Pragmatism of the Alcoholics Anonymous Fellowship

Abstract

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of people addicted to alcohol, who share their experience from the period of drinking, but who primarily have ongoing personal struggles with unstable emotions, a disintegrated value system, broken social ties, and other consequences of their old lifestyle. Participants of AA meetings provide mutual support at every stage of recovery and gain hope for improvement in their situation. Acceptance and implementation of the principles of the AA Programme promote recovery and improvement in all areas of life. It helps achieve physical health, emotional stability and better social relations, and creates a stable normative system. Joining the AA Fellowship is very useful for almost every member. The principles and objectives of the AA Fellowship were inspired by American pragmatism. The article presents the constitutive features of this philosophical trend, the inspirations which the founders of the AA Fellowship followed, and data supporting the usefulness of the 12 Steps of AA in recovery from alcoholism.