Blueprint for the Self-Help Group

It all started when a drunken man dialled a wrong number and talked to another alcoholic by mistake. Today, Alcoholics Anonymous is probably one of the most successful self-help organisations in existence. It has the minimum of dogma, but that dogma, is unshakable. Dr. Griffith Edwards* takes a closer look at the intriguing AA approach to alcoholism. To talk of designing a self-help group may seem almost a contradiction. Some might consider spontaneous generation to be here the only proper mode of creation and the origin of Alcoholics Anonymous was accident enough?a drunken man dialled a wrong number and found that he was speaking to another alcoholic. Spontaneous generation is, however, rare, and if we are to learn from the astonishing phenomenon of AA's success and encourage the establishment of similar organisations designed to cope with other conditions, then clearly it is of very real importance to know to what AA owes its success. Every new organisation must, of course, ultimately develop its own identity and solve its own peculiar problems, and in analysing AA we are looking for guidance rather than seeking a model to follow slavishly.