Why Do People Ignore Frey’s Anti-AA, Anti-Disease, and Anti-Treatment Message?
Most people are so prejudiced in favor of – or just don’t recognize any alternative to – 12 steps and AA, they don’t hear Frey’s negative attitudes towards this approach. AA is the most successful combination of a social movement/public relations organization in twentieth century America . It has cornered the addiction treatment market – indeed, its 12 steps have been applied to virtually every unhealthy habit Americans can have. On top of this, it may be that Frey laid on his sensationalistic “accounts” of debauchery and mayhem so thick that most readers were distracted from his critique of 12-step therapy. Furthermore, Frey began to downplay his anti-AA and anti-treatment philosophy. When Frey appeared on John Stossel’s anti-treatment special on ABC (“Help Me, I Can’t Help Myself”) with one of us (SP) in April 2003, he ridiculed the 12 steps. But when Frey appeared on Oprah after being selected for her book club in the fall of 2005, he seemed to change his tune. Viewers were unable t
