Twelve-step Programs in Literary Works

Overview

The twelve steps are a method of recovery from addictive, compulsive, or otherwise hurtful behaviors. The steps are practiced by those who seek to recover from such behaviors. Those who, for example, wish to recover from alcoholism attend meetings of the group Alcoholics Anonymous and there learn about how to practice the twelve steps. There are many groups that follow the pattern established by Alcoholics Anonymous; other groups include Debtors Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous. The twelve steps are actions that the recovering person takes in order to recover. In summary (the exact wording may be found in Alcoholics Anonymous) the steps are first, that one admits powerlessness over the behavior; second, that one believes in the restorative capacity of a higher power; third, that one makes a decision to accept spiritual guidance; fourth, that one takes a moral inventory; fifth, that one recounts that inventory in full to oneself, to another person, and to one’s higher power; sixth, that one becomes ready to have one’s higher power remove one’s defects of character; seventh, that one asks one’s higher power to remove one’s defects of character; eighth, that one makes a list of those one has harmed; ninth, that one makes appropriate amends to everyone on the list; tenth, that one continues to practice steps four through nine; eleventh, that one prays and meditates; twelfth, that one helps others with the same problem recover. What has had a greater effect on literature, however, than the twelve steps themselves, are the jargon, opinions, and views regarding addiction that are common among twelve-step programs. The twelve-step perspective is expressed in Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step books.

The twelve-step perspective can be traced to the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. The text and primary reference of this support group, Alcoholics Anonymous, was published in 1939, and its companion piece, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, was published in 1952. The theories about alcoholism that are expounded in Alcoholics Anonymous have become widely and popularly accepted, even by those who have never heard of the book. Thus, literature in the twentieth century has been generally influenced by the twelve-step perspective on alcoholism and other addictions. Twelve-step programs have affected—by means of their own literature, by means of writers who have experienced twelve-step programs, and by means of popular accounts of their work in the media—literary portrayals of addiction in the twentieth century.

Central to the twelve-step perspective on alcoholism and other addictions is the concept that they are diseases rather than weaknesses of willpower. The twelve-step perspective on chemical dependence is likely to be focused on the addict’s inability to stop taking the chemical, the addict’s fear and self-hate, the addict’s depression and preoccupation, and the addict’s physical and mental deterioration. In contrast to literary portrayals of alcoholism and other forms of addiction that predate Alcoholics Anonymous, literary portrayals of such behaviors in the late twentieth century are not likely to portray them as moral failings, as faults to be fixed by love, or as quaint habits that others should forgive. The indulgent portrait of gambling addiction in Charles Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop (1840–1841), for example, is one that twentieth century readers are not likely to accept at face value. A twentieth century writer, as well, is not likely to adopt a sentimental view of alcoholism. John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat (1935) is conspicuous as perhaps the last work of a major writer of the twentieth century to uphold the literary tradition of portraying drunks as droll, carefree, clowns who are superior in some ways to the stodgy materialists around them. The work of twentieth century American writer John Cheever provides a perspective on alcoholism that is generally in accord with twelve-step concepts of alcoholism. Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend (1944) describes a three-day binge of a would-be writer; the novel advances the concept, advocated by Alcoholics Anonymous, that alcoholism is a disease. The novel was made into a film. William Inge’s play Come Back, Little Sheba (1950) also forwards the concept of recovery suggested by Alcoholics Anonymous. The film version had a significant effect in shaping popular attitudes on alcoholism and in encouraging involvement in twelve-step recovery programs. Continuing publication of fiction about alcoholism and twelve-step recovery programs show that twelve-step programs affect literature. Nicole Jefford’s “Hearts of Glass” is a study of rehabilitation among women. L. Hugh’s “The Meeting,” adopts a similar perspective from a masculine point of view. The twelve-step perspective plays a role in the work of John Berryman, who attended twelve-step meetings and who wrote about his experiences in his poetry and in his autobiographical novel, Recovery (1976), which is about his attempts to overcome alcoholism. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996) devotes considerable attention to the theme of recovery, describing life at a halfway house and poking fun at twelve-step jargon.

It is a tradition of all twelve-step programs, however, to maintain anonymity; therefore, few books with a named author directly treat the theme of recovery through the twelve steps. One book that does, however, is Gerald E. Goggins’ The Anonymous Disciple, which treats recovery from alcoholism. Instead, literature about alcoholism and other addictions written since twelve-step groups became widespread often contain sometimes-veiled references to twelve-step groups and the twelve steps. For example, a character in a Raymond Carver short story jokes about his “don’t drink” meetings.

A staple literary form of twelve-step literature is the testimonial. Twelve-step testimonials describe in a general way the experiences of recovering alcoholics and other addicts, noting how it was before recovery, how recovery was achieved, and how their lives are since recovery. These testimonials are intended to encourage other addicts in recovery. Although American literature is replete with stories of difficulty overcome (slave narratives, Horatio Alger stories, and so on), the recovery testimonial itself is unliterary in its sincere, explicit, didactic purpose. The twelve-step perspective and experience, however, has had a significant effect on twentieth century literature.

In the twenty-first century, twelve-step programs are so well known, that some writers reference them in the titles and even the structure of their novels. In Tom Piazza’s Love Rehab: A Novel in Twelve Steps (2013), the protagonist, Sophie, starts a twelve-step rehab program for women who are addicted to falling in love. In Farrah Penn’s debut young-adult novel, Twelve Steps to Normal (2018), a high school student named Kira decides to create her own twelve-step program to recover a so-called normal life after coming home to live with her recovering-alcoholic dad in the small town of Cedarville, Texas.

Bibliography

Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. 1939. 3d ed. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976.

Crowley, John W. The White Logic: Alcoholism and Gender in American Modernist Fiction. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994.

Gilmore, Thomas D. Equivocal Spirits: Alcohol and Drinking in Twentieth-Century Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.

Goodwin, Donald W. Alcohol and the Writer. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1988.

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1952.