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What does "Rarely have we seen a person fail" really say, and who does it say may not recover?

In short:

  • It's the first sentence of Chapter 5, "How It Works." The book says that rarely "have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path" (p. 58). It's a strong claim, but it has a condition: it's about people who follow the path thoroughly.
  • The same paragraph names who may not recover: people who "cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program" (p. 58). These are usually people "constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves" (p. 58), and some with "grave emotional and mental disorders" (p. 58).
  • It doesn't blame them. Of the first group it says "They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way." (p. 58) Their chances are "less than average" (p. 58), which is not the same as none. Of the second group, "many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest" (p. 58).
  • Read in place, the paragraph turns on honesty. Right after the Steps, the book says no one has managed "anything like perfect adherence to these principles" (p. 60), so "thoroughly" doesn't mean perfectly.

The line alone

Quoted by itself, the first sentence can be heard two ways. One is as a guarantee: follow the path and you won't fail. The other turns it around into a verdict on anyone who doesn't recover: he must not have followed it thoroughly. Neither reading can be checked against the sentence alone. It needs the rest of its paragraph.

The whole paragraph (p. 58)

The opening paragraph of Chapter 5 is short. In order, it says:

  1. The claim. Rarely "have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path" (p. 58). The word is "rarely," not "never."
  2. Who doesn't recover. Those who "cannot or will not" give themselves completely to the program (p. 58). The paragraph names both: "will not" is a refusal, "cannot" is an inability.
  3. The usual reason. Most are "constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves" (p. 58). The book goes on: "There are such unfortunates." (p. 58) "They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way." (p. 58) They can't grasp and develop a way of living "which demands rigorous honesty" (p. 58). And: "Their chances are less than average." (p. 58)
  4. A second group. "There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders" (p. 58), and "many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest" (p. 58).

So the paragraph names two conditions for recovery: giving oneself completely to "this simple program," and the capacity to be honest. Where people fall short of the second, it calls them unfortunate, not guilty.

What comes right after (pp. 58–60)

The "path" isn't left vague. The paragraph itself calls it "this simple program" (p. 58), and the next page introduces the Twelve Steps as "suggested as a program of recovery" (p. 59). In between, the book says what it asks of the reader. If you want what the members have and are willing to go to any length for it, "then you are ready to take certain steps" (p. 58). "At some of these we balked." (p. 58) And it begs the reader "to be fearless and thorough from the very start" (p. 58).

Then, right after the Steps, the book heads off the idea that "thoroughly" means flawlessly. "No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles." (p. 60) "We are not saints." (p. 60) "We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection." (p. 60)

Does context change the common reading?

It complicates both readings.

  • As a guarantee: the book does mean the claim, and repeats its call for thoroughness. But it says "rarely," and the condition is following the path thoroughly. The same chapter says nobody follows it perfectly.
  • As a verdict on those who don't recover: the paragraph won't carry it. Its own explanation includes people who "cannot," who are "not at fault," and whose chances are lower but not gone. It describes people who are incapable of being honest with themselves, and it calls them unfortunates. It doesn't talk about relapse at all.

Later sources (dated, read with care)

  • The Foreword to the Second Edition (1955) gives A.A.'s own figures as they stood then. Of alcoholics "who came to A.A. and really tried" (p. xx), half got sober at once and stayed that way, a quarter sobered up "after some relapses," and of the rest, those who stayed on showed improvement (p. xx). So by 1955 the book itself counted people who really tried and still relapsed before they recovered.
  • Pass It On (1984), a biography of Bill W., says he wrote this paragraph when he wrote the Steps, and that an earlier manuscript said "directions" where the book now says "path." It also tells a story that Bill later wanted to change "rarely" to "never." The book calls that story apocryphal: "Bill himself said he never considered that change." (Pass It On, 1984)

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages First published
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 5, "How It Works" 58–60 1939
Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the Second Edition xx 1955 (after 1950)
Pass It On (A.A. World Services) the chapter on writing the Big Book 1984 (after 1950)

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 and Pass It On are © 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.