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Griffith Edwards’ rigorous sympathy with Alcoholics Anonymous
Author(s) -
Humphreys Keith
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/add.12900
Subject(s) - sympathy , alcoholics anonymous , addiction , psychology , value (mathematics) , social psychology , psychiatry , machine learning , computer science
Griffith Edwards made empirical contributions early in his career to the literature on Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), but the attitude he adopted towards AA and other peer‐led mutual help initiatives constitutes an even more important legacy. Unlike many treatment professionals who dismissed the value of AA or were threatened by its non‐professional approach, Edwards was consistently respectful of the organization. However, he never became an uncritical booster of AA or overgeneralized what could be learnt from it. Future scholarly and clinical endeavors concerning addiction‐related mutual help initiatives will benefit by continuing Edwards’ tradition of ‘rigorous sympathy’.