggling out of this deal at all and this six-step program had two big gaps which people wiggled out of.

Notice how Bill Wilson considered his fellow alcoholics to be a bunch of cheaters who will "wiggle out of this deal" if they can get away with it -- which Bill won't allow.

And note how Bill Wilson made himself the leader who was entitled to dictate the concrete terms of other people's recovery programs.
Also notice how Bill Wilson considered 'spiritual development' to be a business deal, with a contract that you can't wiggle out of, something like selling your soul in trade for sobriety.

Nowhere in the Twelve Steps does it say that you should quit drinking, or help anyone else to quit drinking, either. Nowhere do the words "sobriety", "recovery", "abstinence", "health", "happiness", "joy", "love", or "love", appear in the Twelve Steps. The word "alcohol" was only mentioned once, where it was patched into the first step as a substitute for the word "sin" -- Bill Wilson wrote,
"we are powerless over alcohol and our lives have become unmanageable",
instead of the Oxford Group slogan,
"we are powerless over sin and have been defeated by it".
And then the phrase "especially alcoholics" was patched into the 12th step as a suggested target for further recruiting efforts:
"...we tried to carry this message to others, especially alcoholics"...
(But regular non-alcoholic people were still fair game for recruiting into Bill's "spiritual fellowship"...)

The Twelve Steps are not a formula for curing or treating alcoholism, and they never were.
The Twelve Steps are not "spiritual principles" and they never were.
The Twelve Steps are cult practices that work to convert people into confirmed true believers in a proselytizing cult religion, just like Frank Buchman's so-called "spiritual principles" did.

1. The Twelve Steps do not work as a program of recovery from drug or alcohol problems.
The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:
One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless -- that it didn't help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested -- a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as "appalling". While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. After 8 years of A.A. treatment, the score with Dr. Vaillant's first 100 alcoholic patients was: 5 sober, 29 dead, and 66 still drinking.
(Nevertheless, Vaillant is still a Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he still wants to send all alcoholics to A.A. anyway, to "get an attitude change by confessing their sins to a high-status healer." That is cult religion, not a treatment program for alcoholism.)
The A.A. dropout rate is terrible. Most people who come to A.A. looking for help in quitting drinking are appalled by the narrow-minded atmosphere of fundamentalist religion and faith-healing. The A.A. meeting room has a revolving door. The therapists, judges, and parole officers (many of whom are themselves hidden members of A.A. or N.A.) continually send new people to A.A., but those newcomers vote with their feet once they see what A.A. really is. Even A.A.'s own triennial surveys, conducted by the A.A. headquarters (the GSO), say that:
81% of the newcomers are gone within 30 days,
90% are gone in 3 months, and
95% are gone at the end of a year.
That automatically gives A.A. a failure rate of at least 95%. But the GSO does not count all of those people who only attend a few meetings before quitting -- they don't qualify as "members". (That amounts to "cherry-picking".) If we included them, then the numbers would be much worse.

First there is the propaganda technique of "everybody's doing it": "AA or a similar Twelve-Step program is an integral part of almost all successful recoveries".
That is a complete falsehood. The vast majority of the successful people recover without A.A. or any "support group". It's what "everybody" is doing.
Then they use the propaganda techniques of use of the passive voice and vague suggestions: "It is widely believed that not including a Twelve-Step program in a treatment plan can put a recovering addict on the road to relapse."
It is widely believed by whom? And what do those unnamed people know? What are their qualifications? Are they doctors? Medical school professors? Or salesmen for a 12-Step treatment center? Why should we care what some unnamed invisible fools allegedly believe, anyway?
The authors also use the propaganda technique of fear-mongering: you will be "on the road to relapse" -- you will probably die -- unless you practice Bill Wilson's Twelve Step cult religion.
And then the fluff-headed Pollyanna attitude is outrageous: Just going to the wonderful A.A. meetings is supposedly all that is needed to fix some alcoholics.
But since A.A. has a zero-percent success rate above and beyond the normal rate of spontaneous remission, that cannot possibly be true

Narcotics Anonymous *The Basic Text*
This is the best book written on addiction and recovery!The literature of Narcotics Anonymous is written by addicts, for addicts, and is very powerful.If you are an addict and have tried everything else to no avail, do yourself a BIG favor; read this book and get to an NA meeting.Sure, like others have written here, you MIGHT be able to do it alone, but why would you???You NEVER have to be alone again.There is a better way!We could argue for YEARS about what works, what doesn't work, does an addict CHOOSE to use? or does an addict CHOOSE to be an addict?, let alone the children and family members who are hurt and bewildered; the list is endless!The sad truth is that our prisons are FILLED to capacity with addicts and there not enough treatment centers or services to serve those who are SUFFERING and DYING!Narcotics Anonymous is a program designed to help people recover from the disease of addiction.What many people do not realize is that addiction and recovery is about much more then simple drug use.Recovery is about much more then simply putting down the drugs.That is sometimes the easy part (even though at the time it may not feel like it)!Recovery in NA is about living a better way of life without the use of drugs.Recovery in NA is a continuous process of improving your life and in the process helping other addicts to recover.The book is excellent and should be read by anyone who is interested in addiction or recovery from addiction.CCK, Clean date: 6/23/88. ... Read more

Product Description
Audio Book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (65)

Alcoholism is a Disease
Title: Alcoholism is a Disease.

Alcoholism causes moral problems ---but it is not CAUSED by a lack of "morality". Under the Influence: A Guide to the Myths and Realities of Alcoholism. The "Under the Influence" book clearly explains in scientific detail the four-stage physical disease of alcoholism. Understanding the physical part of the disease SO much helps in trying to get and stay sober.And learning about the disease of alcoholism is also essential in educating children about the high hereditary risk.Kids respond so much better to learning medical facts than to lectures on 'what's good for them'.(As the co-founder of A.A. Dr. Bob said to Bill W., "don't lecture them, Bill.Just give them the medical facts".)

the Bible of recovery
this classic explains recovery from A-Z.By honestly following the suggestions within these pages, a person can truly recover and regain their life back.You won't find easy answers in this book, because recovery takes a lot of work- this book points that out many times.

Not a Book it was a CD
I purchased the AA Big Book for an inmate at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility, he did not receive the book, he received a CD.It has taken this long for me to get the CD back .... it was suppose to be a Book not a CD.

Can I return it and get the book?

Julia Caplett

AA Big Book
Seller did not present item properly.Very disappointed in this purchase. Returned the item for credit.

It's Organic
I go to meetings and I also find the book unfortunate, or I find it to be cognitive behavior therapy (so-to-speak) in its essence. One must admit though that it is their rational mind that cannot go without a drink and perhaps, at least, use the meeting for its organic (i.e. non-algorithmic) benefit and/or as a meditation if not able to do so, otherwise. Where else can one find the leaderless round-table fellowship, taking their rightful turn (versus sitting dumbstruck in an audience, before conceited preachers of humility)? "Be true to thine own self" applies in meetings, too.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

AA isn't for everyone
AA isn't for everyone, only those who can't stop by themselves, it's pretty simple.And as you can see from some previous reviewers, "SOME ARE SICKER THAN OTHERS". Only the most closed and narrow minded won't be able to make it work.All it takes is a little willingness and honesty.Everyone dies someday and in one aspect, an alcoholic has 3 choices.Die Drunk, Die drunk and having failed at AA, Die sober.Just beyond me though at how some people can be so hateful of those striving for the third option or the "cult" that brings it all together.

