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What Vaillant calls the "natural healing processes" that relieve suffering and create hope are best fostered today, he believes, by Alcoholics Anonymous. He argues that the first step to sobriety is an acceptance of the first precept of A.A.: "I am powerless over alcohol." Says Vaillant: "A.A. is the most effective means of treating alcoholism, and it worked for sophisticated, Harvard-educated loners as well as for gregarious blue-collar workers."
One of the most impressive aspects of Vaillant's work is his own deep respect, strengthened instead of diminished after close analysis of 600 lives, for the capacity of human beings to heal even their most inexplicable and terrifying afflictions themselves. He also argues persuasively that it is not only essential, but possible, for alcoholics to regain control of their lives. —By Jane O'Reilly. Reported by Mary Carpenter/New York and Ruth Mehrtens Galvin/Boston