This is the issue that so many people dismiss when falling into the same Freud vs. Jung “complex” as even they seemed to have done. First of all, Freud’s psychoanalysis would not have turned the 4th Step into the 1st Step. In fact, this program is LOADED with Freud all over it. When in the Big Book they make reference to “We needed to get down to causes and conditions” you are talking about analyzing exactly what is causing this drinking issue. When we turn our will and our lives over in Step 3 we have decided that based on analyis nothing but a Higher Power can help [us]. When I do a Sixth Step I am forced to take a look at my character defects and while I may initially not see them all, they usually come from Step 4 and an analysis of where our behavior comes from. When further on in the Program we continue asking for character defects to be removed in Step Seven becasue they continuously pop up we usually do a Fourth Step on something, quite impromptu but done none the less, and there we see that Freudianesque analysis again.

Shall I go on? I would like to reassure the world who believes Freud and AA could not coexist, that it is much more along the lines of people like C. Jung existing because of Freud. What was their disagreement? One wanted to expand while the other wanted to increase in depth? Individuals who discount Freud and applaud only Jung disregard where Jung even began thinking that a Spiritual solution was the only way. That came from analysis. Analysis he gained studying under Freud. The medical model is more binary than psychology. That being said, please do not discount where individuals gain their knowledge, neither their own thinking and how they apply it to their lives. If you choose the way of entropy to exponentially grow in all directions, my suggestion to you is to study Jung, but take a look at Freud and how he analyzed things. You may just see what made Jung decide Spirituality is the only way to go for an Alcoholic or other 12-Step Program Taker. And who knows, it may be the answer to someone asking the simple question of “Why?”