Throw your Sponsor and Big Book away!!!
One problem that any Christian will have with Alcoholics Anonymous is the organization's abandoning of the Bible. The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is their new Bible. Some members claim to still use the Bible; I sometimes hear a bit of lip service to the Bible like, "Keep the Big Book next to the Good Book," but you won't see a Bible at a meeting, and you won't hear it quoted. Everybody is carrying the Big Book, and all readings come from it, or from a similar book of daily meditations, also written by Bill Wilson and other members of A.A..

In fact, reading aloud from the Bible at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings is usually forbidden. The Bible is considered "outside literature". Reading aloud at meetings from anything but A.A. "Council Approved" (and A.A.-published) literature is forbidden.

In addition, A.A. has essentially abandoned Jesus Christ. The A.A. faithful believe that Bill Wilson is superior to Jesus Christ when it comes to dealing with alcoholism, and you will hear Bill Wilson quoted a hundred times more often than Jesus Christ. (As a matter of fact, I can't really remember the last time I heard Jesus Christ quoted in an A.A. or N.A. meeting...)

The third edition of the A.A. Big Book does not contain the word "Jesus" anywhere, not even once. Bill Wilson raved constantly about "God", but didn't talk about Jesus Christ at all. There is one and only one mention of "Christ" in the entire book, and it is Bill Wilson's statement that before his hallucinatory experience on belladonna, his so-called "spiritual experience," he didn't have much use for Christ:


With ministers, and the world's religions, I parted right there. When they talked of a God personal to me, who was love, superhuman strength and direction, I became irritated and my mind snapped shut against such a theory. To Christ I conceded the certainty of a great man, not too closely followed by those who claimed Him. His moral teaching -- most excellent. For myself, I had adopted those parts which seemed convenient and not too difficult; the rest I disregarded.
The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, chapter 1, Bill's Story, pages 10-11.
Apparently, Bill continued to disregard a lot of that stuff even after he "saw the light," or saw "the God of the preachers", because Bill never mentioned Jesus or Christ again, not anywhere in the Big Book, not ever.

The first edition of the Big Book contained one story, "My Wife and I," that contained a line mentioning Jesus Christ:


Here were these men who visited me and they, like myself, had tried everything else and although it was plain to be seen none of them were perfect, they were living proof that the sincere attempt to follow the cardinal teaching of Jesus Christ was keeping them sober.
That story was dropped from the second, third, and fourth editions.


The word "God" appears in the first 164 pages of the Big Book (which William G. Wilson either wrote, co-authored, or edited) 106 times,
the word "Power", as in "Higher Power" or "that Power, which is God" appears 22 times,
the divine "Him" appears 26 times,
and the divine "His" is used 15 times,
but there is no mention of "Jesus Christ", not one single mention.
Alcoholics Anonymous is not a Christian religion, no matter what some members like to say. It is a religion all right, in spite of the denials of the members who claim that it is only a "spiritual program." Alcoholics Anonymous is a Buchmanite religion. Alcoholics Anonymous is just Frank Buchman's crazy "Oxford Group / Moral Re-Armament" religion, only slightly edited by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert H. Smith.
Basically, Alcoholics Anonymous believes in and practices the teachings of Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman, another man who had little use for Jesus Christ, because he preferred his own beliefs and teachings to those of Jesus. Bill Wilson did not invent the theology of A.A. -- he merely copied it from Frank Buchman.

In spite of that fact that Bill Wilson tried to hide the strong connections between Frank Buchman and A.A., Buchman's Oxford Group got three mentions in the third edition of the Big Book, while Christ got only one. (The first two mentions of the Oxford Group are in the Forward to the Second Edition, and the third is on page 218 of the third edition, in the story "He Thought He Could Drink Like A Gentleman".)

For that matter, when you consider the fact that Jesus' first miracle was changing water into wine at a wedding party, there might be a real problem with Jesus being a member of A.A.... (John 2:1 to 2:11.)

I am reminded of a contemporary critic of Frank Buchman's Oxford Group, Pastor H. A. Ironside, who criticized Buchmanism by saying that it was not a Christian religion, in spite of Buchman's claims that it was, because everything in Buchmanism would still be possible even if Jesus Christ had never been born. The same thing is true of Alcoholics Anonymous. A.A. would not have to change one word of the official church dogma even if Jesus Christ had never been born. The sacred Twelve Steps of Bill Wilson do not mention Jesus Christ, and do not require Jesus Christ in order to work, and the Twelve Steps don't even require Jesus Christ to have ever existed.

Alcoholics Anonymous simply has no need for, and no use for, Jesus Christ. A.A. worships Bill Wilson and Doctor Bob, not Jesus Christ.


The Twelve Steps do not work as a program of recovery from drug or alcohol problems.
The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:
One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless -- that it didn't help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested -- a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as "appalling". While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. After 8 years of A.A. treatment, the score with Dr. Vaillant's first 100 alcoholic patients was: 5 sober, 29 dead, and 66 still drinking.
(Nevertheless, Vaillant is still a Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he still wants to send all alcoholics to A.A. anyway, to "get an attitude change by confessing their sins to a high-status healer." That is cult religion, not a treatment program for alcoholism.)
The A.A. dropout rate is terrible. Most people who come to A.A. looking for help in quitting drinking are appalled by the narrow-minded atmosphere of fundamentalist religion and faith-healing. The A.A. meeting room has a revolving door. The therapists, judges, and parole officers (many of whom are themselves hidden members of A.A. or N.A.) continually send new people to A.A., but those newcomers vote with their feet once they see what A.A. really is. Even A.A.'s own triennial surveys, conducted by the A.A. headquarters (the GSO), say that:
81% of the newcomers are gone within 30 days,
90% are gone in 3 months, and
95% are gone at the end of a year.
That automatically gives A.A. a failure rate of at least 95%. But the GSO does not count all of those people who only attend a few meetings before quitting -- they don't qualify as "members". (That amounts to "cherry-picking".) If we included them, then the numbers would be much worse.
And also note that the claimed five percent of A.A. newcomers who are still left after one year is exactly the same number as the usual rate of spontaneous remission among alcoholics -- five percent per year. That is, in any randomly-selected population of alcoholics, approximately five percent per year will finally get sick and tired of being sick and tired, and they will just quit drinking. And the Harvard Medical School says that 80% of those successful quitters do it by themselves, alone, without any "treatment program" or any "support group".
If we subtract the normal spontaneous remission rate for alcoholism of five percent per year from A.A.'s claimed success rate of five percent, we get zero for A.A.'s real effective cure rate.
A.A. does not actually make anybody quit drinking; it just takes the credit for the people who were going to quit anyway. A.A. is just taking the credit for peoples' efforts to save their own lives.
The Twelve Steps are actually a hopelessly bad program for recovy:
Cult religion is not a good cure for alcoholism, and A.A. most assuredly is a cult religion.
One of the biggest problems with the Twelve-Step program is the learned helplessness caused by the First Step, where people are taught to confess that they are "powerless over alcohol." This leads many people to believe that once they have a drink, that a full-blown relapse and total loss of self-control is inevitable and unavoidable. So some people go on suicidally-intense binges, thinking that it is pointless to try to resist temptation.2 --
Step Two is just as bad: it teaches people that they are insane, and that only a Supernatural Being can restore them to sanity -- which means that they are helpless, and cannot heal themselves.
Then Step Three teaches a lifestyle of infantile narcissism and passive dependency, where A.A. members turn control of their wills and their lives over to "the care of God as we understood Him", and then they expect God to take care of them and run their lives for them, and solve all their problems, and wait on them hand and foot, and do all of the hard work for them from then on...
"Let Go And Let God"
is their official motto, their lifestyle, and their approach to problem-solving.
Then Steps Four through Ten induce guilt in the members by forcing members to make lists of all of their sins and flaws, and "defects of character" and "moral shortcomings", and confess every intimate dirty little secret to another A.A. member who isn't even ordained clergy, or even sworn to secrecy.
In Step Eleven you are supposed to "channel" God and receive psychic work orders and power.
Then Step Twelve tells you to go recruiting, to draft more alcoholics into this madness.
There is also experimental evidence that the A.A. teachings about powerlessness lead to binge drinking. In a controlled study of A.A.'s effectiveness, court-mandated offenders who had been sent to A.A. for several months were engaging in five times as much binge drinking as the no-treatment control group which got no A.A. "help".
A.A. boosters and propagandists constantly repeat the Big Lie that A.A. works great, and A.A. with its Twelve Steps is the way that everybody recovers.

