Big Book Audiobook
Big Book Audiobook - Preface
Big Book Audiobook · 30:35
Big Book Audiobook - Preface is a recovery audio transcript in the Big Book Audiobook series from Big Book Audiobook. This 30:35 talk is searchable with synced captions and centers on Alcoholism, Big Book, Sobriety, Meetings, Spirituality.
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This series of cassettes is intended to give a complete word-for-word recorded
version of the big book, Alcoholics Anonymous, including the following, the
preface, the three forwards, the first 11 chapters, Dr. Bob's nightmare, and
Alcoholics Anonymous number three.
Preface. This is the third edition of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. The first
edition appeared in April 1939, and in the next 16 years more than 300,000 copies
went into circulation. The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more
than 1,150,000 copies. Because this book has become the basic text for our society
and has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there
exists a sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. Therefore, the
first portion of this volume describing the AA recovery program has been left
untouched in the course of revisions made for both the second and the third
editions. The section called The Doctor's Opinion has been kept intact, just as it
was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our
society's great medical manufacturer. The second edition added the appendices, the
directions for getting in touch with AA. But the chief change was in the section
of personal stories, which was expanded to reflect the fellowship's growth. Bill's
story, Dr. Bob's nightmare, and six other personal histories from the first
edition were retained. Thirty new stories were added, and the story section was
divided into three parts. In this third edition, part one, Pioneers of AA, stands
unchanged. Nine of the stories in part two, they stopped in time, are carried
over from the second edition. Eight new stories have been added. In part three,
they lost nearly all, eight stories have been retained, five are new. All changes
made over the years in the big book, AA members fond nickname for this volume,
have had the same purpose, to represent the current membership of Alcoholics
Anonymous more accurately, and thereby to reach more alcoholics. If you have a
drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-four
personal stories and think, yes, that happened to me, or more important, yes, I
felt like that, or most important, yes, I believe this program can work for me,
too. Forward to first edition. This is the forward as it appeared in the
first printing of the first edition in 1939. We of Alcoholics Anonymous are more
than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state
of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the
main purpose of this book. For them, we hope these pages will prove so
convincing that no further authentication will be necessary. We
think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand
the alcoholic. Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person,
and besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all. It is
important that we remain anonymous, because we are too few at present to
handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from
this publication. Being mostly business or professional folk, we could not well
carry on our occupations in such an event. We would like to understand that
our alcoholic work is an application. When writing or speaking publicly about
alcoholism, we urge each of our fellowship to omit his personal name,
designating himself instead as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Very earnestly,
we ask the press also to observe this request, or otherwise we should be greatly
handicapped. We are not an organization. In the conventional sense of the word,
there are no fees or dues whatsoever. The only requirement for membership is an
honest desire to stop drinking. We are not allied with any particular faith,
sect, or denomination, nor do we oppose anyone. We simply wish to be helpful to
those who are afflicted. We should be interested to hear from those who are
getting results from this book, particularly from those who have
commenced work with other alcoholics. We should like to be helpful to such
cases. Enquiry by scientific, medical, and religious societies will be welcomed.
Alcoholics Anonymous. Forward to Second Edition. Figures given in this forward
describe the fellowship as it was in 1955. Since the original forward to this
book was written in 1939, a wholesale miracle has taken place. Our earliest
printing voiced the hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find the
fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. Already continues the
early text, twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities.
Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the
presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In space, Alcoholics Anonymous
has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000
recovered alcoholics. Groups are to be found at each of the United States and
all the provinces of Canada. AA has flourishing communities in the British
Isles, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Alaska,
Australia, and Hawaii. All told, promising beginnings have been made in some 50
foreign countries and US possessions. Some are just now taking shape in Asia.
Many of our friends encourage us by saying that this is but a beginning.
Only the augury of a much larger future ahead. The spark that was to flare into
the first AA group was struck at Akron, Ohio in June 1935 during a talk between
a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker
had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following
a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford
groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William
D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less
than a medical saint by AA members and whose story of the early days of our
society appears in the next pages. From this doctor, the broker had learned
the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of
the Oxford groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory,
confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness
to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.
Prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many
alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic,
but he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself.
The broker had gone to Akron on a business venture, which had collapsed,
leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again.
He suddenly realized that in order to save himself, he must carry his message
to another alcoholic. That alcoholic turned out to be the Akron friend.
This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma,
but had failed. But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism
and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady
with a willingness he had never before been able to muster.
He sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950.
This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no non-alcoholic could.
It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another,
was vital to permanent recovery. Hence, the two men set to work almost frantically
upon alcoholics arriving in the ward of the Akron City Hospital.
