Editing Alcoholics Anonymous (section)

=== Disease model ===
Though AA usually avoids the term ''disease''{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}, 1973 conference-approved literature said "we had the disease of alcoholism",<ref>{{citation |title=Is A.A. for You? |date=11 January 2017 |url=http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-3_isaaforyou.pdf |access-date=14 May 2017 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/p-3_isaaforyou.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |location=New York |publisher=Alcoholics Anonymous World Services}}{{better source needed|reason=original 1973 version needed|date=May 2017}}</ref> while ''Living Sober'', published in 1975, contains several references to alcoholism as a disease,<ref name="LivingSober">{{cite book |title=Living Sober |year=1975 |publisher=Alcoholics Anonymous World Services|isbn=978-0-916856-04-5}}</ref>{{rp|23, 32, 40}} including a chapter urging the reader to "Remember that alcoholism is an incurable, progressive, fatal disease".<ref name=LivingSober />{{rp|7–10}} Regardless of official positions, since AA's inception, most members have believed alcoholism to be a disease.<ref name="bhrm.org" /> Its association with AA, as well as a good deal of its broader acceptance, stems from many members propagating it.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kurtz |first=Ernest |year=2002 |title=Alcoholics Anonymous and the Disease Concept of Alcoholism |url=https://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/Dr.%20Ernie%20Kurtz%20on%20AA%20%26%20the%20Disease%20Concept%2C%202002.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly |publisher=Informa UK Limited |volume=20 |issue=3–4 |pages=5–39 |doi=10.1300/j020v20n03_02 |issn=0734-7324 |s2cid=144972034 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126121627/https://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/Dr.%20Ernie%20Kurtz%20on%20AA%20%26%20the%20Disease%20Concept%2C%202002.pdf |archive-date=2012-01-26}}</ref>

Bill Wilson explained in 1960 why AA had refrained from using the term ''disease'':{{blockquote|We AAs have never called alcoholism a disease because, technically speaking, it is not a disease entity. For example, there is no such thing as heart disease. Instead, there are many separate heart ailments or combinations of them. It is something like that with alcoholism. Therefore, we did not wish to get in wrong with the medical profession by pronouncing alcoholism a disease entity. Hence, we have always called it an illness or a malady—a far safer term for us to use.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gately |first=Iain |date=2008 |title=Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol |publisher=Penguin Group |page=[https://archive.org/details/drinkculturalhis00gate_0/page/417 417] |isbn=9781592403035 |url=https://archive.org/details/drinkculturalhis00gate_0/page/417 }}</ref>}}