Resisting 12-Step Coercion: How to Fight Forced Participation in Aa, Na, or 12-Step Treatment

This book is a guide for the one million-plus Americans per year who face coerced religious indoctrination in the guise of alcohol or drug treatment. It outlines legal strategies and existing court decisions and shows how useless and sometimes harmful 12-step treatment can be. It also contains a considerable amount of material on the routine violation of standard medical ethics by addiction treatment providers, and examples of such violations.

Stanton Peele is a psychologist, attorney, and distinguished critic of the addiction treatment industry. He is the author of Diseasing of America and coauthor of Love and Addiction and The Truth About Addiction and Recovery. Charles Bufe is the author of Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? Archie Brodsky is senior research associate in the Program in Psychiatry and the Law, Harvard Medical School. He is the co-author of Clinical Supervision in Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counseling.