Their very first case, a desperate one, recovered immediately and became A.A. number three.
He never had another drink. This work at Akron continued through the summer of 1935.
There were many failures, but there was an occasional heartening success.
When the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935,
the first A.A. group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time.
By late 1937, the number of members having substantial sobriety time behind them
was sufficient to convince the membership that a new light had entered the dark world
of the alcoholic. A second small group had promptly taken shape at New York.
And besides, there were scattered alcoholics who had picked up the basic ideas in Akron or New
York and were trying to form A.A. groups in other cities. It was now time, the struggling
groups thought, to place their message and unique experience before the world.
This determination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume.
The membership had then reached about 100 men and women. The fledgling society, which had been
nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous from the title of its own book.
The flying blind period ended, and A.A. entered a new phase of its pioneering time.
With the appearance of the new book, a great deal began to happen.
Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the noted clergyman, reviewed it with approval in the fall of 1939,
Fulton Hoursler, then editor of Liberty, printed a piece in his magazine called Alcoholics and God.
This brought a rush of 800 frantic inquiries into the little New York office,
which meanwhile had been established. Each inquiry was painstakingly answered.
Pamphlets and books were sent out. Businessmen traveling out of existing groups were referred to
these prospective newcomers. New groups started up, and it was found to the astonishment of everyone
that A.A.'s message could be transmitted in the mail as well as by word of mouth.
By the end of 1939, it was estimated that 800 alcoholics were on their way to recovery.
In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave a dinner for many of his friends
to which he invited A.A. members to tell their stories. News of this got on the world wires,
inquiries poured in again, and many people went to the bookstores to get the book
Alcoholics Anonymous. By March 1941, the membership had shot up to 2,000.
Then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post
and placed such a compelling picture of A.A. before the general public
that alcoholics in need of help really deluged us. By the close of 1941, A.A. numbered 8,000 members.
The mushrooming process was in full swing. A.A. had become a national institution.
Our society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period.
The test that it faced was could these large numbers of erstwhile erratic alcoholics
successfully meet and work together? Would there be quarrels over membership,
leadership, and money? Would there be strivings for power and prestige?
Would there be schisms which would split A.A. apart?
Soon A.A. was beset by these very problems on every side and in every group.
But out of this frightening and at first disrupting experience,
the conviction grew that A.A.s had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify
fellowship or pass off the scene. As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic
could live, so we had to evolve the principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could
survive and function effectively. It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded
from our society, that our leaders might serve but never govern, that each group was to be
autonomous, and there was to be no professional class of therapy. There would be no fees or dues.
Our expenses were to be met by our own voluntary contributions.
There was to be the least possible organization, even in our service centers.
Our public relations were to be based upon attraction rather than promotion.
It was decided that all members ought to be anonymous at the level of press, radio, TV,
and films, and in no circumstances should we give endorsements, make alliances,
or enter public controversies. This was a substance of A.A.'s 12 traditions,
which are stated in full on page 564 of this book. Though none of these principles had the
force of rules or laws, they had become so widely accepted by 1950 that they were confirmed
by our first international conference held at Cleveland.
Today, the remarkable unity of A.A. is one of the greatest assets that our society has.
While the internal difficulties of our adolescent period were being ironed out,
public acceptance of A.A. grew by leaps and bounds. For this, there were two principal reasons.
The large numbers of recoveries and reunited homes. These made their impressions everywhere.
Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way,
25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A.
showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few A.A. meetings and at first decided they didn't
want the program, but great numbers of these, about two out of three, began to return as time
passed. Another reason for the wide acceptance of A.A. was the administration of friends,
friends in medicine, religion, and the press, together with innumerable others who became
our able and persistent advocates. Without such support, A.A. could have made only the slowest
progress. Some of the recommendations of A.A.'s early medical and religious friends will be found
further on in this book. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization. Neither does A.A.
take any particular medical point of view, though we cooperate widely with the men of medicine,
well, as with the men of religion. Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate
cross-section of America. And in distant lands, the same democratic evening-up process
is now going on. By personal religious affiliation, we include Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus,
and a sprinkling of Muslims and Buddhists. More than 15% of us are women. At present,
our membership is increasing at the rate of about 7% a year. So far, upon the total problem of
several million actual and potential alcoholics in the world, we have made only a scratch.
In all probability, we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of the alcohol
problem in all of its ramifications. Upon therapy for the alcoholic himself,
we surely have no monopoly. Yet it is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer
may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the high road to a
new freedom. Forward to third edition. By March 1976, when this edition went to the printer,
the total worldwide membership of Alcoholics Anonymous was conservatively estimated at
more than 1 million, with almost 28,000 groups meeting in over 90 countries.
