COMMUNAL INDIVIDUALISM: MANAGING CONFLICT IN ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS by HEATH ...

277 Pages·2002·0.64 MB·English

COMMUNAL INDIVIDUALISM: MANAGING CONFLICT IN
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
by
HEATH CARTER HOFFMANN
(Under the direction of Dr. Mark Cooney)
ABSTRACT
This study explores how members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) manage
conflict in the context of the AA meeting. AA is a unique organization because it lacks
an institutionalized authority structure and thus does not have formal organizational
mechanisms (e.g. a leader or manager) for responding to and mediating interpersonal
conflicts between members. In the absence of formal authority structure, we might
expect conflict to be rampant in AA. However, this is not the case. Certainly, as in other
social contexts, AA members experience interpersonal and intra-personal conflicts during
meetings, which they manage by using strategies like avoidance, tolerance, criticism,
humor, therapy, and in rare cases members ask for help from the police. To explain
variations in how members respond to deviant behavior I use Donald Black’s (1993)
general theory of conflict management. Black suggests that conflict management varies
with the social structure of the group or organization. The social structure of a setting
embodies the configuration of statuses and social ties that participants share. In the case
of AA, its members are relatively egalitarian and groups tend to be internally
homogeneous producing a social structure that encourages the use of therapy and
tolerance to manage conflict. However, more authoritative conflict management
strategies such as criticism and law are used in social structures where the deviant
member occupies a lower status in the group (i.e. has not been sober for very long) and
has weak or infrequent ties to the AA program. In the same way, deviance by high status
members is frequently tolerated by lower status members and only authoritatively
challenged, if at all, by other high status members. This work contributes to the
development of Black’s theoretical paradigm and also illustrates the importance of
equality and egalitarianism in creating a therapeutic milieu.

INDEX WORDS: Conflict management, Alcoholics Anonymous, Communal
individualism, Social control, Donald Black, Therapeutic social
control
COMMUNAL INDIVIDUALISM: MANAGING CONFLICT IN
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

by

HEATH CARTER HOFFMANN
B.A., Western Washington University, 1995
M.A., The University of Georgia, 1999

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2002
©2002
Heath Carter Hoffmann
All Rights Reserved
COMMUNAL INDIVIDUALISM: MANAGING CONFLICT IN
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

by

HEATH CARTER HOFFMANN

Approved:

Major Professor: Mark Cooney

Committee: Paul Roman
William Finlay
Jody Clay Warner
Joe Hermanowicz

Electronic Version Approved:

Gordhan L. Patel
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
May 2002
DEDICATION

