The trouble I have with 12-step programs is twofold. ... 1. The "Admit you are powerless" clause, particularly in conjunction with the "Higher Power" idea.
30 or 40 years ago, Charles Hampden-Turner (in, I think, "The Delancy Street Asylum") said, if I remember rightly, that many people with addictions think of themselves as being able to overcome the addiction, but don't bother. Only after they have made a major psychological shift do they bother. One way to make such a psychological shift is to give up and recreate. An anthropologist would call it a rebirth ritual. Also, Hampden-Turner made the point that the most likely people to make such a shift in the US culture of the time were people whose background was one or other form of Christian puritanism. That is because people in other US cultures tended to be more forgiving. -- Robert J. Chassell [EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l