# What do "selfishness—self-centeredness!" and "self-will run riot" mean in the Big Book?

**In short:**
- Both are on page 62 of Chapter 5, in the book's explanation of Step Three. "Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles." (p. 62) The alcoholic is "an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so" (p. 62).
- The book's picture of self-will is an actor who wants to run the whole show (pp. 60–61). He may be "kind, considerate, patient, generous" (p. 61). In this sense, selfishness isn't only greed. It is trying to arrange life to suit ourselves, "even though our motives are good" (p. 60).
- It isn't offered as name-calling or as a flaw only alcoholics have. "Most people try to live by self-propulsion." (p. 60) The alcoholic is an extreme case (p. 62).
- The diagnosis leads straight to a remedy. "Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness." (p. 62) "We must, or it kills us!" (p. 62) "God makes that possible." (p. 62)

## Where the lines sit

The lines come in the book's explanation of Step Three. Right after the a, b, c, the book asks what turning our will and our life over to God means, and starts with self-will: "The first requirement is that we be convinced that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success." (p. 60) Living that way, "we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good" (p. 60).

## The actor (pp. 60–62)

The book draws a picture. Each person is "like an actor who wants to run the whole show" (p. 60), arranging the lights, the scenery and the other players his own way. If only people would do as he wished, the show would be great (p. 61). He may be quite virtuous while he does it, or he may be mean and dishonest, or most likely a mix (p. 61). The show goes badly, he tries harder, he gets angry and self-pitying, and he blames others (p. 61).

Then the questions. "Is he not really a self-seeker even when trying to be kind?" (p. 61) "Is he not, even in his best moments, a producer of confusion rather than harmony?" (p. 61) The book lines up the retired businessman, the minister, politicians and reformers, the safe-cracker and the alcoholic who is locked up, and asks: "are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity?" (p. 62)

## The two lines (p. 62)

"Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles." (p. 62) The book says what drives it: fear, self-delusion, self-seeking and self-pity. Driven by them, we step on other people's toes, and they hit back (p. 62). Even when we're hurt seemingly without provocation, we find that some earlier decision "based on self" put us in a position to be hurt (p. 62).

"So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making." (p. 62) The alcoholic is "an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so" (p. 62).

Twice the book says "we think." It offers this as its conclusion from experience.

## What follows: the remedy (pp. 62–63)

The lines are a diagnosis, and the book moves straight to the treatment.

- **It can't be done alone.** Many members had moral convictions they couldn't live up to. "Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power." (p. 62) "We had to have God's help." (p. 62)
- **Quit playing God.** "First of all, we had to quit playing God." (p. 62) God is to be the Director, and we his agents (p. 62).
- **The result.** "Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs." (p. 63) "More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life." (p. 63)
- **The Third Step prayer** asks: "Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will." (p. 63)

## Self-will is not the same as will

The book doesn't condemn willpower as such. In Chapter 6, after the daily prayer "Thy will (not mine) be done," it says: "We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish." (p. 85) "It is the proper use of the will." (p. 85) Self-will, in the book's sense, is a life run on self: "our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves" (p. 76). In the morning prayer of Step Eleven, "We ask especially for freedom from self-will" (p. 87).

Bill's own story says the same thing earlier. The new way of life was "Simple, but not easy" (p. 14), and "It meant destruction of self-centeredness." (p. 14)

## Does context change the common reading?

It complicates it. Quoted alone, "selfishness" can sound like plain greed, and "self-will run riot" like a label for bad people. In the book, self-centredness includes our kind and generous moments when they are aimed at arranging life our way. Most people live like that, and the alcoholic is an extreme case. The passage is a diagnosis, given so the reader can see why he needs God's help, and it ends in a prayer to be relieved of self "that I may better do Thy will." The book does mean it when it calls self the root of our troubles. That part stands.

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" (pp. 58–71), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" (pp. 72–88): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Related: *What are the a, b, c of p. 60 ("probably no human power… God could and would if He were sought")?* · *What is the Third Step prayer, and where is it?* · *Is helping others selfish if it keeps me sober?* · *Where is "resentment is the number one offender," and what does it mean?*
- 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 5, "How It Works" | 60–63 | 1939 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapter 6, "Into Action" | 76, 85, 87 | 1939 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapter 1, "Bill's Story" | 14 | 1939 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). The Preface says the program text "has been left largely untouched" since 1939 (p. xi); our sources have no first edition to compare page numbers against.

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