TO BE READ AGAIN & AGAIN
a great book.each time i read it i gain many new insights.the stories at the end of the book reached me 1st.years later i began a serious "working of the steps".through that serious work i did undergo a "profound personality change" which has served me quite well.if a person can accept the sometimes old-fashioned language there is really a lot here that can be profoundly helpful.AA is not the only answer for the alocoholicbut it has worked for millions so should at least be taken seriously.In my experience many things heard in an AA meeting do not reflect the premises in this book.So a person has to be smart.read the book, listen at meetings(if you go) but think, read & contemplate.After 20 years of sobriety i return to this book over & over.Not only for a deep comfort but for inspiration & guidance.one last thought: i don't take myself or "everything" so seriously, but i do take my sobriety seriously.good luck - it is a life "second to none".

62 Years of Proven Effectiveness
While AA may not be the answer for everyone, it is for many thousands of alcoholics and others.12-Step programs are popular in many places now, based on the Steps to recovery first written in this book.Alcoholics Anonymous has never been on any best seller list, but it has sold over 20 million copies.This is good reason to take seriously what the authors say in this book.I can add my personal testimonial:the 12 Steps have changed my life for the better.Given the choice between potential death or 12 Steps, I will take the Steps!

a way of life that works
this book gave me a working relationship with power grater than myself ,that deepens day bye day. I owe my life to this book. ... Read more

Book Description
It's more than a book.It's a way of life.Alcoholics Anonymous-the Big Book-has served as a lifeline to millions worldwide.First published in 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous sets forth cornerstone concepts of recovery from alcoholism and tells the stories of men and women who have overcome the disease.With publication of the second edition in 1955, the third edition in 1976, and now the fourth edition in 2001, the essential recovery text has remained unchanged while personal stories have been added to reflect the growing and diverse fellowship.The long-awaited fourth edition features 24 new personal stories of recovery.Key features and benefits ·the most widely used resource for millions of individuals in recovery ·contains full, original text describing AA program ·updated with 24 new personal stories ... Read more

Customer Reviews (73)

AA program saves lives
The AA program has saved thousands of people from a life of hopeless addiction.This book lays out the whole program of AA.If you follow it, you will get better.Not only will you be able to stop drinking but your life will improve dramatically.It works if you work it!

Saved my life
I was 21 when I got sober. At the time, I thought the book was outdated and could never help me. Somebody suggested that I go to a meeting to study this book, I drug my heels all the way there--but, five years later I'm still sober and that book study meeting is my homegroup.

This book has worked for millions of alcoholics. It's not the only way to get sober, but it's what's worked for me--for that, I'm greatful.

I don't understand the critism
I don't really understand the lengths I've seen people go to to discredit this book or the 12 steps in general. I am not a member of AA but I have a family member who was saved literally from the brink of death by NA. The changes in her and in her life have been nothing short of miraculous. If it was a 'cult' that brought about this change in her then I say Thank God for the 12-step cult, for it is truly a force of good.

If you think you have a drinking problem....
I'm a recovering alcoholic.This book saved my life.

If you think you MIGHT have a drinking problem, buy this book and read the first 164 pages.If you identify with what you're reading, then you might want to consider hitting a few meetings.

You have to get beyond the prose of the author.It's very 1930's.Since he knew it would be saving a lot of lives, he wanted it to sound really important.

Many like me read this book, and found that in many cases, it seemed like the book someone stole a story out of our own experiences.

It works if YOU work it
As an active, voluntary member of AA I must say that the program of recovery outlined in this book works *IF* you choose to work it. AA is not a cult, expects nothing in terms of finances and only SUGGEST'S a few very simple applications to lead a successful, joyous and sober life. AA is group therapy. It is a place for people to share their experience, strength and hope with each other so that they may stay abstinent from alcohol.
The "Big Book" opened my eyes as to how I was living. Reading the personal stories, being able to identify with the pain, the misery of alcoholism and the newfound hope has completely changed my life. I finally felt as if I were no longer alone. The 12 steps are only suggested and there is no need to believe in God at all. If you are an alcoholic or a family member or friend of an alcoholic I suggest you read this book. It is one of many solutions to tackle alcoholism and statistically AA has very high success rates. It works for some and doesn't for others just like everything else in life.
For those who don't think alcoholism is a disease, I suggest you write the American Medical Association and tell them they are wrong. Or feel free to bare witness to the blameless children, the destroyed marriages, the missed opportunities and the early grave that active alcoholism guarantees.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Recommending the latest
I also recommend For The Original Overeaters Anonymous Very Low Carbohydrate Food Plan: Greysheet Recipes. This is a beautiful book. I bought it because I'm on the very low carb food plan. It has great recipes. I really like the protein and vegetable recipes. I can never think of enough things to do with vegetables. Now I know what other people are cooking. I'm glad to learn more about phone and in person meetings. I never knew where the term "greysheet" came from. I have wanted to learn more about it for a long time.

Healing emotional hunger one step at a time
Before the image of an OA meeting being filled with obese people fills your mind ... think again. An overeater can be anyone... fashion model ... successful accountant in a size 8 ... fitness trainer ... midly plump dental assistant ... anyone. The causes and reasons are different. Overeating is not a lack of willpower but an emotional relationship to food that has someone not know when to stop. Eating is natural, overeating needs to be addressed so as to protect our very health. This wonderful "bible" for Overeaters Anonymous helps those in recovery work their healing one day at a time. Whether at a meeting, or in a personal inventory, or in working with a sponsor ... this contains elements of surrendering our will power to a higher power. Whether you believe in God or not, the notion of not having to do this alone is a welcome relief for many caught in a viscious circle of emotional medication through misuse of food. The concept of a higher power enables someone to be open to group support and feel the possibility of living a healthier way. This book is a program that is not a quick fix, a diet, or anykind of body makeover technique. What it provides is a way of thinking and living that addresses the root of using food as a drug.

This book is a lifesaver
Not much else to say, but that I use this book on a regular basis and consider it fundamental to my recovery from compulsive overeating. It's a challenging book and seems to grow in meaning as I grow in understanding!