For Sara
Thank you for your love, support, and patience.
iv
ACKOWLEDGMENTS
First, I am indebted to the many members of Alcoholics Anonymous who
welcomed me to their meetings and shared their recovery with me. There are several
members, in particular, who I would like to personally thank. However, I must protect
their anonymity and thus I hope they know who they are and how grateful I am to them.
I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my committee: Joe Hermanowicz, Jody
Clay-Warner, William Finlay, Paul Roman, and Mark Cooney. Since the first day that I
met Joe Hermanowicz, when he interviewed to join our Sociology faculty, he has been a
supportive force, offering comments on various papers that I have written. His love for
Sociology is often contagious and I am grateful to him. I am indebted to Jody Clay-
Warner for her interest in this project when others questioned or doubted the approach I
was taking. William Finlay is to be thanked, not only for his work on my dissertation
committee, but also for the summer lunches during which we discussed various books to
help prepare me for my comprehensive exams. In particular, I am indebted to William’s
dissertation research (see Work on the Waterfront) for its exemplification of exciting
qualitative inquiry and analysis. Paul Roman is the reason why I ended up at The
University of Georgia. Paul is ultimately responsible for my interest in the study of
alcohol, drugs, Employee Assistance Programs, and organizations. While we have
worked less closely together during the course of this study on AA, he should know his
influence and mentorship has positively influenced me for much of my writing and ideas
seem as if they came from his mouth. Thank you, Paul.
v
Lastly, I am tremendously grateful to Mark Cooney. When I approached Mark
about doing this project he was immediately supportive and enthusiastic. Mark has
always given me immediate and honest feedback about the quality of my ideas and
writing and he has encouraged me to search for sociological truth. Mark has been a
wonderful mentor and I have appreciated and benefited from the many lunches and office
chats that have contributed to the development of this project. I look forward to working
with Mark in the future and I hope I can be a mentor to students in the same way that he
has mentored me.
A number of other scholars are partly responsible for my accomplishments and I
am indebted to them, as well. My high school career was filled with wonderful teachers
like Darryl Rast, Ms. Richardson, Dwayne Kendall, and Gene Dombrowski—each of you
contributed to my thirst for knowledge. Those who have contributed to my intellectual
development in college include Woody Beck, Karen Bradley, Kris Bulcroft, Diane
Carmody, Jim Coverdill, Linda Grant, Cynthia Hewitt, Richard Ingersoll, Martha Myers,
Steven Schact, and Barry Schwartz.
John Richardson has likely had the greatest influence on my intellectual
development and academic career. I regularly credit him for my completion of the
doctoral program because he believed in me and encouraged me when I was riddled with
self-doubt. John is an amazing human being and a brilliant Sociologist and I have never
seen a professor captivate student audiences in the same way that John did when I was an
undergraduate. Much appreciation and love go to John and his wife, Jill.
vi
I thank my parents for insisting that I go to college. Education and the pursuit of
knowledge has been a blessing in my life and I thank them for the sacrifices they made to
raise me and get me to college. Thank you and I love you.
I am indebted to Suzan Hoffmann, my oldest sister, for being the educational
trailblazer in our family and for showing me how to remain confident even under the
most adverse circumstances. To Jennifer and Gene Bradshaw, my sister and brother-in-
law, I thank you for your support over the years and I must say I am grateful that the
conflicts my sister and I had as children are managed differently today. My youngest
sister, Sara has been an inspiration to me at many times in my life. I wish you much luck
in whatever path you choose in life. Wherever you go and whatever you do, I know you
will do it well.
To Matt, Kim, Amanda, and Cole Hoffmann—thank you. The packages, letters,
phone calls, and emails have all helped sustain me during this journey. Matt is one of the
hardest working people I know. While Matt did not go to college himself, he is one of
the smartest people I know and I admire him for his knowledge and skill. Thank you for
encouraging me along the way. I love you.
Many of my fellow graduate students have made my graduate experience
wonderful and intellectually adventurous: James Awbrey, Todd Bayma, Lorraine Evans,
Dave Gavisk, Aaron Johnson, Hannah Knudsen, Carrie Oser, Pierre Oulevay, Cristie
Rollins, Michelle Petrie, and Diana Wall. I thank each of you and am grateful that you
were a part of my life in various ways.
There are a number of people around me on an almost daily basis whose love,
support, tolerance, and humor helped me to endure not only the research and writing of
vii
the dissertation but graduate school, in general. I thank David, Betty, and Amanda
Arnold for welcoming me into their lives and for treating me like a son and brother.
Freddie and Darlene Boan, you have been like parents to me, as well, and I thank you for
the support and kindness that you have shown me. Mary Kay Lenzo should also be
thanked for her kindness, laughs, and opposites.
Candace Boan and Chris Lenzo—you both have taught me so much and given me
more love and support than I can describe here. I look forward to having a lifetime of fun
and discovery with you both and I thank you for everything—I love you both.
It was Candace and Chris who introduced me to my wife, Sara. Sara has taught
me much about strength, love, commitment, friendship, patience, and growth. Sara
supported my nightly visits to AA meetings and she tolerated the many hours of note
taking that followed each of those meetings. Sara has also tolerated and/or ignored my
grumpiness when the frustration and obstacles of this dissertation got the best of me. For
this, I am especially grateful to her and I know this was no easy chore. In addition to
supporting and encouraging my pursuit of knowledge, Sara has helped me to laugh, play,
and appreciate life outside of books and away from the computer monitor. These are a
few of the million-and-one reasons why I love you, Sara—Thank you!
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...................................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................xi
LIST OF FIGURES...........................................................................................................xii
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1
The Alcoholic Self......................................................................................10
2 THEORY..........................................................................................................18
Therapeutic Conflict Management..............................................................27
The Social Structure of AA.........................................................................31
The Data......................................................................................................49
Contents.......................................................................................................52
3 INTEGRATIVE THERAPY............................................................................56
The Direction and Intensity of Integrative Therapy....................................66
4 CRITICISM......................................................................................................97
Moralistic Criticism...................................................................................107
Indirect Criticism.......................................................................................117
Humorous Criticism..................................................................................122
Compassionate Criticism...........................................................................124
Upward and Lateral Criticism...................................................................128
ix