Surveys of groups in the United States and Canada indicate that AA is reaching out not only to more
and more people, but to a wider and wider range. Women now make up more than one-fourth of the
membership. Among newer members, the proportion is nearly one-third. 7% of the AA surveyed are
less than 30 years of age. Among them, many in their teens. The basic principles of the AA
program, it appears, hold good for individuals with many different lifestyles, just as the
program has brought recovery to those of many different nationalities. The 12 steps that summarize
the program may be called Los Dos Eposos in one country, La Duse Top in another,
but they trace exactly the same path to recovery that was blazed by the earliest
members of Alcoholics Anonymous. In spite of the great increase in the size and the span of
this fellowship, at its core, it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world,
recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience,
strength, and hope. The footnotes on this page tell us that in 1978, more than 30,000
groups are meeting in over 90 countries. And in 1978, about one-third of the membership
is composed of women, and 11% are 30 and under.
The Doctor's Opinion
We of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the reader will be interested in the medical estimate
of the plan of recovery described in this book. Convincing testimony must surely come from medical
men who have had experience with the sufferings of our members and have witnessed our return to
health. A well-known doctor, chief physician at a nationally prominent hospital specializing in
Alcoholic and Drug Addiction, gave Alcoholics Anonymous this letter. To whom it may concern,
I have specialized in the treatment of alcoholism for many years.
In late 1934, I attended a patient who, though he had been a competent businessman of good earning
capacity, was an alcoholic of a type I had come to regard as hopeless. In the course of his third
treatment, he acquired certain ideas concerning a possible means of recovery. As part of his
rehabilitation, he commenced to present his conceptions to other alcoholics, impressing
upon them that they must do likewise with still others. This has become the basis of a rapidly
growing fellowship of these men and their families. This man and over 100 others appear
to have recovered. I personally know scores of cases who were of the type with whom other methods
had failed completely. These facts appear to be of extreme medical importance. Because of the
extraordinary possibilities of rapid growth inherent in this group, they may mark a new epoch in the
world of alcoholism. These men may well have a remedy for thousands of such situations.
You may rely absolutely on anything they say about themselves. Very truly yours,
William D. Silkworth, M.D. The physician who at our request gave us this letter has been kind
enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. In this statement,
he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe, that the body of the
alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not
control our drinking just because we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full
flight from reality or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some
extent, in fact to a considerable extent with some of us, but we are sure that our bodies
were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this
physical factor is incomplete. The doctor's theory that we have an allergy to alcohol interests us.
As laymen, our opinion as to its soundness may of course mean little,
but as ex-problem drinkers, we can say that his explanation makes good sense.
It explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account. Though we work out our
solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane, we favor hospitalization
for the alcoholic who is very jittery or befogged. More often than not, it is imperative that a man's
brain be cleared before he is approached, as he has then a better chance of understanding
and accepting what we have to offer. The doctor writes,
the subject presented in this book seems to be of paramount importance to those afflicted
with alcoholic addiction. I say this after many years experience as medical director
of one of the oldest hospitals in the country treating alcoholic and drug addiction.
There was therefore a sense of real satisfaction when I was asked to contribute a few words on
a subject which is covered in such masterly detail in these pages. We doctors have realized for a
long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics,
but its application presented difficulties beyond our conception. What with our ultra-modern
standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not well equipped to apply the
powers of good that lie outside our synthetic knowledge. Many years ago, one of the leading
contributors to this book came under our care in this hospital, and while here he acquired some
ideas which he put into practical application at once. Later, he requested the privilege of being
allowed to tell his story to other patients here, and with some misgiving, we consented.
The cases we have followed through have been most interesting. In fact, many of them are amazing.
The unselfishness of these men, as we have come to know them, the entire absence of profit motive
and their community spirit is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and warily in this
alcoholic field. They believe in themselves, and still more in the power which pulls chronic
alcoholics back from the gates of death. Of course, an alcoholic ought to be freed from
his physical craving for liquor, and this often requires a definite hospital procedure
before psychological measures can be of maximum benefit. We believe, and so suggested a few years
ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy.
That the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class, and never occurs in the average
temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all,
and once having formed the habit and found they cannot break it,
once having lost their self-confidence, their reliance upon things human,
their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve.
Prothe emotional appeal seldom suffices. The message which can interest and hold these alcoholic people
must have depth and weight. In nearly all cases, their ideals must be grounded in a power greater
than themselves if they are to recreate their lives. If any feel that, as a psychiatrist directing
a hospital for alcoholics, we appear somewhat sentimental, let them stand with us a while on
the firing line. See the tragedies, the despairing wives, the little children, let the solving of
these problems become a part of their daily work, and even of their sleeping moments,
and the most cynical will not wonder that we have accepted and encouraged this movement.
