Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis studies the relationship between subjective experience and social environment during recovery from alcoholism in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). As a result of participation in AA meetings, many alcoholics undergo healing transformations involving a sense of acceptance of themselves, others and the world. In early sobriety these experiences often remove an alcoholic’s desire to drink. Outside AA, however, alcoholics frequently experience subjective unravelling – a sense of conflict with themselves, others and the world. For many, this subjective state is associated with actual or potential craving for a drink. Regular participation in AA meetings alleviates these states. This thesis construes the relationship between subjective experience and immediate social environment in terms of ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. This conceptual category can be used to characterise both the structural properties of the social environment and the key attributes of the subjective experience of agents within this environment. Listening to stories at AA meetings results for many alcoholics in a radical change in ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. It is argued that the process of spontaneous re-connection with one’s past experiences during AA meetings is akin to the process of mobilisation of embodied dispositions as theorised by Bourdieu. Transformation in AA takes place in the space of a mere one and a half hours and involves processes of intensification of experience. These are analysed in terms of Bourdieu’s notion of ‘illusio’ and Chion’s notion of ‘rendu’. The healing experiences of acceptance presuppose a social environment free of interpersonal conflict. This thesis argues that the need to structurally eliminate conflict between alcoholics has turned AA into a social field which is sustained by the very healing subjective experiences that it facilitates. In the process, AA has developed structural elements which can best be understood as mechanisms inverting the social logic of competitive fields. The fieldwork entailed a detailed ethnographic study of one particular group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Sydney’s Lower North Shore as well as familiarisation with the more general culture of AA in Sydney. Methods of investigation included participant observations at AA meetings and interviews with a number of sober alcoholics in AA.

Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis studies the relationship between subjective experience and social environment during recovery from alcoholism in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). As a result of participation in AA meetings, many alcoholics undergo healing transformations involving a sense of acceptance of themselves, others and the world. In early sobriety these experiences often remove an alcoholic’s desire to drink. Outside AA, however, alcoholics frequently experience subjective unravelling – a sense of conflict with themselves, others and the world. For many, this subjective state is associated with actual or potential craving for a drink. Regular participation in AA meetings alleviates these states. This thesis construes the relationship between subjective experience and immediate social environment in terms of ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. This conceptual category can be used to characterise both the structural properties of the social environment and the key attributes of the subjective experience of agents within this environment. Listening to stories at AA meetings results for many alcoholics in a radical change in ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. It is argued that the process of spontaneous re-connection with one’s past experiences during AA meetings is akin to the process of mobilisation of embodied dispositions as theorised by Bourdieu. Transformation in AA takes place in the space of a mere one and a half hours and involves processes of intensification of experience. These are analysed in terms of Bourdieu’s notion of ‘illusio’ and Chion’s notion of ‘rendu’. The healing experiences of acceptance presuppose a social environment free of interpersonal conflict. This thesis argues that the need to structurally eliminate conflict between alcoholics has turned AA into a social field which is sustained by the very healing subjective experiences that it facilitates. In the process, AA has developed structural elements which can best be understood as mechanisms inverting the social logic of competitive fields. The fieldwork entailed a detailed ethnographic study of one particular group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Sydney’s Lower North Shore as well as familiarisation with the more general culture of AA in Sydney. Methods of investigation included participant observations at AA meetings and interviews with a number of sober alcoholics in AA.