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Rating: 
Summary: Denial and Deception
Review: Denial and Deception is what these 12 Steppers have been doing for years now. They have been denying that they are not a cult like fundamentalist religion and deceiving everyone with their fabrications that they are the only treatment (that works) for addictions and even the made-up co-dependency construct.Stanton Peele, Charles Bufe, and Archie Brodsky has used real science to show that 12 Stepping is not the only game in town... in truth I think a voodoo witch doctor would have better out-comes with treating addictions than joining a 12-Step cult. Resisting 12-Step Coercion, presents addiction issues in real psychological light, which shows that they are not victimizing diseases that must be treated for life. There is the ability to recover fully and no need to be in some 12-step recovery room for the rest of your life. The 12-steps have been shown, by this book, to be an almost useless treatment model when coercion is used to rope in clients. I found book to be well written and professional. I think you will find it eye opening. So open those eyes for it is time for the 12 Step Cult to be ousted from the treatment centers they have commandeered from logical treatment. It is time for real mental health treatment to care for those who need it. This is an excellent work, which exposes 12-Stepping for what it is: coercion.
Our gullible public needs to stop being so naïve... to that end read this book.
Rick Goodner, Author of "Co-dependent... What a Bore and Other Clinical Observations".
Rating: 
Summary: What is Stanton Peele afraid of?
Review: I have been a member of 12-Step programs for 20 years. I have been in therapy for 32 years (originally mandated by the court in 1969). I have written a book about addiction myself. People who are mandated to go to 12-Step programs by the courts do not have to stay once their obligation is fulfilled. People who do stay get help. For me the combination of 12-Step programs, therapy and religion has brought me the recovery from addiction that I prayed for before I even knew what praying really meant. Stanton Peele's book is reactionary and uses fear tactics to sell books and inflate the author's ego. I am sad that he chooses to attack programs that have such a wonderful track record. Psychology has been helpful to me over the years, but 12-Step programs (the people, the principles, the literature, and the meetings) have saved my life.
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Summary: Yep, AA Is Religious (not merely "spiritual")
Review: I wish 12-step programs didn't come with all of the religiouspropaganda. People tell me its not really religious because I can choose my own concept of God, who I can conceive of as a force for good, the group, the program, etc. But none of those concepts, or anything other than a all-powerful deity, fits with the 12 steps. For example, how does one pray to the group, and ask the group to remove my shortcomings? How do I turn my will and my life over to the care of the group (and do I want to)? There have been 4 higher court rulings in the U.S., and all have found the AA 12-step program to be religious. All of these court rulings have occurred since 1996... The book does an excellent job not only on the religious aspect, but the other topics in the publisher's review, such as the very low effectiveness of 12-step treatment when coerced. The publisher's review accurately describes the book's content.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the original intent.
Review: I've been going to 12-Step programs, including AA, since 1986. My life has undoubtedly been saved. In my case this is partly because I was open-minded enough to see that what I needed was a combination of the foundation of AA, without which I couldn't stay sober, & other support groups & resources. I originally experienced AA & other 12-Step programs in New York City, where the 12-Step population mirrored the variety of spiritual beliefs and lifestyle choices of that city's population. But I am alarmed to see how fundamentalist Christianity has been coming to dominate AA, particularly in more provincial areas. While AA stemmed from the very Christian Oxford Group, Bill Wilson attempted through various of his contributions to the Big Book, etc., to open the program to all. Approximately 65 years later, as this book says, some people don't come to AA by choice (the original path). There they may feel they can't fit in without converting to Christianity & being a Republican. I'm one of those who has stayed in AA but who winces when meetings end with the (clearly Christian, exclusionary) Lord's Prayer & when I hear fear-based (the "disease" itself), negative statements supposedly based on a very primitive concept of Christianity. I stay because the program helps me & my spirituality, but I do (at this point - hopefully it will get easier!) struggle to allow a patchwork recovery, with AA being but one part. I also stay in case other liberals, or people for whom Christianity isn't the only choice, will feel more welcome. When I came into AA it felt like a dynamic, vibrant, exciting opening to possibility. I stay partially in the hope this miracle can again happen in a program where one of the statements I DO like is "Don't leave five minutes before the miracle." As for folks being coerced into AA as the only alternative to jail, I think this is completely wrong. More alternatives should be offered. While AA doesn't seem to want to allow this information, I know people have managed to find sobriety and keep sobriety without AA - it is not the only path. However, I do resonate with Carl Jung (who helped formulate the program with Bill Wilson), who came to the conclusion that alcoholics (&, by extension, other addictive personalities) couldn't stay sober without replacing booze, drugs, etc., with a spiritual path, etc.
