"The Doctor's Opinion" was penned in 1939 by Dr. William Silkworth who detoxed people with alcohol use disorder in 1930's New York City, including several sufferers who would become AA pioneers. What was Silkworth's opinion? What did he think - beyond medical intervention - would positively impact outcome rates for people the inebriates whom he helped?
"In terms of 'recovery' the main emphasis in A.A. is almost always placed on 'The Program,' and a belief in God as we understand Him. But there are many A.A. members with years and years of successful sobriety that would disagree with this.
This idea that the key to success does not rest with a SUPREME BEING, but in the FELLOWSHIP has an interesting history in early Alcoholics Anonymous."
Bill Schaberg, author of Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA @ the 5th biennial International Conference of Secular AA (October 29th and 30th, 2022)
Eleven years of primary research on early AA has made author William Schaberg a go-to keynote speaker for scholarly commentary and myth busting about early A.A. history. At #ICSAA 2022, Bill Schaberg makes the argument that a very humanist - not just a supernatural - answer could be found in case studies of early 20th century chronic alcoholics who found lasting sobriety. "One alcoholic talking to another."
Schaberg looks at writings and lectures given by Dr. Silkworth in the years leading up to the book Alcoholics Anonymous and William Silkworth's contribution, "The Doctor's Opinion."
This recording proves to be an adventure, bringing early peer-to-peer recovery life with Q&A to follow.
Preview Writing the Big Book: The Creation of AA
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Secular AA is AA sobriety without the God-stuff, one of the fastest growing subcultures within Alcoholics Anonymous offering 100 agnostic/atheist/freethinkers AA meetings every day + regional events and the International Conference of Secular AA (ICSAA). More @ https://aasecular.org