Identity in the Empathic Community: Alcoholics Anonymous as a Model Community for Storytelling and Change
This article reviews the dynamics of healing in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) through interviews with two women who are long-term members of the AA program. Donnel Stern's relational psychoanalytic theory is used to describe how change might occur through the process of claiming one's story an...
| Published in: | Pastoral psychology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer Science Business Media B. V.
2015
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| In: |
Pastoral psychology
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| RelBib Classification: | NBC Doctrine of God RG Pastoral care ZD Psychology |
| Further subjects: | B
Social Change
B Group Identity B Narrative B Storytelling B Alcoholics B Donnel Stern B Relational psychoanalysis B Alcoholics Anonymous B Empathy B Dissociation B same-sex relationships |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article reviews the dynamics of healing in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) through interviews with two women who are long-term members of the AA program. Donnel Stern's relational psychoanalytic theory is used to describe how change might occur through the process of claiming one's story and interpreting it through the structure of an empathic storytelling community. As the two women were recently married and locate their personal healing in the AA program, I consider how their alternative community influenced their coming to relationship. I conclude by imagining what the AA program might teach the Christian community, claiming that Christian congregations need to consciously and purposefully form relational and storytelling norms that foster an empathic listening environment. |
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| ISSN: | 1573-6679 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11089-015-0649-1 |