The Language of the Heart: A Cultural History of the Recovery Movement from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey

About this book

In The Language of the Heart Trysh Travis explores the rich cultural history of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and its offshoots and the larger "recovery movement" that has grown out of them. Moving from AAs beginnings in the mid-1930s as a mens fellowship that met in church basements to the thoroughly commercialized addiction treatment centers of today Travis chronicles the development of recovery and examines its relationship to the broad American tradition of self-help highlighting the roles that gender mysticism and bibliotherapy have played in that development.