| Chapter 1: | A Meeting Observed |
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It asks if the AA exhortation to those who are struggling with the programme to ‘fake it till you make it’ has any validity; that is, whether one can simply talk and act oneself into sobriety or whether one must change one’s thinking and attitudes first.
On a different level, one of the main claims made in this book is that AA is an organisation that is constituted through its own talk. It also suggests that AA members construct themselves through talk and, in a literal sense, talk themselves out of self-destructive compulsions into a new identity. In a very important way, AA can demonstrate that being ‘all talk’ is not to lack substance or purpose. Indeed, a look at AA allows us to study the centrally important role talk has in the way we constitute social organisations, our social relationships, and our very selves.
A Meeting Curtailed
The following is a description of a small, problematic AA meeting in a modern cosmopolitan city. In order to deal with the incessant questioning from a newcomer, it had to close early. An analysis of why this happened demonstrates what is normative in AA talk and what subverts it. Those present, judging from accents, were British and American. As I had already been to many such meetings, the members were used to me and my presence made little difference to the meeting.
At the start of the meeting, there were only two regular male members present, Stan and Ted. They were joined by a young woman who was hesitant and unsure of herself, obviously a newcomer. The meetings more usually comprised 6–8 members, occasionally going up to 14 or 15. Stan, who chaired the meeting, opened it in the usual manner with the meeting preamble and readings. It was a discussion meeting and a reading with the theme ‘Learning to love ourselves’ was chosen. During the opening readings, a regular lady member, Lynn, made a late arrival and settled down as inconspicuously as possible. It was soon obvious to all present that the newcomer was crying quietly, for which she apologised suppressing both tears and nervous laughter.