We feel, after many years of experience, that we have found nothing which has contributed more
to the rehabilitation of these men than the altruistic movement now growing up among them.
Men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol.
The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot, after a time,
differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one.
They are restless, irritable, and discontented, unless they can again experience the sense of
ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a few drinks, drinks which they see others
taking with impunity. After they have succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the
phenomenon of craving develops, they pass through the well-known stages of a spree,
emerging remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and over,
and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change, there is very little hope of
his recovery. On the other hand, and strange as this may seem to those who do not understand,
once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed,
who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able
to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few
simple rules. Men have cried out to me in sincere and despairing appeal,
Doctor, I cannot go on like this. I have everything to live for. I must stop,
but I cannot. You must help me. Faced with this problem, if a doctor is honest with himself,
he must sometimes feel his own inadequacy. Although he gives all that is in him,
it often is not enough. One feels that something more than human power is needed to produce the
essential psychic change. Though the aggregate of recoveries resulting from psychic effort is
considerable, we physicians must admit we have made little impression upon the problem as a whole.
Many types do not respond to the ordinary psychological approach.
I do not hold with those who believe that alcoholism is entirely a problem of mental
control. I have had many men who had, for example, worked a period of months on some
problem or business deal which was to be settled on a certain date favorably to them. They took a
drink a day or so prior to that date, and then the phenomenon of craving at once became paramount
to all other interests, so that the important appointment was not met. These men were not
drinking to escape. They were drinking to overcome a craving beyond their mental control.
There are many situations which arise out of the phenomenon of craving,
which cause men to make the supreme sacrifice rather than continue to fight.
The classification of alcoholic seems most difficult and in much detail is outside the
scope of this book. There are, of course, the psychopaths who are emotionally unstable.
We are all familiar with this type. They are always going on the wagon for keeps.
They are over remorseful and make many resolutions but never a decision.
There is the type of man who is unwilling to admit that he cannot take a drink.
He plans various ways of drinking. He changes his brand or his environment. There is a type
who always believes that after being entirely free from alcohol for a period of time,
he can take a drink without danger. There is the manic depressive type,
who is perhaps the least understood by his friends and about whom a whole chapter could be written.
Then there are types entirely normal in every respect except in the effect alcohol has upon
them. They are often able, intelligent, friendly people. All these and many others have one
symptom in common. They cannot start drinking without developing the phenomenon of craving.
This phenomenon, as we have suggested, may be the manifestation of an allergy
which differentiates these people and sets them apart as a distinct entity.
It has never been, by any treatment with which we are familiar,
permanently eradicated. The only relief we have to suggest is entire abstinence.
This immediately precipitates us into a seething cauldron of debate.
Much has been written pro and con, but among physicians the general opinion seems to be
that most chronic alcoholics are doomed. What is the solution?
Perhaps I can best answer this by relating one of my experiences.
About one year prior to this experience, a man was brought in to be treated for chronic alcoholism.
He had but partially recovered from a gastric hemorrhage and seemed to be a case of pathological
mental deterioration. He had lost everything worthwhile in life and was only living,
one might say, to drink. He frankly admitted and believed that for him there was no hope.
Following the elimination of alcohol, there was found to be no permanent brain injury.
He accepted the plan outlined in this book. One year later he called to see me, and I
experienced a very strange sensation. I knew the man by name and partly recognized his features,
but there all resemblance ended. From a trembling, despairing, nervous wreck,
had emerged a man brimming over with self-reliance and contentment. I talked with him for some time,
but was not able to bring myself to feel that I had known him before. To me he was a stranger,
and so he left me. A long time has passed with no return to alcohol.
When I need a mental uplift, I often think of another case brought in by a physician
prominent in New York. Patient had made his own diagnosis and decided his situation hopeless,
had hidden in a deserted barn, determined to die. He was rescued by a searching party,
and in desperate condition brought to me. Following his physical rehabilitation,
he had a talk with me in which he frankly stated he thought the treatment a waste of effort.
Unless I could assure him, which no one ever had, that in the future he would have the willpower
to resist the impulse to drink. His alcoholic problem was so complex and his depression so great
that we felt his only hope would be through what we then called moral psychology. And we doubted
if even that would have any effect. However, he did become sold on the ideas contained in this
book. He has not had a drink for a great many years. I see him now and then, and he's as
fine a specimen of manhood as anyone could wish to meet. I earnestly advise every alcoholic to
read this book through, and though perhaps he came to scoff, he may remain to pray.
William D. Silkworth, M.D.