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Summary: 12-stepper half truths
Review: it would be helpful if the 12-stepper cult members who review this book would actually READ it before they review it. it also would be helpful if they spoke something other than half truths ."the gal who started Moderation Management as a response to AA was convicted of killing two people in a drunken driving accident. AA's response to that was no comment." this is not surprising given that Audrey Kishline ("the gal") had been not practicing moderation in her own group, but had become an active AA cult member months before the fatal accident. AA members always forget to mention this FACT. But this is besides the point because she has nothing to do with the topic of this book, as this stepper is trying to make Mr. Peele somehow guilty by association to Ms. Kishline's lack of personal responsibility and to cloud the issue of 12-Step coercion in this country. the truth is AA is a double thinking religious cult, whose members use their influence to make it the model for over 90% treatment center is USA, and limit the availability of other models. the truth is, according to AA's own survey, 50% of people leave AA within first 3 months, and 95% within 12 months. of those 5%, 100% are not sober for that period, if at all. AA did a survey In a 1989 of almost ten thousand members chosen at random, thirty five per cent of the respondents reported less than a year of sobriety. the abstinence rate continues to drop in the following years. AA has been around for about 60 years, but only twenty-nine percent of members have been sober for more than 5 years. the people who left AA were not served by AA's program, and were taught they would die if they left AA and didnt follow their so called "suggestions" "unless each AA member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps of recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant" by AA's founder bill wilson.. not much of a choice offered there, "follow the "Program" or you will die." "they are suggestions, take what you want and leave the rest". right. any cult would be proud of that double think. nor is there any real proof of AA' effectiveness, there isn't one legitimate study which can demonstrate AA is any better than no treatment at all. but based on the number that go thru their doors when they need help, a less than 5% recovery rate of people introduced to AA and seeking help is not successful by any standard. bottom line is, if your being forced into the religious cult of AA, this book can help you find a something which will work for you.
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Summary: Reality
Review: Recently the gal who started Moderation Management as a response to AA was convicted of killing two people in a drunken driving accident. AA's response to that was no comment. AA's response to Peele is no comment.The truth is that AA is not for everyone. Nor has it ever claimed to be. It is for those who want it not for those who need it. The proof of the effectiveness of the AA approach is the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who have stopped drinking and learned to live productive, helpful lives.
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Summary: Re; a major blow to the 12-step leviathan!
Review: Resisting 12-Step Coercion destroys the flagrant canard that 12-step groups are inherently voluntary. Indeed, authors Chaz Bufe, Stanton Peele, and Archie Brodsky provide ample evidence that each year, over 1,000,000 Americans are compelled to join this crypto-biblical therapeutic cult or face reprisals ranging from extended jail time to unemployment. In a penetrating analysis of this disconcerting trend, the book questions the legal, medical, and ethical issues which directly undermine this alleged panacea for addiction. And, lest you fall victm to this insidious method of social control, the authors provide invaluable advice for anyone facing the possibility of forced 12-step conscription. It behooves civil libertarians from across the political spectrum to peruse this important work! PANIK Magazine, Vol.2, No. 2
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Summary: Coercion?
Review: The people who are "coerced" into attending 12 step programs as referenced in this book are drunk drivers. There are no SS henchmen wandering around neighborhoods scooping innocents into AA meetings. I do not have pity for any drunk driver or their sentences. For many, many years the courts saw people with 6, 7, 8 10 DUI offenses, and what do you do? Lock someone in prison for LIFE on what, a 6th DUI? How about the 10th? Where in 20,000 fatal accidents alcohol played a role, does anyone really have pity for someone who must attend some AA meetings for nearly contributing to this carnage?? This number is as many Americans as are murdered by _guns_. I challenge the authors of this book to tell the millions of AA members who have found solace, then serenity then peace, after being sent to AA by the courts that it is such a sham. I also challenge them to volunteer in a recovery home for indigent women, as I do, and meet with woman after woman who failed to continue an AA program of recovery, and where it brought them. And not instantly, and not because they said "oh gee I must drink because now I don't have AA". QUITE the opposite. They frequently do so after 2 or 3 years being away from the program, feeling so good about their success, they feel cured, they drink, they lose everything.
I'm certain not all drunk drivers belong in AA but I challenge the authors of this book to find the scientific methodology to identify the difference between those who will continue to drink and drive unabated & those whose first offense will be their last, and stake their lives on the road on such a test. Many first-time offenders re-offend, but I've heard the story many times; when they realized they could not stop on their own after so many efforts, they knew where to go because they had once been sent there once by the courts.
This book is a great way for real alcoholics to recognize some injustice done to them (as opposed to the real risk of murder they were to the rest of _us_) and opt out. Godspeed to such people and to the rest of us who share the roads with them.
Rating:
Summary: An Important Book
Review: This is an important book which addresses one of the greatest threats to religious liberty in the world today. Peele et al. have done an excellent job, leaving but one stone unturned in their research. Don't forget our women and men in uniform. Forced AA in the US Military is Unconstitutional (...)
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly Informative
Review: This is the first book I've read that is really devoted to what I consider to be a major First Amendment problem in the last century--coerced 12-step meeting attendance. This is an eye-opening read, full of statistics, case histories, and information about actual court cases, where 12 step programs were ruled to be "religious." Attorneys, judges, alcohol-drug counselors, members of 12-step programs, and reps from companies with who send employees to drug-alcohol programs, as well as victims of 12-step coercion, should read this book.
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