Many Roads One Journey: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps Paperback – 17 June 1992
by Charlotte S Kasl (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 80 ratings
Paperback
$40.77
From the author of Women, Sex, and Addiction, a timely and controversial second look at 12-Step programs, helping all readers to draw on the steps' underlying wisdom, adapting them to their own experiences, beliefs, and sources of strength.
Review
""Many Roads, One Journey" is a pioneering work with a depth of insight and social consciousness that are rare in the addiction field, which all too often seeks simple answers for complex problems. Kasl's 16 steps for empowerment and her re-framing of codependency as Internalized oppression are gifts for "all" women." -- "Stephanie Covington, Ph.D., author of Leaving the Enchanted
Forest""Dynamically moving beyond learned helplessness and the marketplace of fear, Dr. Kasl's courageous new book offers readers real choices-diverse empowerment alternatives for achieving and maintaining a high quality of life in recovery. This Is an essential and groundbreaking work." -- "James Christopher, founder and executive director of Secular Organizations for Sobriety/Save Our Selves (SOS), and author of How to Stay Sober and SOS Sobriety"
About the Author
Charlotte D. Kasl is a social activist and a psychologist at the forefront of the empowerment movement sweeping the recovery field. She lectures and leads workshops in the United States and abroad and lives near Missoula, MT.
Product details
Publisher : Harper Perennial; 1st edition (17 June 1992)
Language : English
Paperback : 448 pages
From other countries
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE THIS BOOK.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 21 December 2022
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I was working a 12 step programme not for substance abuse but rather ' behavioural addiction.' As a survivor of domestic violence and other abuse I felt very triggered often and felt like the perpetrators should be working these steps!!! As one review mentions: 'The 12-step programme is great for calculating, manipulative, sociopathic / narcissistic male abusers and completely inappropriate for victimised women. ' I fully agree!!! :)
This book helped me to stop shaming myself and see that I have to find other avenues for my recovery. The only thing I like about the 12 steps is the fellows!! I have met many amazing women in fellowship!
Jeff
4.0 out of 5 stars Capitalism and Addiction
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 9 August 2017
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There is a lot of good to be said for this book, because the author focuses on the Christian foundations of AA which can be very troublesome for those of us who do not believe in a "sky god."
That said, she tends to be too judgmental about 12-step programs by not acknowledging that each group is autonomous and that the function of the 12 Steps, Traditions and Concepts is to keep everyone from wandering away from the core concepts of the program.
There are plenty of people who "translate" the words that trouble them into their own language so that they can focus on the spiritual core of the program. I've not finished the book yet but I do have to weigh in on the author's stress on the words 'patriarchy' and 'hierarchy'.
I realize that this book was written in 1992, when these words were used very often to bash evil men over the head. I didn't agree with that then and I still don't agree with it. Kasl barely touches on the root problem: capitalism.
I don't know if she ever read Marx's Capital or not but I think she would find that studying Marx would be very productive. Bruce Alexander wrote The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit in 2008 and I recommend it highly.
He draws some very interesting parallels between the spread of capitalism as an economic system and the soaring rates of addiction that really can't be ignored.
I think Kasl's book was wonderful at the time it was written and it is still very useful for those who have issues with 12-step programs, but she hasn't really gotten to the root of the problem, which is capitalism.
I will stress that, unlike so many "progressives", I don't blame anyone but ourselves for our predicament. As Pogo said many years ago, "We have met the enemy and he is us." It is up to each one of us to re-connect with a larger community.
Capitalism destroys community and because humans are social animals, that destruction of community leads to addiction. 12-step programs are a useful beginning, but they are not the entire answer and I do think that Kasl recognizes that.
I just wish that she had written her book from a Marxist perspective and hadn't focused on the 'hierarchy' and 'patriarchy' bogeymen. Women are not saints - they are just as susceptible to hierarchy and patriarchy as men. Many women are codependents, if you will, of capitalism. We are all in this together.
