When the AA Big Book was first written, psychology was in its infancy. It is sometimes forgotten how hospitable America was to the nascent psychological movement; in no country of the world was it welcomed at a popular level as it was in the USA. Freud and Jung toured here, and William James did a great deal to popularize the new discipline in books which are still read today -- indeed, he exercised considerable influence on AA itself.

Psychologists are mentioned twice in the main body of the Big Book, within three paragraphs of one another. Their services are described as "indispensable" for some newcomers, and they are recommended for difficulties with sex relations.

Since those recommendations were made, there has been a wholesale revolution in this area. Therapists are now very common. The self-help movement has proliferated. To some extent, an arena which in the early days of Program was purely spiritual in nature has been co-opted by the medical community.

Which leaves those of us who are not newcomers, those of us who have some time, with a very grave question to answer. If we continue to encounter emotional problems well into our recovery, should we seek the help of psychological professionals, or treat the matter as a spiritual deficiency, or both?

Someone with a psychological bias may remind us that if we are psychologically sick then only a psychological solution will work. But those of us with a primarily spiritual orientation will respond that -- if we do not assiduously practice the last three Steps on a daily basis -- no solution of any kind, mental, emotional, psychological or spiritual, can ever result.

For better or worse, our respective programs are at their heart spiritual in nature. We may, like those early AAs, look for assistance from psychological professionals, particularly if we are newcomers. But it is a core belief of our fellowships that no long-term recovery is possible without a complete commitment to the spiritual Program encapsulated in the last three Steps.