The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition only two years prior to Alcoholics Anonymous’ founding in 1935, and alcohol still carried a strong stigma of immorality. Bill Wilson started this group by coming together with Dr. Bob Smith and developing a step-by-step strategy to ending alcoholism that would later morph into the 12-step program used today. Both men had gone through serious bouts of alcoholism and had undergone a variety of treatment programs such as, "purge and puke" treatments, where a patient was given toxic salts or plants to expel this ‘demon’”. Wilson and Smith were both so different in their drinking habits and personalities that when this program worked for them both, they realized it had the potential to work for many others as well. Jointly they created Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A) where the treatment was abstaining from alcohol all together.
“By 1939, AA had expanded to three groups that produced 100 sober members, and publicity of its success brought it a deluge of new people seeking help. By the end of 1940, there were 2,000 members, 6,000 by the time Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. By 1950, that number had jumped to 100,000.” Today, Alcoholics Anonymous is a worldwide organization, claiming 2.1 million members.
Americans were obsessed with gaining back the “good” values they felt alcohol had taken away. The struggle was over the morality of drinking and how it fit into “the American life”. It was not surprising to see that A.A was created so soon after Prohibition was repealed; Prohibition failed and people were looking into alternatives. Alcoholics were not treated well and had to go through unhealthy and painful treatments, it made sense that alcoholics themselves would take initiative and look for an ulterior approach. It was interesting for me that all of this was going on simultaneously with the Great Depression.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2001284_2001057_2001042,00.html #ixzz1KgToBID6
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