Talking Oneself Sober: The Discourse of Alcoholics Anonymous By ...

Through these processes, the interaction expresses, reflects, and determines social relations and meaning specific to AA. Thus, the newcomer’s positioning to others could be seen as indicating reluctance to ‘surrender’. She was still fighting on her terms, seeking answers from others that she could then implement. Though her voice did reverberate with the voices of the others as she started out on a sustained, self-revelatory sharing episode, she ultimately resisted submersing her voice in a shared discourse and positioned herself as being separate.

Step 1 for AA members requires the admission of powerlessness, the abandonment of the view of oneself as the driving force in one’s life. The very act of surrender involves a shift in the way one aligns oneself to events and others; this in turn is reflected in a shift in discursive positioning. Usually, a newcomer enters the rooms of AA in silent bafflement with no agenda or plan, simply desperate to hear something that will help. The interaction between newcomer and more experienced members, as between all members, is about reconstructing coherence, meaning, and the self. As such, the interaction is dialogical in that it involves

We can note, therefore, that though AA meetings exist only for talk, it is apparent that not just any talk will do. It seems clear that an AA meeting is not the place to go if you want information or advice. When we think of language, it is often in terms of the exchange of ideas or information. To a large extent, this is what the newcomer wanted. However, it is also clear that the longstanding members present were not interested in such interaction and resisted becoming simply transmitters of advice or information ‘while in a meeting’. They were more interested in talking of their experiences and displaying themselves as alcoholics. In effect, they wished to use language to constitute meaning and to display who they were.