Excellent
This is an excellent book for people who are addicted to compulsive eating. If you use the principles of OA in your daily lives, you will be able to stop eating compulsively and lose theexcess weight. ... Read more

Book Description
Originally published in 1952, this classic book is used by A.A. members and groups around the world. It lays out the principles by which A.A. members recover and by which the fellowship functions. The basic text clarifies the Steps which constitute the A.A. way of life and the Traditions, by which A.A. maintains its unity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

THE Manual on working the 12 Steps
Everyone working a 12 Step program - regardless of what kind (ie, AA, DA, NA, etc) needs a copy of this book by their side.Bill W. wrote this many years after the Big Book came out, and he wrote it specifically to help people understand and work each of the 12 Steps.And what a masterful job he's done!This book should be required reading for everyone, but if you're lucky enough to be in recovery, you've got the perfect tool for helping you to get the most out of the 12 Steps.

I loved learning that one of my biggest problems was that I was driven by a hundred forms of self centered fear, all stemming from two core fears: either losing something I already had, or not getting something I demanded. How true!This book is filled with gems and discoveries that would take a lifetime for you to learn.The good news is that you can read it in a few hours!

Again, regardless of the type of 12 Step program you are in, get this book and read it as you work your steps.You will always be grateful you did!

Michael Z, Author of The Wisdom of the Rooms "A Year of Weekly Reflections"

Another Good Book
A joy to read. Very informative. Twelve-step and twelve traditions, not just for alcoholics anonymous or recovery. Good for everyone.

Basically the best
Simply the best basic recovery and personal spirituality text of the 20th century. Universal spiritual principles explained in clear, concise language. This book is the basis for thousands of self-help, spiritual psychotherapy, and self-awareness works that came after. Wonderful, relevant & powerful spiritual philosophy of living one day at a time.

Skip it
.

Count me among the legion of AA members who think this book is a buggering mess.Bill Wilson wrote it while in the midst of a 5 year depression and it shows.Save for the essays on Steps 1 and 8, this book leaves most people more confused than enlightened.

I gave it two stars cause some of the Tradition essays have some good stuff if you're willing to wade into them.


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EXCELLENT
IT IS VERY HELPFUL TO READ A FEW PAGES OR A CHAPTER A DAY.IT WILL KEEP YOU ON A EVEN TRACK OF YOUR LIFE.IF YOU DON'T FIND YOUR ANSWERS HERE TRY THE BIG BOOK. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path!
Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob are co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the forward to the 3rd edition of the book by the same title it states: Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization. Neither does A.A. take any particular medical point of view, though we cooperate widely with the men of medicine as well as with the men of religion. Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate cross section of America, and in distant lands, the same democratic evening-up process is now going on. By personal religious affiliation, we include Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus and a sprinkling of Moslems and Buddhists. More than 15% of us are women. At present, our membership is increasing at the rate of about sever per cent a year. So far, upon the total problem of several million actual and potential alcoholics in the world, we have made only a scratch. Upon therapy for the alcoholic himself we surely have no monopoly.
In the forward to the 3rd addition it states: In spite of the great increase in the size and the span of this fellowship, at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, receovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic sharing experience, strength and hope. And finally, in the foreward to the First Edition it states: We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and wormen (1939) who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we hve recovered is the main purpose of this book. For them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary.

Cut your hair, take a shower, lose the punk clothes.
The truth is that a newly-sober alcoholic named William Griffith Wilson -- a down-on-his-luck former Wall Street hustler who put on airs of having once been a prosperous stock broker -- just sat down, in December of 1938, and wrote up twelve commandments for the new religious group that he and fellow alcoholic Doctor Robert Smith had started. Those commandments were simply a repackaged version of the practices of a cult religion that was popular at that time, something called "The Oxford Group", or "The Oxford Group Movement", and later, "Moral Re-Armament" -- a religious cult that was created by a deceitful fascist renegade Lutheran minister named Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman -- a nut-case who actually praised Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

Bill Wilson described the writing of the Twelve Steps this way:

Well, we finally got to the point where we really had to say what this book was all about and how this deal works. As I told you this had been a six-step program then.

The idea came to me, well, we need a definite statement of concrete principles that these drunks can't wiggle out of. There can't be any wiggling out of this deal at all and this six-step program had two big gaps which people wiggled out of.

Notice how Bill Wilson considered his fellow alcoholics to be a bunch of cheaters who will "wiggle out of this deal" if they can get away with it -- which Bill won't allow.

And note how Bill Wilson made himself the leader who was entitled to dictate the concrete terms of other people's recovery programs.
Also notice how Bill Wilson considered 'spiritual development' to be a business deal, with a contract that you can't wiggle out of, something like selling your soul in trade for sobriety.

Nowhere in the Twelve Steps does it say that you should quit drinking, or help anyone else to quit drinking, either. Nowhere do the words "sobriety", "recovery", "abstinence", "health", "happiness", "joy", "love", or "love", appear in the Twelve Steps. The word "alcohol" was only mentioned once, where it was patched into the first step as a substitute for the word "sin" -- Bill Wilson wrote,
"we are powerless over alcohol and our lives have become unmanageable",
instead of the Oxford Group slogan,
"we are powerless over sin and have been defeated by it".
And then the phrase "especially alcoholics" was patched into the 12th step as a suggested target for further recruiting efforts:
"...we tried to carry this message to others, especially alcoholics"...
(But regular non-alcoholic people were still fair game for recruiting into Bill's "spiritual fellowship"...)

The Twelve Steps are not a formula for curing or treating alcoholism, and they never were.
The Twelve Steps are not "spiritual principles" and they never were.
The Twelve Steps are cult practices that work to convert people into confirmed true believers in a proselytizing cult religion, just like Frank Buchman's so-called "spiritual principles" did.

1. The Twelve Steps do not work as a program of recovery from drug or alcohol problems.
The A.A. failure rate ranges from 95% to 100%. Sometimes, the A.A. success rate is actually less than zero, which means that A.A. indoctrination is positively harmful to people, and prevents recovery. Some tests have shown that even receiving no treatment at all for alcoholism is much better than receiving A.A. treatment:
One of the most enthusiastic boosters of Alcoholics Anonymous, Professor George Vaillant of Harvard University, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS), showed by his own 8 years of testing of A.A. that A.A. was worse than useless -- that it didn't help the alcoholics any more than no treatment at all, and it had the highest death rate of any treatment program tested -- a death rate that Professor Vaillant himself described as "appalling". While trying to prove that A.A. treatment works, Professor Vaillant actually proved that A.A. kills. After 8 years of A.A. treatment, the score with Dr. Vaillant's first 100 alcoholic patients was: 5 sober, 29 dead, and 66 still drinking.
(Nevertheless, Vaillant is still a Trustee of Alcoholics Anonymous, and he still wants to send all alcoholics to A.A. anyway, to "get an attitude change by confessing their sins to a high-status healer." That is cult religion, not a treatment program for alcoholism.)
The A.A. dropout rate is terrible. Most people who come to A.A. looking for help in quitting drinking are appalled by the narrow-minded atmosphere of fundamentalist religion and faith-healing. The A.A. meeting room has a revolving door. The therapists, judges, and parole officers (many of whom are themselves hidden members of A.A. or N.A.) continually send new people to A.A., but those newcomers vote with their feet once they see what A.A. really is. Even A.A.'s own triennial surveys, conducted by the A.A. headquarters (the GSO), say that:
81% of the newcomers are gone within 30 days,
90% are gone in 3 months, and
95% are gone at the end of a year.
That automatically gives A.A. a failure rate of at least 95%. But the GSO does not count all of those people who only attend a few meetings before quitting -- they don't qualify as "members". (That amounts to "cherry-picking".) If we included them, then the numbers would be much worse.

