"Lack of power, that was our dilemma": what dilemma?
In short:
- The line is on page 45 of the Big Book, near the start of Chapter 4, "We Agnostics." The dilemma is set out in the sentences just before it: moral codes, better philosophies of life and willpower didn't save the writers from alcoholism, because "the needed power wasn't there" (p. 45).
- The next sentence names what they needed: "We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves." (p. 45)
- Then the book says what it's for. Its "main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem" (p. 45).
- So context confirms the usual reading and sharpens it. The lack was of power to live by what they already knew and wanted, and the line is the point where the book states its own purpose.
The passage
Chapter 4 opens by saying that a reader who can't quit, or can't control the amount once he starts, is probably alcoholic and "may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer" (p. 44). About half the original fellowship thought they were atheists or agnostics, and they faced the same choice: "To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face." (p. 44)
Then the dilemma, in order (pp. 44–45): 1. Codes weren't enough. "If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago." (p. 44) 2. Wanting wasn't enough. They could wish to be moral, wish to be comforted by philosophy, even will these things with all their might, "but the needed power wasn't there" (p. 45). 3. Will wasn't enough. "Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly." (p. 45) 4. The line. "Lack of power, that was our dilemma." (p. 45) 5. The answer and the question. They had to find a Power greater than themselves. "Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power?" (p. 45) 6. The book's purpose. "Well, that's exactly what this book is about." (p. 45) It means the book is spiritual as well as moral, and "that we are going to talk about God" (p. 45).
The rest of the page is about what happens next with an agnostic newcomer: his hope rises while the alcoholic problem is explained, and his face falls when God is mentioned (p. 45). The chapter is written for him.
"Dilemma" elsewhere
Chapter 2 uses the same word for the businessman a famous psychiatrist called hopeless. His knowledge of his own mind didn't keep him sober, and his religious convictions, the doctor said, weren't the "vital spiritual experience" he needed (pp. 26–27). "Here was the terrible dilemma in which our friend found himself" (p. 28). It's the same shape: what he had wasn't enough, and the way out was a spiritual experience.
How it relates to Step One
Step One speaks of being "powerless over alcohol" (p. 59). Page 45 isn't the Step, and the book doesn't tie the two passages together itself. What page 45 describes is the failure of morals, philosophy and will to overcome alcoholism, looking forward to finding "a power by which we could live" (p. 45). On this page the answer to the lack is to find a greater Power, and the rest of the book is its account of how. For the Step itself, see What does Step 1 say? Powerless over what?
Does the context change the reading?
It confirms it. The line is a hinge: everything before it says what failed, and everything after it is the book's answer. Quoted alone it can sound like a diagnosis and nothing more. In place it is followed at once by the search for a Power greater than ourselves and the statement that this is "exactly what this book is about" (p. 45).
Read it yourself
- Chapter 4, "We Agnostics" (pp. 44–57), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt4.pdf
- Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution" (pp. 17–29): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt2.pdf
- Related: What does Step 1 say? Powerless over what? · Do I have to be religious to work the Steps?
- The full book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is sold by A.A. World Services at https://onlineliterature.aa.org.
Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 4, "We Agnostics" | 44–45 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution" | 26–28 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 5, "How It Works" (Step One) | 59 | 1939 |
Page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). The Preface says the program chapters have been "left largely untouched" since 1939 (p. xi).
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.