2018 - The 25th Anniversary of 'Letting Go' of the A.A. Circle and Triangle as a Legal Mark

For events leading up to this landmark in A.A. history see: Box 4-5-9, News and Notes from G.S.O., August-September issue, 1993, pages 5-6: "Letting Go' of the Circle and Triangle as a legal mark" https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_aug-sept93.pdf

Extracts:

"...The symbol was registered as an official A.A. mark in 1955, and was freely used by various A.A. entities, which worked very well for a while. However, by the mid-1980s there was a growing concern by the members of the Fellowship on the use of the circle and triangle by outside organizations. In keeping with A.A.'s Sixth Tradition that Alcoholics Anonymous "...ought never endorse, finance or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise...", A.A. World Services began efforts in 1986  to prevent the use of the circle and triangle by outside entities, including novelty manufacturers, publishers and treatment facilities. The policy was undertaken with restraint, and only after all attempts of persuasion and conciliation had failed were legal actions considered. In fact, of approximately 170 unauthorized users contacted, only two suits were filed, both of which were settled at a very early stage. 
   By early 1990, some members of the Fellowship seemed to be saying two things: 
"we want medallions with our circle and triangle," while others were saying, "we don't want our symbol aligned with non A.A. purposes..." 
   ...By early June, the General Service Board reached substantial unanimity in support of A.A.W.S.'s statement that, consistent with our original purpose to avoid the suggestion of association or affiliation with outside goods and services, Alcoholics Anonymous  World Services Inc. will phase out the "official" or "legal" use of the circle and triangle symbol..."

Not an anniversary to celebrate, but one that A.A. groups might consider commemorating, lest history is forgotten. Next time you are at an A.A. meeting, tell your fellow A.A.s that anniversary chips & medallions are not manufactured by A.A. They are outside enterprises. Tell them about Tradition Six, "An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise..." And tell them about the A.A. Circle and Triangle legal mark and what group celebrating with anniversary chips has cost the fellowship.

25 years on, the trustees appear occupied with countering myths and misconceptions that A.A. is a cult. One Class A (nonalcoholic) trustee says, "I do run into a minority of colleagues who still believe that A.A. is some kind of religious cult",  another says, "The misconceptions about A.A. that I see come mostly from the alcoholic patient. He or she says, "No, I am not going to A.A. because it is a cult." (See Box 4-5-9, News and Notes from G.S.O., Summer 2018 issue, pages 4-5: "Myths and Misconceptions"  https://www.aa.org/newsletters/en_US/en_box459_summer_2018.pdf

The increasing unauthorized use of the A.A. Circle and Triangle legal mark during the 1980s and the increasing perception that A.A. is a cult broadly coincides with the increasing co-opting of the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps as an addiction treatment by Synanon cult based Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment facilities. In a treatment industry that continues to evolve, overlapping influences between Synanon TC treatment facilities and institutions that may have initially started out as 12-step treatment facilities means that today there may be little to distinguish between the two treatments in many institutions. The Hazelden Foundation, for example, extended Synanon TC based treatment to all its facilities through the 1970s to the mid-1980s. In 2015, Phoenix House, a first generation Synanon TC entered into a clinical initiatives agreement with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation allowing them to "share best practices' to enrich both organizations".

Unfortunately for A.A., many treatment facilities publicly link their 12-step treatments to the name Alcoholics Anonymous, confusing some within and outside A.A. as to what A.A. is and is not. There also appear to be an increasing number of individual members and A.A. groups who behave in a cult-like manner after getting their guidance as to what they think A.A. should be from outside entities, including novelty manufacturers, publishers and treatment facilities. 

For more details of the events leading up to A.A. 'letting go' of the Circle and Triangle as a legal mark see the AA Minority Report: "Synanon Cult influence on Alcoholics Anonymous, Addiction Treatment, and the Criminal Justice System 1968-2017

“Alcoholics Anonymous as a Mutual-Help Movement: A Study in Eight Societies” University of Wisconsin Press, 1996

"Indispensable for anyone trying to understand AA at the end of the twentieth century."                        - Harry G. Levine, Queens College, City University of New York.

Though published 21 years ago, this international collaborative study of A.A. at locations in the USA, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Mexico, is still relevant for anyone trying to understand A.A. in the 21^st century. For any A.A. member wishing to understand the 60 years of history that has passed since A.A. published Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, this study will also provide some useful insight into the spread and development of the fellowship alongside what is termed "Institutional 12-Step Treatment" during in this period.

See also: “DIVERSITY IN UNITY: Studies of Alcoholics Anonymous in Eight Societies”  http://www.nordicwelfare.org/PageFiles/5230/33publikation.pdf

Given the widespread deviations from A.A. Traditions observed, the separatist movement in Mexico, and the large number of A.A. members, old and new, who are now leaving A.A., these studies could also be aptly titled “DISUNITY IN DIVERSITY: Studies of Alcoholics Anonymous in Eight Societies.”

Extract from "Alcoholics Anonymous as a Mutual-help Movement: A Study in Eight Societies"        p. 193:

“In recent years, however, the relation of AA to the criminal justice system has substantially changed in the United States. It is now common practice in many parts of the United States for the judge to require attendance at AA meetings as part of the sentence for drunk driving or other criminal offenses. To verify attendance, the secretary of the AA meeting signs or initials the “court card” carried by the probationer. The practice appears to have started in the late 1960s in southern California, at the initiative of enthusiastic judges and with considerable doubt among old-timers in AA, but the practice is now so widespread in the United States that it is taken for granted. Discussions continue, though, about the difficulties this new form of association with the criminal justice system has caused for AA’s functioning.

    Of our study sites, it is only in the United States that the formal practice of “court-carding” has taken root. In a less formal style, however, the criminal court process in Mexico and Sweden also encourages affiliation with AA, and holds out the prospect that this liaison will secure more lenient handling in the courts. In future years, AA may come under pressure in a wider variety of countries to serve a formal social control function on behalf of the criminal justice system.
   The issue of compulsion is not limited to the criminal justice system. Mandatory treatment is increasingly prescribed not only because of homelessness or public deviance but also because of insufficient work performance or family problems (Takala, Klingemann, & Hunt, 1992), which means that it is spreading to new groups of the population. In the United States, for instance, employers sometimes request AA meeting attendance of their employees.”

If you are an A.A. member, you might ask yourself this question: Do you, or does your A.A. group, contrary to A.A. Traditions, Five and Six, serve a formal social control function on behalf of the criminal justice system? or employers? 

For information on the difficulties this new form of association with the criminal justice system has caused for A.A.’s functioning see:

“A Report on the Status of Cooperation with Courts in the Mid-Michigan Area and AA as a Whole”  

“Synanon Cult Influence on Alcoholics Anonymous, Addiction Treatment and the Criminal Justice System 1968-2017”

“Resisting 12-Step Coercion: How to Fight Forced Participation in AA, NA, or 12-Step Treatment”

leavingaa.com

“Alcoholics and narcotics anonymous: A radical movement under threat”

Results of a ten year study of A.A. and N.A. by Professor Phoebus Zafiridis and Sotiris Lainas, Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, published in Addiction Research and Theory in 2012.

For free view and PDF download click here

This will be of interest to any A.A. member concerned at the increasing exploitation and professionalization of A.A. by the addiction treatment industry.