First there is the propaganda technique of "everybody's doing it": "AA or a similar Twelve-Step program is an integral part of almost all successful recoveries".
That is a complete falsehood. The vast majority of the successful people recover without A.A. or any "support group". It's what "everybody" is doing.
Then they use the propaganda techniques of use of the passive voice and vague suggestions: "It is widely believed that not including a Twelve-Step program in a treatment plan can put a recovering addict on the road to relapse."
It is widely believed by whom? And what do those unnamed people know? What are their qualifications? Are they doctors? Medical school professors? Or salesmen for a 12-Step treatment center? Why should we care what some unnamed invisible fools allegedly believe, anyway?
The authors also use the propaganda technique of fear-mongering: you will be "on the road to relapse" -- you will probably die -- unless you practice Bill Wilson's Twelve Step cult religion.
And then the fluff-headed Pollyanna attitude is outrageous: Just going to the wonderful A.A. meetings is supposedly all that is needed to fix some alcoholics.
But since A.A. has a zero-percent success rate above and beyond the normal rate of spontaneous remission, that cannot possibly be true

Excellent guide for working the 12 steps...
A long awaited guide to working the twelve steps of Narcotics Anonymous.At times can be repetitive (the questions); however, this is not such a bad thing when dealing with addiction!The guide is extremely thorough.A great guide written by addicts, for addicts, to working the steps with their sponsor in recovery.

Best recovery book for study available
This a great workbook for those recovering addicts wishing to recover from any sort of addiction .This book is a vital tool in working the steps I also recomend the It Works How and Why book because it is the other tool in the recovery of addiction. This book was written by other addicts who know about recovery

A "guide" to the 12 steps
This book can be a bit overwhelming at times, but so is recovery at times. I work the steps with my sponsor and depend on this book as a guide on how to work each step. It's very detailed, which I found very helpful, especially on the 4th and 5th step. Very helpful getting started on each step, and very helpful to deal with each step completely. Just remember, it's a guide, get what you can out of it, if your still confused, call your sponsor. This is my first time in a 12 step program, so this book has been a great help on what to do, having had no prior experience working the steps. ... Read more

Book Description
The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book

With New Powerful and Inspiring Personal Stories for the Year 2008

It's more than a book. It's a way of life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book Special Edition-2008
I am very disappointed in this book. Who published this material?
Without a copyright, author or publisher, we have no idea where this material came from. Without knowing the source, we need to be suspicious.
Anyone who is in a program of recovery must be able to trust the source of information they receive.

NOT THE SAME
This book is NOT the "same" Big Book.It is not published by AA World Services, and is not approved AA literature.

The 4th Edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous" is the current textbook for the new way of living found by millions of ALCOHOLICS.Please don't let the message be watered down!!!

NOT A.A.
THIS BOOK IS NOT PUBLISHED BY, NOR IS IT ENDORSED BY ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS IN ANY CAPACITY!

amazing Stories
I read this book, it's the same Big Book

but it has a lot of Powerful and Inspiring NEW Stories

I hope that these stories will help a lot of people to recovery

from Drug and Alcohol Abuse ... Read more

Book Description
We all experience times of hiddenness, when our potential is unseen and our abilities unapplauded. This book redeems those times by reminding us that though we often want to rush through these anonymous seasons of the soul, they hold enormous power to cultivate character traits that cannot be developed any other way! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

A Comforting Reality
Our culture works very hard to convince us that any moment we are not in gear and in the spotlight is a waisted moment. Alicia does a beautiful job of challenging this notion and giving meaning to those anonymous times in our life.

It is so comforting because when you are in one of those invisible times you need to be learning something important. That will never happen if we are focused entirely of getting "back into the game."

Patience
This book helped me be patient with who I am and what I am doing. Sometimes I like for things to go fast and God does not always work that way. I can choose to enjoy where I am and what I am doing as it is the only opportunity to do it, or waste it by being anxious for the future. It was suprising to see Jesus' hidden years from the Bible. I was skeptical to see if the material would be extra Biblical. It was not! She did great research.

Anonymous
Loved Alicia Britt Chole's insight through the scriptures of Jesus' hidden years.Made me know that I've not really had hidden years but years that have been viewed by Father God as "special and purposeful".I'm sure I will read thei book over and over and will treasure it always.

A deeply spiritual message of hope and inspiration.
Written by passionate Christian Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' Hidden Years and Yours is an exploration into the first thirty years of Jesus Christ's life, "hidden years" in that they passed largely unnoticed by the world. Yet those years spent in anonymity prepared Jesus for true greatness, allowing him room to grow and learn. Anonymous draws parallels form Jesus' experience that can be applied to one's own life, and to appreciate the value of each day rather than slide into anxiety and despair when one's goals are delayed or deferred. A deeply spiritual message of hope and inspiration.

Anonymous-Jesus hidden years
I loved the premise of book.
Good personal-side examples. This book made me want to read slowly and reflect on my own "hidden" obscure season

... Read more

Product Description
He’s a hiring partner at one of the world’s largest law firms. Brilliant yet ruthless, he has little patience for associates who leave the office before midnight or steal candy from his secretary’s desk. He hates holidays and paralegals. And he’s just started a weblog to tell the world about what life is really like at the top of his profession.

Meet Anonymous Lawyer: with a billable rate of $675 an hour. He’s also got a few problems that require attention. There’s The Jerk, his rival at the firm. There’s Anonymous Wife, spending money as fast as he can make it. And there’s the secret blog he’s writing, which is fun until someone inside the firm discovers he’s the author.

Hilarious and fiendishly clever, Jeremy Blachman’s tale of a lawyer who lives a lie and posts the truth is sure to be one of the year’s most talked-about novels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (48)

Very Funny Satire on Major Law Firms
This is something quite unusual.The author runs a legal blog which I guess has provided him with much of the material for this novel.Basically, the book consists of e-mails and blog entries, mostly from the central character who is a hiring partner at a large LA law firm.This most unpleasant individual unloads opinions on many of the staples of large firm practice:summer associates; regular associates; partner competition; the administrative and support staff; and how one gets ahead in such a competitive environment.I found it to be extremely hilarious at times (e.g., in reference to summer associate activities designed to hoodwink these innocent recruits). Like all good satires it has major grains of truth sprinkled throughout.The risk in writing satire is, of course, that the author will overplay the joke, and toward the final third of the novel there is an element of this as the focal point becomes competition between the hiring partner and another partner (and enemy) concerning who will become the new chair of the firm. I think anyone familiar with or involved in large firm practice will find parts of this book (if they are honest) to be a scream, but it does convey a rather unflattering view of large firm practice and folkways--at least in some firms.

Suspense and humor in same superb book
Anonymous Lawyer by Jeremy Blachman is a truly 21st century book that is stylistically unique. The hiring partner in a prestigious law firm sets up his own weblog, or blog--a form of Internet diary--to vent his workplace frustrations. The book is written in the form of the blog itself. It is interspersed with emails between Anonymous Lawyer and his niece, a law school student, and also between Anonymous Lawyer and various readers of the blog.

Under cover of anonymity, and using nicknames for his workmates (The Jerk, The Harvard Guy, The Suck-Up and so on), as well as disguising place names and minor details, he gives a blow-by-blow account of the intrigues, infighting, cynical manipulation, and power struggles within the firm. As time passes the website becomes ever more popular. Emails pour in from lawyers and associates who identify with Anonymous Lawyers accounts, and from those who think that they know who he is and which firm he is writing about.

