Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous: Fact or Fiction?

Question

There's been a lot of brouhaha over James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces," but did the editors of the Big Book ever fact-check Bill Wilson's stories?

Answer 1

One of the biggest lies is that the Chapter "To Wives" was written by Lois Wilson; it was written by Bill, pretending to be Lois.
"Our next thought is that you should never tell him
what he must do about his drinking. If he gets the idea
that you are a nag or a killjoy, your chance of accomplishing
anything useful may be zero. He will use that
as an excuse to drink more. He will tell you he is misunderstood.
This may lead to lonely evenings for you.
He may seek someone else to console him -- not always
another man." B.W. BB,pg. 111.
Bill was giving himself an excuse for his extra-marital affairs.

The very first line of the original Big Book, "We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body." is a lie. When the book was written, there were less than 50 people who managed to stay sober through AA.

Answer 2

The Book of A.A. was based on the 12 steps, which isn’t enough. The traditions helped. For some it's a good diet for sobriety to start.
The chapter to the agnostics is a huge lie (trick-whatever you want to call it)
Failed A.A. members weren’t (in my memory) ever mentioned.
The Book itself is written so horribly that any well read person is turned off pretty much from the start. I don’t think Bill Wilson recovered, I don’t think Bob Smith recovered.
A tall tale propaganda piece of -almost literature- that has destroyed lives. *To be fair, it has also helped lives.

If one believes these steps will take them to enlightenment, that the desire to drink will be no longer present, more power to them.
It could be the members of A.A. that help this book become even more of a falsehood, via translation, I don’t know. Which brings the question of another half truth, the principles over personalities. If this can be accomplished in a group of A.A. perhaps, that person may have something that merits a try, this act I‘ve never seen in true form.

Facts are evidence, that manuscript hasn’t sufficient confirmation to call it Truth. There was no fact checking, then, today we know of the untrue makeup this book reads. With credit to people who’s attention to detail of the unsupportable did fact check. Now we have the truth about much of this book, the stories, the way “it works”...

While there is some truths (stories) in this defectively written book, as in, Bill Wilson was a low down on his luck broker drunk who went to the hospital and took LSD later on.
To be a true story it MUST be true. It certainly holds no truth today,2006- those 50 people have nothing to reveal.

My answer is Fiction.

Side note- I think that Wilsons wife helped him get "sober" more than this so called group of drunks. That story seems true, although I may have seen that in that movie, not read it in the book of A.A.

Answer 3

The program works. Dr. Bill had no reason to make up any stories. We can all tell our own stories of some alcoholic family member or friend and their antics and problems but bill was a physician and looked at alcoholism medically.The proof is in the fact that AA's program works.

Answer 4

fact