If so, Susan Cheever has achieved it with her book "My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson: His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous."
She writes about many of Bill's character defects, most notably his nicotine addition, his infidelity to his wife Lois, and how he begged for a drink on his death bed. But she always comes back to his remarkable genius in founding AA, and how that organization has saved thousands, perhaps millions, of lives. Cheever makes a strong implied case that, due to his background and character, Bill Wilson was uniquely qualified to begin AA. So his flaws are not that significant. I came away from the book admiring Wilson but not really liking him, but also thinking that it's irrelevant whether I like him or not -- he was a great man.
From a literary point of view, I enjoyed reading about Bill's friendship with Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World. Bill experimented with LSD after he got sober but before LSD was made illegal. Huxley was interested in psychedelic drugs as well; he wrote about his experiences in his book The Doors of Perception. Both men believed that the drugs might be used to treat addiction. But beyond LSD, both Bill and Huxley were interested in how change is possible, both on the level of the individual person and society in general. Huxley called Bill "the greatest social architect of the 20th century," according to Cheever.
Cheever's writing is elegant and efficient. Here, for instance, is a beautiful passage she writes about Huxley and death:
Later, when Maria Huxley was diagnosed with breast cancer, both Huxley's acted on their belief in the friability of the line between the living and the dead. Huxley talked his wife "through" death, urging her toward the light as she gradually expired. It was a calm letting-go. In 1956, when Huxley was dying, he instructed his wife, Laura, to inject him intradermally with 100cc of LSD as he died and to talk him through it in the same way. She did, urging him on lovingly toward the light, hour after hour until his last breath.
9 comments:
That quote from Huxley is often trotted out by promoters of AA, but they are never able to point to any place in Huxley's writings where he said this or had any words of praise for AA. Indeed he seemed to have nothing to say on the subject. I cannot imagine Huxley having much in common with a man like Wilson beyond a shared enthusiasm for taking LSD. Their is a great deal of misinformation put out about Wilson, some of it due to his own self-aggrandising lies; for instance, he certainly was not a stockbroker, he did not have the necessary qualifications. He was an unqualified Wall Street tout who was involved in some vey dubious and even fraudulent transactions. He had a very poor level of education, but tried to pass himself off as an intellectual.
Hey anonymous - you will be telling me next that Jesus was just a carpenter's son whose parents had to get married because Mary was pregnant and that he was executed as a common criminal.
What a very telling comparison for you to jump to! I was not writing about Jesus there. I was discussing the provably dishonest self-aggrandisement of one William Griffith Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymousin repeatedly misrepresenting himself as having professional qualifications and attainments which he did not have. In plain English I am saying the man was a liar. The lies are perpetuated, partly through ignorance, by current AA apologists too lazy and too much in awe of the baseless myth that Wilson was a great man and a benefactor to mankind to check their facts properly.
I would happily apologise and withdraw my comments if you or anybody else can find documentary proof to back up the claims I have refuted. You might see Wilson and his movement as above reproach and exempt from critical scrutiny and want the entire world to bow down to him and his 12 step "recovery" cult without reference to historical truth, but I'm afraid you will find that in the world outside of the church basements where AA members congregate, there are a lot of people who retain the annoying habit of thinking for themselves and checking facts before they accept someone's claims as true.
Scientologists believe L Ron Hubbard was a nuclear physicist because that lie is told in their literature. He actually had exactly the same number of degrees and professional qualifications as Bill Wilson. None. Of course there is no shame in not being academically or professionally qualified. There is, however, shame in lying about it.
By the way, the "you'll be telling me next" style of debating is something people with brains grow out of after infancy because they realise that not addresssing the issues raised isn't an effective way of challenging them. But it's obviously the best you can manage.
Nice, Anonymous. I'm an A.A. guy, and it saved my life... yet and still, that contention has nothing to do with Bill Wilson's truth or untruth about his qualifications.
