Twelve traditions

The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) define the relationship of an AA group to its members, to other groups, to AA as a whole, and to society. Together with the Twelve Steps , they form the Alcoholics Anonymous Ethical Program.

description

The Twelve Steps are an aid to personal progress, “The aim is recovery”, the Twelve Traditions are relevant for organizational questions in the “Aim is Unity” groups and the 12 service principles form the organization of the various ministries in AA “Aim is Service” notes on this.

The “traditions” stipulate, among other things, that

• each AA group determines its own affairs,
• voluntary work within AA serves exclusively functional (non-hierarchical) purposes,
• the group should be financially and personally independent (no outside donations),
• the group stays out of the public discussion and
• the group cooperates with other organizations (not belonging to AA), but is not organizationally linked to them.

To protect individual members and the community, members are also encouraged not to publicly disclose their participation and the participation of others.

Most AA members believe that adherence to these “traditions” is essential for the Alcoholics Anonymous community to continue and grow.

history

According to the author of the Twelve Traditions, Bill Wilson , these principles arose as the essence of the experiences of the various AA groups in North America during the first decade (1935–1945) of the rapidly growing movement.

The Twelve Traditions were published in a series of articles in Grapevine (the American AA membership magazine) beginning in 1946 and initially met with resistance from various groups in the USA. In July 1950, at the first AA World Congress in Cleveland, Ohio, they were finally adopted as AA guiding principles by the elected representatives of the AA groups. Since then, Alcoholics Anonymous has not changed its wording.

distribution

Most of the Twelve Step Programs that borrowed the Twelve Steps from Alcoholics Anonymous also adopted the Twelve Traditions almost verbatim from AA.

backgrounds

It has been argued that these principles are strongly reminiscent of the non-hierarchical relationships that anarchists , especially since the 19th century, have advocated. Wilson incidentally mentions this philosophical school in one of his articles on the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (1953) as well as in the book AA becomes mature (1957, German 1990, here in particular Peter Kropotkin ).

literature

• AA comes of age , Munich, 1988
• Bill W. - My First 40 Years. An Autobiography by the Cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous . Hazelden, Center City, Minnesota 55012-0176, 2000. ISBN 1-56838-373-8

Web links

• The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous in full
• The Twelve Traditions of ACA - Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families
• The Twelve Traditions of Al-Anon ( Memento of December 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• The Twelve Traditions of Nar-Anon in full
• The Twelve Traditions of the SLAA in full

• Official homepage of Alcoholics Anonymous in German-speaking countries

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Twelve Traditions of Al-Anon ( Memento of December 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ www.naranon.de - Start - 12 steps & traditions. Retrieved August 17, 2017 . 
3. ↑ The 12 traditions of the SLAA | SLAA Germany. Retrieved August 17, 2017 . 
4. ↑ The Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions of ACA - Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families. Retrieved August 7, 2018 .