# "Character defects" or "defects of character," "shortcomings": what does the Big Book say?

**In short:**
- The phrase "character defects" is not in the Big Book's program text, pages 1–164. The program text says "defects of character" twice: in Step Six, "Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character" ([p. 59](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-59/)), and on [p. 100](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-100/). "Character defects" turns up only in two personal stories ([pp. 263](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-263/), 355) and in later A.A. books.
- "Shortcomings" is the word of Step Seven, "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings" ([p. 59](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-59/)), and it appears four more times in the main text ([pp. 19](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-19/), 25, 50, 127).
- The book doesn't define either word or draw a line between them. The Seventh Step prayer, for the Step that says "shortcomings," asks God to remove "every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows" ([p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/)).
- What it names in practice is plain: "selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened" ([p. 67](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/)), and in Step Ten "selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear" ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)). It says defects "are not going to disappear over night" ([p. 100](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-100/)).

## What the search found

All our sources were searched for "character defects," "character defect," "defects of character," "defect of character," "defects of our character," "defects in character," "character flaw(s)," "shortcoming(s)" and "defects," and the main text was checked for "faults," "flaws," "objectionable" and similar words.

**In the program text ([pp. 1–164](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-1/)):**
- "Defects of character": Step Six ([p. 59](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-59/)), and Chapter 7, where the helper should point out to a man's family "that his defects of character are not going to disappear over night" ([p. 100](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-100/)).
- "Defect of character" (singular): once, in the Seventh Step prayer ([p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/)).
- "Defects" on its own: the opening of Chapter 6, "Into Action," "We have admitted certain defects" ([p. 72](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-72/)), and twice more on that page for the Fifth Step; also [pp. 50](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-50/), 83, 99 and 118.
- "Shortcomings": Step Seven ([p. 59](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-59/)), and [pp. 19](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-19/), 25, 50, 127.
- "Character defects": not found.

**Elsewhere:**
- The Foreword to the Second Edition (1955) says Bill was convinced of the need for "confession of personality defects" ([p. xvi](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-xvi/)).
- Two personal stories say "character defects." In "He Sold Himself Short," Dr. Bob takes the writer through the old six-step program in 1937 and brings up "several of my bad personality traits or character defects" ([p. 263](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-263/)). In "It Might Have Been Worse," the writer lists dishonest thinking, prejudice, ego and others as "character defects that gradually creep in" ([p. 355](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-355/)).
- *A.A. Comes of Age* (1957) uses "character defects" twice, once of the Oxford Group ideas early A.A. took up (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957), and once to say of A.A. as a whole, "We confess that we have character defects as a society" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (1980) uses it four times.

So "character defects" is a later, everyday way of saying what the 1939 text calls "defects of character," "defects" and "shortcomings."

## The words in the Steps, and where they came from

Step Six: "Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character." Step Seven: "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings." ([p. 59](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-59/)).

The six steps used by word of mouth before the book already had both words: "We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins" and "We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). In those, shortcomings were something you confessed. In the Twelve Steps they became something you ask God to remove.

Bill's first draft of the Twelve Steps read, for Six, "Were entirely willing that God remove all these defects of character" (*Pass It On*, 1984), and for Seven, humbly on our knees asking Him to remove these shortcomings, "holding nothing back" (*Pass It On*, 1984). When he read the draft to two New York members, one objection was "Who wants all their shortcomings removed, anyhow?" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). In the compromise that followed, "From Step Seven we deleted the expression 'on our knees.'" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).

## What the main text says about them

**They come out of the inventory.** Step Four is a search for "the flaws in our make-up which caused our failure" ([p. 64](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-64/)). Looking at the resentment list, they asked, "Where had we been selfish, dishonest, self-seeking and frightened?" ([p. 67](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/)), and "When we saw our faults we listed them." ([p. 67](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/)). Chapter 6 opens: "We have admitted certain defects" ([p. 72](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-72/)), and the Fifth Step means admitting "the exact nature of our defects" ([p. 72](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-72/)) to God, ourselves and another person.

**Steps Six and Seven are short.** Each gets one paragraph on [p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/). Step Six asks whether we are now ready to let God remove "all the things which we have admitted are objectionable" ([p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/)), every one. "If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing." ([p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/)). Step Seven is the prayer: "I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows." ([p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/)). Then "We have then completed Step Seven." ([p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/)). See: *What is the Seventh Step prayer, and where is it?* and *What do Steps Six, Seven and Eight ask, and how much does the Big Book say about each?*

**The measure is usefulness.** The prayer doesn't ask to be made perfect. It asks for the removal of what stands in the way of being useful to God and other people ([p. 76](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-76/)). The next page says the real purpose of putting our lives in order is "to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people about us" ([p. 77](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-77/)).

**It goes on every day.** Step Ten: "Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them." ([p. 84](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-84/)). The nightly review asks the same questions: were we "resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid?" ([p. 86](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-86/)).

**It takes time.** Chapter 7 tells the helper to warn a newcomer's family that his defects of character won't disappear overnight, and to show them "that he has entered upon a period of growth" ([p. 100](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-100/)).

**Other people's defects are not the job.** The book uses the same words about other people mostly to warn. As agnostics, "we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation" ([p. 50](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-50/)). In making amends, the other man's "faults are not discussed. We stick to our own." ([p. 78](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-78/)). In the family, each member who "begins to see his shortcomings and admits them to the others" ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)) lays a basis for helpful talk, and Chapter 2 counts "real tolerance of other people's shortcomings" ([p. 19](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-19/)) among the attitudes that make us more useful.

**Why they matter.** Chapter 2 admits that almost none of the first members liked "the confession of shortcomings" ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)) the process requires, but they saw it work in others ([p. 25](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-25/)). The book's reason is survival: if the Fifth Step is skipped, "we may not overcome drinking" ([p. 72](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-72/)).

## What the text doesn't settle

The Big Book gives no definition of a "defect of character" and no list called by that name, and it never says how a defect differs from a shortcoming. The working lists it does give ([pp. 67](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-67/), 84, 86) are selfishness, dishonesty, self-seeking, resentment and fear. Pages that explain a detailed difference between "defects" and "shortcomings" are drawing on something other than the Big Book.

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" (the Steps, [p. 59](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-59/); the inventory, [pp. 64–67](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-64/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" ([pp. 72–86](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-72/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others" ([p. 100](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-100/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- Chapter 2, "There Is a Solution" ([pp. 19](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-19/), 25): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt2.pdf
- Chapter 9, "The Family Afterward" ([p. 127](https://recoverystarts.com/big-book/page-127/)): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt9.pdf
- The full books, including *A.A. Comes of Age* and *Pass It On*: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| All our sources (searched): Big Book, pamphlets, history, stories, service | — | various |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapters 2, 4–7, 9 | 19, 25, 50, 59, 64–67, 72, 76–78, 84, 86, 100, 127 | 1939 |
| Foreword to the Second Edition | xvi | 1955 |
| "He Sold Himself Short," Part I; "It Might Have Been Worse," Part II | 263, 355 | personal stories, fourth edition (2001) |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* | — | 1957 |
| *Pass It On* | — | 1984 |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (searched) | — | 1980 |

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.*