please excuse the off topicness, but, does anyone reading this consider the MI's as abusive? The remark about Ross rang a bell, sorry... In the trenches of front-line activism activities, I have maintained that MI's are a form of psychological abuse that may not get the attention it deserves. It was and still is one of those pain in the ass kind of chores that is required even today by clients of spinoff programs. I've heard some folks say that they don't consider it abuse, it's just a PIA chore based on AA philosophies, and others who agree with me about it being a brainwashing tool. Thank you for an opinion.
Rusty
OTHER PEOPLE READING YOUR MI is abuse.
Writing MI Moral Inventory is probably one of the good habits taught in the programs.
Writing MI is good.
Being REQUIRED to write MI is wrong.
Other people reading your MI before your death is not only wrong,its also unAmerican.
I disagree because I never could have even written an M.I. if the oldcomers didn't "teach" me how to do it "right". It was a practice scripted by the cult. It changed my thought processes from what I used to write and think about before, and it certainly didn't make me a better person.
That inventory of moral failings stuff is really popular in 12-step groups, maybe that is what you are thinking about when you say they are good? To go over your shortcomings at the end of every day seems self-obsessive, plus it's a prescripted formula. I had to shake off that kind of thing getting out of 12-step cults after Straight. People in 12-step groups were awfully concerned about all their actions shortcomings and emotional states, which I don't think is really helpful at all, I think it made people miserable and they didn't even realize. Sponsors and people in the cult took that "working your steps" stuff really seriously. I once wrote pages and pages to "do my fourth step," and it didn't make me happier or anything, it was a continuation of the neurotic self-obsession thing. It gives me the shivers to think about those 12-step meetings with people talking about how they worked their steps. I don't think half those people really wanted to ever use and the 12 steps and the slogans really kept them from doing drugs or drinking. I think really they wanted a good story to tell in a meeting about how they almost used and then the 12 steps saved them, when really they just decided not to use.
If you have some kind of personal practice, that's your thing. But I'm a little weirded out. Do some survivors still do M.I.s every night, or even ever? That would be weird, if people still did M.I.s and called other survivors for dime therapy. Really weird. Now I'm kind of curious.