23 people found this helpful
Jay
5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you inspirational and affirming
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 20 April 2013
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Wow what a fantastic book, after 14 years of attending 12 step fellowships and a deep sense of feeling stuck in a box for years, i read this book. It puts into words all that I have felt and experienced. I like the fact that it seems rational and that it doesn't slate the whole AA/NA thing... but just voices a more measured way of thinking.
Tired of feeling disempowered and labelled a failure, despite years of sobriety for not agreeing with all of the dogma, I am finally free and ready to grow in a much more wholesome way. I love the truth and spirit. This book makes me realise my thinking and confidence, (not encouraged) in 12 step fellowships, has been on the money for years.
I only regret I didn't find this book after five years of recovery, unfortunately it took further years and work on myself to stand strong and believe in my own thinking, rather than staying a victim to the outdated and scientifically unsound approach of 12 step recovery. Charlotte Kasl, I salute you.
4 people found this helpful
ID
5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary & more white people in recovery ought to read this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 20 March 2021
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Interesting review from Jeff. Just say you're a man who doesn't want to be held accountable & go!
Are capitalism, patriarchy, homophobia & racism, sexism & misogynoir, not one?
I wish more people, white & Black, & particularly white in 12 step recovery would read this book.
There is no recovery without facing the roles & experiences we all have living in this ism ridden society.
One person found this helpful
Victoria Davies
3.0 out of 5 stars This is fine but not a basis of a book that denegrates ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 27 November 2016
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Not what I was hoping for. The book is interesting, introducing a fair chunk of feminist history/thinking, but is written mainly on the premise that some people don't find what they want/need in the rooms of 12 step fellowships and that this is principally because of its patriarchal, self punishing bent.
This is fine but not a basis of a book that denegrates 12 step recovery. It works for millions of people, just because it doesn't work for some doesn't mean it doesn't work. I am lucky to live somewhere where people are free to discover to their own path in AA and there is a prevailing attitude of live and let live. I understand this is not the same everywhere. But it didnt just happen - people made it happen by challenging the status quo when it was dominated by old men who thought they knew best. Also I find that a lot of therapists and writers, this author included, take the view that if AA etc worked people wouldn't still keep going when they've been sober for years, decades. News flash: if they didn't, the meetings wouldn't exist. I got some ideas from it but won't be using it as a recovery workbook.
2 people found this helpful
RE
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended Research
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 6 September 2021
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Balanced analysis of recovery models currently in use. Thought- provoking look at multiple viewpoints. Especially beneficial for those who question the path they’re currently on...
3 people found this helpful
Fredrika Spiewak
5.0 out of 5 stars Get this book if you feel any doubt about the 12 step programs of recovery
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 3 October 2016
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Dr. Kasl's book awakened in me the nature of the the discomfort i was feeling about 12 step recovery programs. Her work, although bit dated, is well worth the read for someone whose own ethics clash with the 12 step model of recovery. I have not had a drink for over 40 years. I stopped meetings for at least 18 years with no descent back into drinking i.e. I had a satisfying life as a student learning my way to a PhD in Depth Psychology. I rejoined AA out of loneliness when school ended and found the meetings run by white male good old boys. My education led me to some different conclusions about the 12 step model, and Dr. Kasl's work validated my strong feelings. Her book is well researched and I highly recommend it.
24 people found this helpful
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Recovery alternatives
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 12 November 2020
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About 1/2 way through this one. It’s got some practical tips for recovery programs and sums them up quite well
One person found this helpful
JayTEE
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for addicted women who don't 'get' AA / NA
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 24 February 2009
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I can't put it into better words than 'A Customer' already has. If you are a woman drinking off the back of the pain of trauma, abuse, neglect, shame, or guilt, being told you don't 'get' the programme or you're not working it properly and worst of all being encouraged to feel MORE shame and told you must make amends to the people you have harmed is just more abuse. The 12-step programme is great for calculating, manipulative, sociopathic / narcissistic male abusers and completely inappropriate for victimised women. This book resonated with every criticism I ever had of the 12-step programme and was a life saver. Again, I only wish I had found it sooner.
9 people found this helpful
Helen Mahoney
5.0 out of 5 stars
The book has a lot of things to relate to when doing a group session with patients.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 22 November 2020
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