Recovery as an Interactive Process: Explanation and Empowerment in 12-Step Programs

Abstract

The increasing popularity of the recovery movement suggests that movement ideology is serving a function for many individuals. This article examines how the understandings available through popular recovery movement literature and programs are regarded as empowering by those engaged in what they define as a process of recovery. Through ethnographic investigation and interviews, the common communicative elements of the process are examined, and aspects of recovery that hover above popular notions are delineated. An example of this is the paradox of powerlessness on which many recovery programs are based. The understandings allow for a change in the communicative stance in the world of the recovering person, and provide a means for the reconstruction of both personal identity and personal history. Furthermore, it ties these processes of personal change to processes of social change.

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