

Does Science Show What 12 Steps Know? - rdudekul
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130809-addiction-twelve-steps-alcoholics-anonymous-science-neurotheology-psychotherapy-dopamine/

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lutusp
A quote: "Yet the success of the 12-step approach may ultimately be explained
through medical science and psychology."

Wait, what? Psychology doesn't _explain_ things, it _describes_ them. If it
were possible for psychology to explain things, it would become a science, and
because of established principles and reliable evidence, clinical
psychologists would no longer be free to offer any treatment that comes into
their heads.

But this is a very unlikely outcome. Psychology's biggest obstacle is its
subject, the mind, an entity not accessible to objective empirical
observation. Psychology's standing has declined to the point that the director
of the National Institute of Mental Health, saying "patients with mental
disorders deserve better", recently decided to abandon psychology's "bible",
the DSM, as a source for science (it will remain as a diagnostic guide):

[http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-
dia...](http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-
diagnosis.shtml)

This is not to say that 12-step programs don't work. It is to say that the
reasons they work are not a realistic subject for scientific research.

