After stating how hard it is too verify statistics for positive results,the author damns the guess made 50 years ago when Bill Wilson first wrote the book, and most likely had a far better conversion record as they were then dealing with highly motivated quitters. It is almost humorous that this author is complaining about the success rate of this method, when a large number of the pool of candidates are forced into treatment by either the law or parental coercion. Now I would like to say mid- rant that I am biased. I stopped drinking 33 years ago, and while I would not admit to membership in this group in a public forum, I would suggest people who WANT to quit, to give it a try.
I would be one of the first to say that there are a lot of hokey parts to the traditions they follow, and I do not agree with a lot of the premises of the literature---- But that being said........It works! One interesting opinion about AA comes from Charlie Munger, Warren Buffets business partner. Charlie writes quite a bit about the psychology of business, and he gives his fairly well thought out opinion of why AA works so well. I wonder whether the AA bashing is just for controversy to better sell the article, or if perhaps the author is helping to market the new version of naltrexone the is being quite heavily promoted to judges recently.