PowerlessnessLiberating or Enslaving? Responding to the Feminist Critique of the Twelve Steps

An Examination of Addiction Treatment Completion by Gender and Ethnicity

“…In addition, the notion of power itself may need further exploration. For instance, Berenson (1991) discussed the difference between power over and power within.…”

“…AA itself is a program that was developed by Caucasian alcoholic men based on their own experiences of addiction. Thus, treatment programs that adopt this approach, which combines an understanding of addiction as a disease with a 12-step route to recovery, have been characterized as likewise representing a middle-class, Caucasian model (Berenson, 1991;Drabble, 1996;Rowe & Grills, 1993;Sandmaier, 1992;Saulnier, 1996;Smith, Buxton, Bilal, & Seymour, 1993). Although a clear improvement over earlier perspectives that considered addiction a problem of morality (W. R. Miller & Hester, 1995;Rhodes & Johnson, 1997), the blended model that has become popular nonetheless has its own problems.…”

“…Another criticism has been the emphasis that AA and traditional treatment programs place on the concept of powerlessness (Berenson, 1991;Covington & Surrey, 1997;Rowe & Grills, 1993;Saulnier, 1996;Smith et al, 1993). This emphasis on powerlessness may reflect the social status of the programs' developers.…”

Addiction, Power and Gender

“…Gregory Bateson describes the alcoholic as having adopted an unusually disastrous variant of 'the strange dualistic epistemology characteristic of Occidental civilisation' (Bateson 1972: 321), separating his 'self' or 'will' from his environment in an effort to exert control over it. French appears to be speaking of the same phenomenon when she lists the 'theorems of patriarchal ideology' (French, 1985: 304;in Berenson, 1991).…”

Feminist Perspectives on 12-Step Recovery: A Comparative Descriptive Analysis of Women in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous

“…Along with second-wave feminist contributions to addiction treatment, a critique developed of the 12-Step recovery movement (Berenson, 1991;Kirkpatrick, 1986). Some second-wave feminists grew concerned about what they perceived to be a patriarchal, 12-Step society that was increasing in female membership at the very time that feminism was enjoying its rebirth in the second wave.…”