Abstract
“The Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-step model was developed to help a specific population of white, middle-class, heterosexual men with a specific problem: alcoholism. As the program is applied to a wider variety of issues, with diverse populations, the model’s generalizability has been called into question. Its applicability to outgroups is, at best, uncertain. At worst, the addiction model and its notion of powerlessnesss could have serious negative consequences.”
I would argue this entire site is the product of radical skepticism towards the generalizability institutions engage in as they scale, which involves manualizing and operationalizing protocols according to metrics that are easily gamed. I don’t object to AA, I object to AA being treated as a neutral non-religious baseline when the basic steps ask you to find a God of your understanding, and plenty of alternatives exist that are never mentioned.