Anonymous Lawyer becomes increasingly nervous about being identified, and confides his fears in emails to Anonymous Niece. Simultaneously he is becoming more deeply involved in a bitter power struggle with the new chairman of the firm. Finally his anonymity is penetrated by one of his colleagues, who also offers to help him in his political manueverings--at a price. The situation eventually explodes.

This is a book that is extraordinarily clever in its execution. It is a real page-turner, with both suspense and hilarious humor. It captures in a powerful way some of the unique social aspects of the information age, such as the `globalisation' of private life and personal trivia through Internet weblogs. The all-pervasiveness of email is wonderfully captured in particular. For example: the boss having a heart attack `live' on email, or the ridiculous `there'll be an email, but I'm calling around to tell you first, as a courtesy.'

Anonymous Lawyer is a refreshing read.

Armchair Interviews says: A genuinely funny and unique book.

Perhaps some day this author will apprehend the greatness of our legal system
Mr. Blachman has clearly not spent enough time in big firms to appreciate their salutary effects on the human spirit, and the great benefits to society imparted by our legions of industrious lawyers, each doing his or her part so that the great Spirit of Justice might prevail in our land.

Perhaps it is too much to expect of a youngling lawyer, to apprehend the Adam Smith-like genius of our legal system, in which the strenuous -- nay, heroic -- efforts of tens of thousands of our best and brightest to expend their best years billing as many hours as humanly possible, so as to maximize their chances to grab the pot o' gold of a cherished partnership, paradoxically result in judicial outcomes that, on a larger scale, maximize justice and the common social good.

This is a theory that I will be amplifying in my own forthcoming book, "Why Lawyers Are Good for Us All," sponsored by the ABA and the Association of American Law Schools.

Sure, Mr. Blachman can be side-splittingly funny in his parody of big-firm life, but beneath the humor there is the desperate, spiritual emptiness of a man who, in his youthful impatience, does not yet appreciate how much his profession has done for humanity.He may ridicule partners like Anonymous Lawyer as narcissistic monsters, but one day he will see that they uphold great traditions that define what is best, and who deserves the greatest rewards, of our brave, new meritocracy.

Mr. Blachman is, apparently, a newly-minted attorney from the Harvard Law School.His jejune sense of satire will eventually give way, like fine wine as it ages, to a more mature understanding of the subtle and exquisite beauty, the ineffable and lasting contribution to human progress, of the magnificent legal edifice that lets justice roll down upon us like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

As he throws himself upon the gears of the legal machinery to which he has dedicated his life, and the talent and energy of his gifted youth is ground down to the fine dust of the wisdom of experience, I am sure we can look forward in coming years to more thoughtful paeans to his noble profession than this entertaining but ultimately nihilist screed.

Too funny!!!! So true....
I thought this was highly entertaining.I hated the main character, but he was funny and freshingly honest.The only reason it is getting 4 rather than 5 stars was the audio book version left a bit to be desired because of all the To and From and techno speak.

Laughing All the Way to the Bank -- With MY Candy
This is one of the funniest books I've read this year. Sure, the whole "partner-who-wants-to-be-chairman" storyline of the book was a good one--but what kept me glued to the pages of ANONYMOUS LAWYER for four straight hours was the fact that I couldn't stop laughing.

Two paralegals chatting incessantly? Easy solution--punch one of the them in the face. Anonymous Daughter getting fat? Easy enough to solve--let Anonymous Wife take her in for liposuction. My favorite scene from the entire book, though, has to be this one:

"We had a student (intern) last summer who kept kosher. Or at least that's what she said. But anytime she got offered lunch at someplace exceptional, suddenly she wasn't kosher anymore. You asked her to go to a cheap Indian place down the street, oh, she can't, she's kosher. But if you wanted to drive up the coast for a long lunch at Nobu in Malibu, perfect, she'd eat anything. She'd eat raw shrimp wrapped in bacon with a glass of milk, off the naked stomach of a Palestinian, on Yom Kippur, if you told her it was expensive."

And it's lines like that that make the fictional blog of Anonymous Lawyer at the heart of the story both funny, realistic, sarcastic, and brutally honest. Oh, and the fact that the author, Jeremy Blachman, really does write the anonymous lawyer blog (anonymouslawyer dot blogspot dot com).

Wonderful read!
... Read more

Book Description
Each section of this book focuses on one of 33 proven ideas for staying drug-free, such as seeking professional help, using meditation, attending support groups, and praying. An excellent introduction to understanding life in recovery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

So Many Ways to Stay Sober
This is an excellent resource for those both in recovery and for those who should be (are willing to stop but who are struggling). It offers so many tools for finding the relief from addiction and clearly lays out the consequences of relapsing. A great resource.

Michael Z, Author The Wisdom of the Rooms A Year of Weekly Reflections

Helpful
Put in precise wording, this book outlines exactly what the consequences would be if a person relapses into drug use.It also tells the steps to take to overcome falling back into old patterns.It is helpful not only to one who uses(or used)drugs but also to family members who have been involved with a user.I highly recommend this quick read. ... Read more

Book Description
The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book - Special Edition

With New Powerful and Inspiring Personal Stories for the Year 2007

It's more than a book. It's a way of life.

Alcoholics Anonymous-the Big Book-has served as a lifeline to millions worldwide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Shoddy Copy
This book doesn't do justice to the program of recovery prescribed the big book of Alchoholics Anonymous.
The editing's terrible and one of the saving grace's of the big book of Alchoholics Anonymous is that the first 164 pages have remained the same. Guess what? THEY'RE NOT THE SAME HERE! The page formatting is terrible. It's great to be told by your sponsor to go to page 21 and read of the real alcoholic. You can't do this with this book. Do yourself a favour and get the real one.

get the real thing
Save your money, buy the real thing, printed by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
It is cheap, too, but the "stories" are real recovering alkies, not rehab just-recovered types, ( at least one story is even written by a non alcoholic).
The Lois history page is inaccurate, also.

This is NOT the official Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
This does the alcoholic who still suffers a grave disservice. The stories omitted from this un-official and dangerous edition (text is missing) are the culmination of much work from the members of Alcoholics Anonymous to benefit alcoholics. To arrogantly revise and omit the official works that are tried and true and have helped millions recover, without the sanction of the unity of AA toys with peoples' lives that are at stake.

Do NOT buy this book, but DO get the official AA Big book from your local AA chapter or Alcoholics Anonymous World Services.

Bogus Book
This is NOT A.A. General Service Conference approved literature! To use the A.A. name on this product is misleading at best and criminal at worst. Total ripoff!

Sloppy Editing
Although the basic content is here, there are so many typographical errors and missing words to make this almost seem like a fake copy of any original that someone did to try to make some extra money.

The one redeeming feature of this volume are the updated stories for 2007 that are always interesting and inspirational.

If you are considering buying this edition for your main AA reference, I would strongly recommend against buying it. I would suggest either the standard hardcopy version or the pocket sized soft cover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Codependence Through a 12 Step Lens
Written anonymously by veterans of the "CoDA" 12 Step program that began in the late 1980s, the CoDA "big book" is strongly influenced by and in line with the object relations theory of psychodynamic and attachment theory pros like Harry Stack Sullivan, Donald Winnicott, Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion, Heinz Kohut, Otto Kernberg, William Meissner, Lorna Benjamin, John Bowlby and Diana Baumrind.

