Dr. Gabor Maté ~ Who We Are When We Are Not Addicted: The Possible Human

The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety, by Bill Wilson The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety by Bill Wilson Copyright © AA Grapevine, Inc, January 1958 (Aslo see: A Letter From Bill W. on Depression, from the memoirs of Tom Pike, an early California AA member, which is strikingly similar to this AA Grapevine Article, "The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety.") I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA—the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God. Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance—urges quite appropriate to age seventeen—prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven. Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy may still elude us. Suddenly I realized what the matter was. Bill W.