Recovery Careers of People in Alcoholics Anonymous: Moral Careers Revisited

The concept of the “moral career” has been used to study the normative sequence of statuses that the mental patient (Goffman, 1959), the marijuana user (Becker, 1953), and the psychiatric resident (Light, 1980) experience as they develop a new identity. This work is limited, though, because these three authors do not discuss variations from the normative model of the moral careers they describe. In this paper I reexamine the moral career looking at participants in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). While a wealth of research has been devoted to studying the recovery careers of AA participants, the primary focus has been on the moral career of the member who abstains from alcohol, commits herself to AA activities, and embeds herself in social networks that largely consist of other AA members. As a result, we learn mostly about the ideal career path that people should follow in recovery, and not the range of moral careers that members actually exhibit. I compensate for this shortcoming by analyzing the range of roles and statuses occupied by AA Insiders, including AA Regulars, Rank and File members, Bleeding Deacons, Elder Statesmen, and Circuit Speakers. I also discuss the alternative moral careers that depart from the ideal Insider recovery career, including the Tourist, the Relapse career, and the Graduate career. These moral careers reflect variation in AA members' commitment to and participation in AA-related activities.