Abstract

NOGUEIRA, Dionete Maria Mendes  and  JUNIOR, Achilles Gonçalves Coelho. Alcoholics anonymous and relapse: analysis in the light of the elemental experience. Psicol. rev. (Belo Horizonte) [online]. 2018, vol.24, n.2, pp.541-558. ISSN 1677-1168.  https://doi.org/10.5752/P.1678-9563.2018v24n2p541-558.

Relapse is considered in some studies as a process which comprises both the return to the use of a chemical substance as well as the previous moments warning about the danger of an abstemious person to relapse. The Alcoholics Anonymous Program (AA) aims to reach sobriety based on total alcohol abstinence. The objective of the research was to analyze the expression of elemental experience in the process of relapse experienced by AA members, through the elaboration of the subjects’ experiences. It turns out to be a qualitative research, where the data collection procedure occurred through semi-structured interviews. The interviewees were five members from three AA groups in the city of Montes Claros-MG. We applied the phenomenological analysis to process the data, which allowed us to establish four thematic categories: belonging; personal positioning; requirement for being; and religious experience. The dynamics of the alcoholics’ elementary experience, expressed in the relapse process is the guide to their attitudes towards themselves and the world.

Keywords : Alcoholics Anonymous; Relapse; Elemental experience; Phenomenology.

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