It's also a downstream product of the thinking of the "family systems" people like Gregory Bateson, Paul Watzlawick, Murray Bowen, Don Jackson, Jay Haley, Nat Ackerman, Salvador Minuchin, Virginia Satir and Cloe Madanes.

CoDA as a movement evolved from the lay-market interpretations of object relations and family systems by writers like AA's Bill Wilson, NA's Jimmy Kannon, "interpersonal games theorists" like Eric Berne and Thomas Harris, Janet Woititz, Anne Wilson Schaef, Claudia Black, Pia Mellody, and of course, journalist-cum-counselor Melody Beattie. Beattie's and Mellody's presence is all over the place here, but in producing their own text, the recovering co-dependents took the step into full autonomy, a highly significant issue in ego function remediation.

CA's organization will be familiar to those with previous 12 Step experience. There's a 119-page "orientation" and presentation of Wilson's original 12 Steps as re-structured to target interpersonal pathology long the graphic lines developed by Stephen Karpman in his famed "drama triangle." (Used in conjunction with the CA principles, the KDT is a -powerful- interpersonal reconstructive therapy tool.) The orientation is then followed by 445 pages of highly dramatic and often emotionally reactivating personal stories. As they do in Wilson's -Alcoholics Anonymous-, the stories address the matters of identification and utilization of the 12 Step -program- of ego reconstruction as applied to KDT polarities of Rescue (Control), Victim (Scapegoat) and Persecute (Abuse).

While I do not find the book to be a "complete package," CA may be every bit as effective as Wilson's remarkable work or Kannon's (et al) -Narcotics Anonymous- at setting the wheels of recovery in motion. It is surely as fundamental as Mellody's -Facing Codependence- (1989), and Beattie's seminal -Codependent No More- (1987), -Beyond Codependency- (1989) and Codependents' Guide to the Twelve Steps (1990). CA may also be as useful to professionals as Cermak's step-by-step, treatment organizing -Diagnosing and Treating Co-Dependence- (1986).

It seems useful to add that while CA is pretty close to state of the art for lay literature on the topic into the mid-1990s, it is not up to the standards of 2006's -Adult Children of Alcoholics-, which explores pretty much all of CA's territory and quite a bit more, albeit with somewhat less high drama and hyper-stimulation and more empirically verified methodology.

That said, many recovering codependents (and "adult children") may be overwhelmed by the drama and "deep traumatic memory processing" style that remains popular in the 4th Step work set forth by these 12 Step groups. Those with emotional "hair-triggers" will do well to work with recently schooled (or re-trained) mental health professionals to complete a safe journey through their childhood bramble bushes. Like -Adult Children...-, this may -not- be a book for those who need to take Risperdal or Geodon to manage their sensitivities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Do you wonder what changed?
Great to see this First Printing of the First Edition! There is a small, yet unmistakably important difference between the First Edition and the following 3 - that is, the Dr.'s Opinion was originally positioned starting on Page 1. Somehow, in the second edition, and the following 2, this chapter was moved to the xxi's (preface) and I am convinced that in doing so, the importance of the physical allergy has been lost. Early in Bill W.'s recovery, he was having little success helping other alcoholics achieve sobriety. He told Dr. Silkworth about his concerns, and "Silky" answered, "Bill, you have to hit them with the facts!" The message as we know, must have depth and weight! I am afraid, that by moving the Dr's Opinion into the preface, we have lost the "punch" - I don't know about anyone else, but I start reading on page 1, and often skip that boring old preface stuff! To any AA member, or friend of AA, please buy this book and point out in your groups and to your sponsees, that a clear understanding of the problem is the only way that the rest of the steps can be fully integrated. Let's get back to basics and see if we can't revive recovery rates back to what they were!!

FALSE ADVERTISEMENT
THE SELLER ADVERTISEMENT SAID THIS WAS A HARDCOVER BOOK.WHEN I GOT MY SHIPMENT IT WAS A SOFTCOVER.THAT IS WHY I ORDER THE BOOK TO GET IT IN HARDCOVER.I DON'T LIKE DOING BUSINESS WITH SOMEONE THAT DOSE THIS TO HIS BUYERS.I WOULD TELL PEOPLE NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH THEM BECAUSE YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU THINK YOU HAVE ORDED.

LISA CLEMENT

DICKSON, TENN

Hope
Some people have sobered up, merely by reading the Big Book. That start, and the HOPE offered in these pages, can be the beginning of a New Life, if the Alcoholic is willing to become honest, open, and willing to talk to others about his problem with alcohol.

The Big Book points out that alcohol is merely the symptom of a much deeper problem, an almost undefinable and non-specific spiritual malady which makes it impossible for the alcoholic to feel at ease with himself and others, without the ease and comfort found in a few drinks. The Big Book points out how most alcoholics are driven by several elements: FEAR, RESENTMENT [old angers], or the occasional feeling that they have been unfairly dominated by others [anyone can be, you know!]etc... and can be free of these by talking to other alcoholics.

The Big Book is an outline for recovery, never claiming to be a "cure" or a certain solution for everyone and anything. Some people have recovered from alcoholism, though, and the Big Book offers a suggested outline that seems to help a few.

The first 164 pages of the Big Book is the outline for recovery, which constitute the "program" of recovery. Then comes a baker's dozen personal stories, and the apparent miraculous relief that certain problem drinkers have experienced, armed only with the hope that there just might be another way to live without having to fight constantly with alcohol or the phenomenon of craving. Nor did they have to practice a constant vigilance, tight-lipped and white-knuckled. Instead, the alcoholics in these stories tell of being entirely relieved of such nightmarish scenarios, and are permitted by a Higher Power to live and love and enter into a new life.

The Big Book does not require a "belief" for recovery, nor that the alcoholic brow beat himself, punish himself, 'swear-off' or take an oath, or rely upon other people or human power, and neither does the Big Book demand affiliation with any organized religion, political view, ideology or organization. It is about a human malady for which there is not, nor ever has been, a cure. RECOVERY is distinct from notions of "cure". It suggests that the alcoholic talk to other alcholics about their common problem with alcohol.


The Big Book points out the difficulty with alcohol for women, who sometimes pass into oblivion, drinking alone, in silence, long before their family and friends realize that there was an alcohol problem, because they drank alone in some apartment.

The Big Book is about what you "do". What you do, is address Ego-centered living by using Twelve Steps that enable the alcoholic to find hope, serenity, and a sense of meaning to it all, where no other way seems to exist. The feeling of hopelessness, and the sense of being bereft of all power are removed by a Higher Power, and the alcoholic ends up finding a POWER, a miraculous POWER.

[The program of recovery does not belong, I might add, to any individual, or organization. In observation of which, I will add, that the program of recovery is a gift, and that no power on earth, neither man, nor institution, nor nation, nor any thing, can separate us from Sobriety, if it is the will of that Power to give us the gift. Neither disapproval, nor enmity, nor human ignorance, nor public ridicule, nor lack of popularity, can come between us and the gift of Sobriety, nor from the Power who gives it.]

Possibly the greatest tool is the one many people come to use naturally. It's called the UNIVERSAL PRAYER. It consists of three words. Can you say them? *** "GOD, HELP ME." ***

RECOVERY
TITLE

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

AUTHOR

Alcoholics Anonymous

World Services, Inc.

New York City

PUBLISHER

A.A. World Services, Inc.

