The Influence of the Philosophy of Pragmatism on the Development of the Twelve-Step Program

This is the fourth article in a series of articles that explores “philosophy as a way of life” for individuals in addiction recovery.

In this article, I briefly explore the influence the philosophical tradition of pragmatism had on the development of the Twelves-Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The official starting date of Alcoholics Anonymous was in 1935, but it actually originated much earlier with its founder William Griffith “Bill” Wilson. Wilson was a seemingly hopeless alcoholic who made and eventually lost fortunes on Wall Street. He tried a multitude of techniques to control his drinking and failed every time. In November 1934, at Wilson’s fourth and final hospitalization — at the point of hopelessness and despair — he was visited by Ebby Thatcher, a “hopeless” alcoholic like him, who was sober.

Ebby Thatcher revealed to Wilson that he got sober after joining the Oxford Group movement as a result of a recommendation by Rowland Hazard, who was treated by Carl Jung. Rowland had traveled to Zurich, Switzerland in 1931 to enter analysis with Jung, after trying virtually every then-known cure for alcoholism. Shortly after his return to the United States, he relapsed. After his relapse, Rowland was told by Jung that he “was frankly hopeless as far as any further medical and psychiatric treatment was concerned” (as cited in Flores, 1997, p. 263). The only possible source of hope, Jung suggested, might be a “spiritual or religious experience — in short a genuine conversion” (as cited in Flores, 1997, p. 263). Jung cautioned him “that while such had sometimes brought recovery to alcoholics, they were… comparatively rare” (as cited in Flores, 1997, p. 263).

Only much later did Wilson realize the significance of the story. Ebby Thatcher also introduced him to the work of the philosopher and co-founder of pragmatism, William James. Wilson shared this information with his doctor, William D. Silkworth. Through the influences of Jung, Silkworth, James, and Thatcher, a series of events were set in motion that would help to create the foundation of the AA program. It was Silkworth’s influence that helped to lay the foundation of the disease concept.

On November 14, 1934, Wilson found himself in a hospital, being treated for a severe drinking spree. On this occasion, he had what is typically described in philosophical and religious literature as a mystical experience. Wilson said of this experience: “I now found myself in a new world of consciousness which was suffused by a Presence. One with the universe, a great peace stole over me” (as cited in Flores, 1997, p. 264). The day after Wilson’s mystical experience, Ebby Thatcher gave him James’s book The Varieties of Religious Experience. Wilson poured over James’s writing, and this helped him to understand and contextualize his own mystical experience and provided valuable insight for the future development of the Twelve Steps.

“Spiritual experiences, James thought, could have objective reality, almost like gifts from the blue, they could transform people. Some were sudden brilliant illuminations; others came on very gradually. Some flowed out of religious channels; others did not. But nearly all had the great common denominators of pain, suffering, calamity. Complete hopelessness and deflation at depth were almost always required to make the recipient ready. The significance of all this burst upon me. Deflation at depth — yes, that was it. Exactly that had happened to me” (Wilson, as cited in Flores, 1997, p. 265).

Kurtz (1979) went on to explain the historical significance that the above insight of Wilson had for the development of AA:

“This was the substance of what Wilson had come to understand; also important was the meaning he found inherent in it, for his moment was — taken together with his “spiritual experience” — the third of the four founding movements of Alcoholics Anonymous. One-half of the core idea — the necessity of spiritual conversion — had passed from Dr. Carl Jung to Rowland. Clothed in Oxford Group practice, it had given rise to its yet separate other half the simultaneous transmission of deflation and hope by “one alcoholic talking to another” — in the first meeting between Bill and Ebby. Now under the benign guidance of Dr. Silkworth, and the profound thought of William James, the two “halves joined in Wilsons’s mind to form an as yet only implicitly realized whole.” (p. 20–21)

Wilson intuitively realized that this “deflation at depth” was a crucial component of his recovery process. Consequently, acceptance and surrender has become a cornerstone of AA’s Twelve Steps to recovery. “One submits to the alien and becomes diminished through submission, one surrenders one’s isolation to enter a large unit and enlarges one’s life” (Wilson, as cited in Flores. 1997, p. 266).

All references in this article can be found in my book An Integral Foundation for Addiction Treatment: Beyond the Biopsychosocial Model.