“We humans love stories because they arrange the puzzling and mysterious events of our lives into a pattern that has meaning. The child’s cry, ‘Mommy, tell me a story!’ is a plea at the end of the day for the child’s mother to make sense out of all that has happened “(Greeley and Neusner, p.13). Within the stories of our society, we can discover our meaning and the values and behaviors necessary to center us within its cosmic view. In other words, stories construct us as much as we construct them.

Model stories are the templates of a society from which its storyteller draws to reaffirm the rightness of the culture. For example, individualism is reaffirmed in “rags-to-riches” stories and John Wayne westerns. A model story exists in and for a particular population in a particular cultural place and historical time. If these boundaries shift, the model story must either adjust in conformity or adjust in resistance to these forces. When we “kill” a model story, we more or less “kill” the worldview or values it transmitted, so therefore we “kill” ourselves as we are socially constructed within it. Therefore, a new model story must be strong enough to resurrect us in a new social construction. What Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members choose to take from cultural models and what they choose to leave behind is where the AA model stories emerge. “Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now” (AA, p. 58).

The Alcoholics Anonymous model story was first created in 1939 with the publication of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, which included thirty model stories of recovery. These stories were selected primarily for a white, male alcoholic audience in the Depression Era of the United States. Today, sixty years later, Alcoholics Anonymous is still going strong even though its population has changed, its cultural boundaries have been expanded overseas, and it now rests in another historical period. AA has changed its model stories twice (1955 and 1976) “to reflect the Fellowship’s growth” (AA, p. xi), “to represent the current membership of Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately” (AA, p. xii). Most noticeably, the changes incorporate the currently recognized demographic populations — gender, ethnic groups/races and ages. Less apparent are the changes in the stories emanating from the surrounding post-World War II technological culture in the United States. These historical forces continue to socially construct the AA model story.

Much of AA is unwritten and rests in an oral tradition to be passed down from one alcoholic to another. The oral tradition rests on the transmission of “THE story.” Three basic tenets or core beliefs are expected to be in every story:

• 1) powerlessness over alcohol;
• 2) reliance on a Higher Power and
• 3) action through the Twelve Steps (Makela, 1996).

The storyteller usually begins by describing the outward manifestations of his or her powerlessness over alcohol and the inward hopelessness that resulted. This segment ends with the “hitting bottom” incident (the “jumping off point”) that made that person willing to do anything necessary to arrest this disease. The second portion of the story relates to the alcoholic’s process of “coming to believe” and of surrendering to a God of his or her understanding. The final section of the story is comprised of personal experiences and the good things that resulted in working the Twelve Steps.

Every alcoholic is expected to tell his or her own story, which is from personal experiences and no one else’s, yet adhering to the template of the model story. Regardless of the daily topic at AA meetings, this story is to be told. The topic will merely put more emphasis and time on one of the three sections. In addition to the core format, its perceived depth of honesty is the criterion by which the story will be judged.

Newcomers to AA will learn how to tell their stories not by written rules or blatant criticisms, but rather by reading the model stories in the book Alcoholics Anonymous and by imitation of their sponsors and/or “old timers” around the meeting tables (Makela, 1996). When they have told the stories routinely, without inspiration, they will be ignored; people will fidget and yawn or go to the bathroom. When they have told the stories honestly, perhaps with the pain of new candor, the newcomers will receive smiles and laughter, be patted on the back after the meeting, and told, “I like what you had to say,” and they will be called on to speak in the future. Charismatic leaders of individual groups will come from the ranks of newcomers who have learned to tell “THE story” well.

References
Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous. 3rd edition. World Series: NY, (1976).
Greeley, A., and Neusner J. The Bible and Us: A priest and a rabbi read scripture together. Warner Books: NY, (1990).
Makela, K., et.al. Alcoholics Anonymous as a mutual-help movement: A study in eight societies. University of Wisconsin Press: WI, (1996).