Printed In the United States Of America

COPYRIGHT

Library of Congress

Catalog Card No. 76-4029

Sixteen printings from 1955-1974
Third Edition, New and Revised, 1976
Sixty-fourth printing 1999
Large-print edition 1990
Seventeenth printing 1999

This is the third edition of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous". The first edition appeared in April 1939, and in the following sixteen years, more than 300,000 copies went into circulation. The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more than 1,150,000 copies.

Because this book has become the basic text for our Society, and has helped such large members of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists a sentiment against any radical changes being made in it.

Therefore, the first portion of this volume, describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left untouched in the course of revisions made for both the second, and the third editions.
The section called "The Doctor's Opinion" has been kept intact just as it was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr.William D. SilkWorth, our Society's great medical benefactor.

The second edition added the appendices, the Twelve Traditions, and the directions for getting in touch with A.A. But the chief change was in the section of personal stories, which was expanded to reflect the fellowship's growth. "Bill's Story", "Doctor Bob's Nightmare", and one other personal history from the first edition were retained intact; three were edited and one of these was retitled; new versions of two stories were written, with new titles; thirty completely new stories were added; and the story section was divided into three parts, under the same headings that are used now.

In this third edition, Part 1 ("Pioneers of A.A.") stands unchanged. Nine of the stories in Part 11 ("they stopped in time") are carried over from the second edition; eight new stories have been added. In Part 111 ("They Lost Nearly All"), eight stories have been retained; five are new.

All changes made over the years in the Big Book (A.A. Member's fond nickname for this volume) have had the same purpose:
To represent the current membership of Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately, and there by to reach more alcoholics. If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-four personal stories and think: "Yes, that happened to me", or, more important, "Yes, I've felt like that", or, most important, "Yes, I believe this program can work for me, too".

Sixteen years have elapsed since 1939 (the original foreword) our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics.

Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man/women who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order.
But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with him is right, and great events will come to pass for you, and countless others. This is the great fact for us.

Abandon yourself to God as you under-stand God, admit your faults to him, and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the fellowship of the spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the road of Happy Destiny. May God bless you, and keep you-until then.

I would like to add that this book, the fellowship of A.A., and my "Higher Power", has saved my life from destruction.....

The first 164 pages are the heart of recovery, while the rest of the book is of stories that have really happened to other members. I know this might be a long review, but believe me the program has saved millions from institutions, prisons and death. Alcoholism is a disease, and it has no prejudice at all, it doesn't matter what color you are, what sex you are, or what title, or position you hold. Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers and people from all walks of life. It has torn threw families, and destroyed relationships over and over again. The only way is of complete surrender to a Higher Power, and the fellowship of recovery.....

Essential Reading for those on "the path"
For over 60 years, AA's "Big Book" has brought comfort and hope to millions looking for a way through the fire of alcoholic addiction. The reprint of the "First Edition" (the book is now in it's Fourth) allows a look at the origin of the program, as well as an opportunity to assess the changes that have occurred in the last 60 years.
The first 164 pages remain unchanged, as well as the inclusion of certain stories (Dr. Bob's Nightmare, among others). The first edition contains stories of "lower bottom" drunks than the more recent editions, but also makes clear that the foundation of the program, primarily untweaked since the founding, represents a true course of recovery for the interested.
No matter which edition of the book you own, reading the 1st edition gives a great perspective, from both a historical and a spiritual angle, of what arose from that first meeting of Bill W. and Dr. Bob. ... Read more

Book Description
"Haunting, cryptic photographs…fire the imagination. The images come with no explanation, only speculation, so we are free to let our minds roam wild." —Miami Herald

The wonderfully diverse images reproduced here include many of transcendent beauty and psychological insight, all with the magical, mysterious charge that comes from speculating on the circumstances in which they were taken. Novelist William Boyd, whose introduction identifies thirteen ways in which to look at photographs, explains: "The anonymous photograph…makes us ask, with new concentration, what it is about a photograph that elevates it above the casual and the banal…why some images move and enthrall and remain in our memories."

The number of collectors of anonymous photographs is growing exponentially. Robert Flynn Johnson has spent more than a decade on a personal journey of discovery through what were previously uncharted waters to find the works reproduced here. Reflecting themes that govern our lives—birth, death, love, war, travel, celebrity—these photographs are pleasurable and poignant, giving insight into the human secrets with which we can all identify. Over 220 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent thoughts-provoking book
Not for the fainted-heart though : images can be shocking, but always reflect some kind of humanity. Buy it, share it.

Truly amazing
I purchased this book after reading a glowing newspaper article about it and I couldn't be more pleased. Besides being beautiful it is a very thought provoking book with splendid comments by the author.

"What, in short, makes a photograph good?"
The answer to the question posed by William Boyd, who with Robert Flynn Johnson has gathered and commented on this portfolio of fascinating photographs, lies between the covers of this enthralling book.None of the photographers represented herein are known for their artistry: actually they are not known at all and hence the title. But the images in this book touch nearly every human emotion and do so all the more powerfully because their are 'incidental' glimpses at the human condition and the planet earth.

Photographs of the footprints of love, birth, war, death, joy, celebration, fantasy, surrealism, faith - all are here among the 200 odd images that fill these pages.Reading this volume is akin to revisiting childhood (both the good and the evil vantages) or rummaging around trunks of forgotten moments someone captured for posterity on film, moments that can bring chuckles as easily as gasps, memories that are both extremely personal and universally participatory.

But as with all fine photographic volumes, viewing the images is far stronger in impact than lumpy words, especially comments from an isolated observer.Read this book for the personal reasons that initiated these pictures and open your mind to the myriad experiences that constitute life.Grady Harp, January 2004

not enigmatic enough
This is a handsomely produced tome with some wonderful pictures. But sorting out images by theme robs the viewer of an element ofsurprise - the start one gets when discovering an oddly arresting image at a flea market, or tucked away in an old paperback. A moresuccessful collection of such elusive images is Other Pictures, put out by Twin Palms. It is one of my favorite photography books, period; serendipitous, like the best street photography; mysterious; totally unexpected. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A must have if you are an addict
This book will help you find out if you are an addict it will teach you the steps and tradition of this fine group of Narcotics annonymous

IT WORKS IF U WORK IT!!!
this book helped save my life, along with a Higher Power,a sponsor, and a 12 step program!!
thanks NA!!(9/17/94)

Excellent reading for Recovery!!
This book is a must have for the Addict. Recovery is possible by following simple program. This book could save your life.

This is a very helpful book.
I am a drug addict and I am 16 years old.I haven't read this cover to cover but I do know that it is a wonderful book and it has helped many of my frinds.I love you Narcotics anonymous. ... Read more

Book Description
Pocket sized red 3.5" x 5.5" softcover with:- First 164 pages of The Big Book, Dr. Bob's story, andthe Original Manuscript for Chapter 5.- Full word and subject index. More than 8000 pagereferences.- Phone directory of worldwide AA intergroups. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Portable Life Saver
The first 164 pages have saved millions of lives including mine.Small enough to fit anywhere, this book has come in very handy when the need was there.Great as a gift for sponsees. ... Read more

Book Description

The inspirational diet program for followers of Overeaters Anonymous.

Customer Reviews (2)

It helped a friend
I ordered this for a friend of mine. It's helped them lose some weight; but more importantly, it has has helped change their attitude about their relationship with food.

An exciting way to lose weight and gain friends!!
Overeater's Anonymous is still working for thousands of recovering compulsive overeaters. This book shows some of the ways it has helped many people lose weight and keep it off. ... Read more