The best I can say (as my sponsor has told me) is, "Don't confuse the messenger with the message." The message is what counts and, frankly, I could care less how many degrees Bill W. had. The magic behind the message that he and Dr. Bob were able to address, though, exonerated any of perceived transgressions: that the core of alcoholism has nothing to do with alcohol. It has to do with getting out of self.
Enough of that digression, though. Even in dealing with such matters it is nice to have the facts straight and, when attacked by the clueless, level them as any quadriplegic with a big mouth. And such is the case of the "other Anonymous" with the Jesus-mouth... as if that's the standard to be reckoned with. I would go a step further with your accurate assessment of the "you'll-be-telling-me-next" mentality to say that it's very familiar to religionists (and overall knotheads like Bill O'Reilly).
Even though we may not agree about A.A. specifically, I respect your adherence to the facts and, most of all, your appreciation of the logical approach.
Steve L, remember AA is based on 'strict honesty'. Kind of an unsteady foundation as the founder had more than the usual problems with honesty.
Perhaps a case of "don't do as i do, do as I say"?
Anonymous, I respect your thoughts about Bill W. Whether or not they are true really makes no difference to me. All that matters to me is the fact that Bill W came up with a sufficient substitute to alcohol for alcoholics. Bill W created a program that teaches alcoholics how to live. That's what makes him a great man. He saved my life along with countless others.
As far as "do as I do, not as I say" goes, no alcoholic is honest when they first get sober. I'm not sure, but it seems as if you think Bill W was a dishonest active alcoholic when he created AA. Bill W got sober, then created the AA program as a way to stay sober. It still works today.
As a recovering alcoholic, the one and only thing that I absolutely know as fact is this: When done correctly, Alcoholics Anonymous works 100% of the time.
This is all that I need to know.
I can't intellectualize it and find reasons why AA shouldn't work.
I can see where you're coming from Anonymous and have no problem with it. I totally agree with what Steve L said and enjoyed reading these comments. I just wanted say that active alcoholics are not honest people. It's after initially getting sober and working the program that Bill W created AFTER he got sober that we alcoholics get honest. That's my thoughts anyway.
well said
no matter what kind of person he was the program works end of story
Bill W. invented a program, like so many others at that day, to have a new way of life that the masses of world could look at and say "I'd buy that for a dollar".
Just like the Oxford group he would go around looking for anybody that would support his new idea. Why?. Was it to recognized as a new savior of a group of people that everybody loves to hate, Alcoholics. His claims of being inspired and authorized by God are just to far out. A.A. must survive at all costs is just to far out.
Nice try Bill W.
Alcoholics Anonymous---Just another gospel. 2 Corinthians Ch.11
There is so much wrong with A.A. I could write a book about it. And what about A.A.s professional friends, do the words 'Social Engineering' raise any red flags? Now the A.A. program has been transformed into the new cure all program for any!, any! infirmity we may have, sex,drugs,gambling you name it. My advice for everyone is, Go look it up, do some research and find out what's really going on. A.A. says in their own literature that A.A. is not for everyone. And they do say A.A. is for Alcoholics only, then go on to say it can be applied to any problem. A.A. has become an evolving social movement, A.A. has been shanghaied.
Hola, Soy AA desde 1991, soy miembro de una seccion que llamamos aqui AA sseccion mexico, esta seccion se separo, de AA Central Mexicana, debido a diferencia de opinion en cuanto a la venta de literatura, que ya se convirtio en un negocio para esta seccion de AA Central Mexicana y al parecer ya se convirtio en un negocio millonario para AA EE-canada y su World service, y tambien a informacion que surge en internet en paginas como orange papers y autores biograficos de Bill W., a mi no me preocupe lo que sea Bill W, se que AA funciono para mi, pero tambien no quiero ser un fanatico de AA irracional, parece ser que hay informacion veridica sobre que ciertamente Bill W. lucro con este movimiento de AA, y se dice que murio millonario y que lego sus regalias a lois y su amante helen wynn, a mi me interesa saber la verdad, los hechos reales, si hay alguien que me sugiera donde indagar se los agredezco, escribanme a mi correo pegos10@hotmail.com felices 24 hrs.
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