Philosophy Essay

1. Settings:

I scheduled my AA meeting for Tuesday September the 18th at 10 p. m. at the Sobe Room in Miami Beach ( 1718 Bay Rd. Miami Beach. Fl. 33139 ) . When I arrived I noticed that the parking was far off from the existent meeting point. The meeting point was a church type construction with no sing or any other designation. The door was unfastened so I merely went in ; I waited about 5 proceedingss for the meeting to get down. The meeting took topographic point in a big room. and the chairs were organized in a hemicycle and at the forepart there was a sort of dais. In the Sobe Room all meetings are unfastened. so I didn’t have to put an assignment.

In the meeting were approximately 50 people. I guess because it was in south beach the bulk were immature people under 40. There were largely white males. followed by white females some Latin and some African Americans. There were about 15 people who were at that place for the first clip. I didn’t have to state why I was at that place but I did hold to state my name when everyone else did.

2. Doctrine

Alcoholics Anonymous ( AA ) was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. The primary intent of AA is to remain sober and assist other alkies achieve soberness. Although AA was founded on Christian rules and by white work forces. the organisation has evolved to be multicultural. AA doesn’t maintain a list of members’ names. but estimates that it has 2 million members who come from all backgrounds. The doctrine behind Alcoholics Anonymous is that alcohol addiction is a disease. Even if person stops imbibing. they are non “cured. ” The person is a retrieving alky.

The organisation follows a 12-step construction designed to assist the retrieving alcoholic have a healthy head and spirit. By following the 12 stairss in sequence. the retrieving alcoholic can better their idea procedures and work on mending their emotions.

3. Curative content

Even though AA is an independent organisation and is non based on psychological or curative research or intercessions. they have adopted some techniques of different theoretical theoretical accounts to assist the group members deal with their unwellness.

AA uses techniques from diverse psychological theoretical theoretical accounts such as existential philosophy. gestalt. and narrative therapy.

The existential philosophy theory invites clients to research their being and inquire themselves philosophical inquiries such as what is the significance of unrecorded. how do actions specify persons and to continually revise their set of values. AA uses this attack in its plan when they talk about the greater power. the intent of their lives. etc.

Gestalt theory sees each client as a alone single and provinces that any alteration made by the client has to be his or her ain determination. gestalt therapy is besides really confrontational. and in both features are included in the AA plan. AA states that the client will acquire better if and merely they truly want it and perpetrate to it.

Besides AA uses an attack similar to the narrative therapy by handling the dependence as an unwellness and as a job independent of the client. it externalizes it to seek to face it.

4. Impressions and significance:

When I arrived to the meeting the first thing that called my attending was the fact that we had to park truly far off from the existent site ( about two blocks ) I subsequently found out that it was intentionally made this manner so the members wouldn’t experience self witting about holding their autos outside of something that could be affiliated with alcohol addiction.

I entered the location. it wasn’t an existent church. but it had a church like construction. The doors were opened and most people seemed to cognize each other. before the meeting started some people said hello to me but no one asked any inquiries.

The meeting began with a shooting supplication called the repose supplication. which had me believing about some contradictions found in the AA doctrine since they claim non to hold any spiritual association but it surely felt a small inclined towards the Christian side. After the supplication everyone introduced themselves ( most people said their names and I’m an alcoholic. but some didn’t ) I said my name but gave no farther information. Then person proceed to speak a small about the AA plan and the 12-step construction.

After the salutation procedure a cat ( 27 ) stood up and went to the dais. He started by reiterating his name and stating he was an alcoholic. He said that since this clip he saw a batch of new faces he wanted to portion his narrative once more.

The adult male shared a really powerful narrative about his engagement with intoxicant. he stated he started imbibing around the age of 14. he said that at the minute he thought he was merely holding merriment and making the same that everyone else did. but that now that he thinks about it he realizes he was utilizing intoxicant as a get bying mechanism to cover with the confusion he was confronting about his gender.

He stated that he came out of the cupboard at the age of 16. that it was a really hard clip and that he was dating older work forces who encouraged him to imbibe. He continued speaking about what coming out had done to the relationship with his household members ; he described the clip as really painful and he cried while stating the narrative ( some of the people in the meeting cried as good ) .

He said that his female parent was really supportive since the beginning. that his younger brother had a difficult clip apprehension ; he said that he was a jog in school. so no 1 expected him to come out since he wasn’t “the homosexual type” . But that the existent issue was with his male parent. every bit shortly as he gave him the intelligence the male parent became really angry and he kicked him out of the house. He said that he screen of expected the reaction but thought that he would finally acquire over it. but that that hadn’t happened yet. and that it’s been 10 old ages and 7 months since the last clip he spoke with his male parent.

He said that he joined AA when he was 23. he make up one’s mind to go to a meeting because he and his spouse were holding awful battles while he was under the influence of intoxicant and he even tried to hit him one time. At that point the spouse threatened with go forthing him if he didn’t acquire intervention. He stated that it was the best determination he made in his live. He has now been sober for 3 old ages and 4 months.

Before traveling to the meeting I had many sentiments about what I would happen at that place. I was certain that most people would be people of low socioeconomic position likely many homeless and really angry people. I was afraid of being forced to talk and that they wouldn’t understand the ground that I was take parting in the meeting. I expected to see a batch of people praying. vocalizing. and embracing at the terminal. But the truth is that the world was really different to what I had in my imaginativeness. I think my perceptual experience was to a great extent influenced by films I’ve see about it. One thing that caught my attending was the first to recognize that most people in the group were people with occupations and life state of affairss reasonably normal. But largely I was surprised that people were a spot cold and distant. I was trusting that fogy were united and friendly to each other but non the instance.

For me the narrative of homosexual cat was really powerful and I felt good to see people around me reacting positively and nodding. One thing I did non like was the strong Christian influence of the plan ; I feel that excludes many people who do non experience identified with this tenet.

I think AA is a really powerful tool and can assist many clients. but I besides think is non for everyone. I would urge it to clients with maladaptive behaviours that do non hold the accomplishments to cover with daily jobs. I think that a individual has to be spiritual to some point to truly place with the plan. I would non urge this plan to adolescents because I think that there are other plans more suited for this population.