What does this mean? (from The Doctor's Opinion)

LisaF · Senior Member

What does this mean? (from The Doctor's Opinion)

soberdrunk · MIP Old Timer

To me it pretty much describes my ways of thinking before I got sober to my ways of thinking now. When I was actively drinking, alcoholism, my morals were distorted, it was all about me, I think that's why they mention our knowledge being synthetic because it was knowledge fabricated to justify everything I was doing to myself, to get the next drink, and to keep in mind that I had no problem with drinking, I could take it or leave it at anytime, right? Wrong!

You see, I can no longer justify my drinking. I know it was wrong, I know I was hurting more people, other than myself, and most importantly I know I can no longer numb myself to reality anymore. Continuing this way of living is to die spiritually.

I can enjoy having morals, or a value system today. I know what the next right thing is to do. God gave me these natural instincts to use not to ignore and numb with alcohol.

Hope this helps. Just what it means to me.

Take care.

jonibaloni · MIP Old Timer

I believe that the Dr. who wrote this was speaking of the doctors themselves when he states that this business of presenting moral psychology was "beyond our synthetic knowledge". It means that Dr.s had tried up to that point to present different therapies involving spiritual (moral) judgement and behavior, but that they found that this type of spiritual (moral) therapeutic change, for a scientist (which is what Dr.s are... scientists) was not possible for them to induce.

Synthetice Knowledge...synthetic is the term used in science for something that does not naturally occur in nature; something that is man-made; human created or produced. For example; synthetic fabrics vs. natural fabrics... cotton cannot be created other than by the plant that naturally grows in the ground; nylon, on the other hand, is entirely made of chemicals in a lab...

Synthetic knowledge would be the knowledge scientists have gained by experimentation and invention; alcoholics have never been able to recover by way of these 'invented cures'... only by an entire psychic (spiritual) change.

What the doctor is doing here is humbling himself; he is basically saying that in the case of trying to find cures for alcoholism, the medical field itself had not come up with a viable solution. That the cure (daily reprieve, actually) comes from the realm of spirituality, which for Dr.s, is misunderstood and uncharted territory.

Whew...,. that is my take on this paragraph of the Dr's Opinion. Just remember, also, as you read through the Big Book, that there are those who have read it 1,000 times all the way through, and they STILL find something 'new', or begin to understand something they may not have understood the first 999 times!! :) Easy does it, Lisa. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep coming back!!!

LisaF · Senior Member

Thanks for the opinions! It makes it a little clearer, but then I did get two different opinions here... I just messaged my sponsor for her to call me and I'll ask her what she thinks it means too. I asked another friend I just met on another message board who goes to AA what their take on it was too. Maybe with a few different opinions I can come up with my own understanding of it.

LisaF · Senior Member

My friend I asked about it said basically the same thing as you joni, basically that there is no medical/psychological way to fix/cure alcoholism, it takes believing in a higher power and the fellowship with other alcoholics. This makes sense to me, I'll still see what my sponsor has to say about it. I'm waiting on her to call me back.

Phil · MIP Old Timer

The only person that can understand this alky...is another alky..:)

recovering jb · Senior Member

I think it means we have to look at the way we live our lives, as a part of our recovery-

That means past and present, trying to make amends, and live right today, not harming others or ourselves, but trying to help instead-

JB

Jcup · Newbie

Let's brake down the words, we know that one of the many definitions of moral is truth moral=truth and psychology deals with the mind when I add those to together its my minds ability to see the truth, now when we investigate what silky was talking about we know that this restoration was given to us through a simple religious idea or what Bill calls a spiritual experience or spiritual awaking.

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Wolfie55 · Senior Member

Whenever I encounter a word in AA that I don't understand, I google it. My sponsor had told me to look them up but we have google now. Wikipedia has a long definition that confused me more than I already was, so I skipped that paragraph and moved on. Perhaps the plain language big book will help when that comes out.