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Five Decades of Recovery Wisdom, Shared with Soul.

Dr. Gordon will be interviewed tomorrow morning, December 15, from 11:00AM until 11:15 about his new book on the Morning Show with Bob Langstaff, on WAMV-AM, Amhearst, Virginia. Tune in if you are able.

We also note that Dr. Gordon was a guest on Tom Dutta’s The Quiet Warrior podcast this past Monday. It was a great interview, and we will let you know when it is archived and you can watch it.

I have some radio interviews and podcasts coming up. Here is the schedule at this point:

Review of The Twelve Step Pathway: A Heroic Journey of Recovery, by Dr. Michael Cowl Gordon

This book presents a welcome, highly useful contribution to the struggle for recovery from addiction which is presently blighting the entire world to a staggering degree. The full toll of the scourge of addiction on contemporary humanity can perhaps never be fully reckoned; nonetheless it is clear that the emotional, vocational, financial, and general human-loss costs of addiction throughout the world are difficult if not impossible to overstate. Accordingly, the insights and understanding of the nature of addiction, and the reasoned approach to recovery presented in this book, are timely in the most vital sense.

The author possesses not only a profound comprehension of the nature of addiction, but also years of clinical experience in helping thousands to recover. His medical training and many decades in practice, his broad and deep learning in the arts, sciences, and humanities (including religion and philosophy) and decades of direct, hands-on experience in helping others to recover, provide a rare combination of traits from which to offer insight and guidance toward recovery from addiction. The formidable, frightful power of addiction to degrade and to destroy human lives calls for equally powerful remediation; Dr. Gordon’s experience, knowledge, and wisdom presented in this book serve the purpose of guidance toward remediation well.

Though The Twelve Step Pathway: A Heroic Journey of Recovery draws upon sacred literature and a wide array of learning from the humanities and from modern science, the “journey of recovery” described (and prescribed) in the book are non-sectarian; in fact, the “Heroic Journey” is thoroughly inclusive — it is for any and all who wish to recover from addiction. This volume will also prove useful for those not in the throes of addiction but who wish to deepen their understanding of the malady and to comprehend a sound, tried-and-true 12 step pathway that has enabled millions to recover and pursue rewarding, fulfilling lives.

The book is organized around 10 chapters that begin with “The Heroic Journey: A Quest for Redemption and Wholeness,” and concludes with a chapter of practical, personal usefulness entitled “Workbook: Understanding Your Own Heroic Journey of Recovery.” The book is well-written, free of jargon, and though drawing upon insights and knowledge from a broad range of the arts, humanities, and sciences, it presupposes no specific knowledge-base to be comprehensible. Thus, The Twelve Step Pathway: A Heroic Journey of Recovery promises to be useful to a broad readership. It is to be hoped that many will benefit from this much-needed effort to remedy the contemporary blight of addiction by discovering therein a way to their own heroic journey to recovery. Modern society owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Gordon for his decades of labor in the field of recovery from addiction, crowned appropriately by the publication of this much-needed volume.

— Jim W., Bangor Maine, USA
October 4, 2023

Dr. Gordon had an interview about his book, The Twelve Step Pathway: A Heroic Journey of Recovery today on the Hollis Chapman Show featured on BlogTalk Radio. In the meantime please go to the BlogTalk Radio website to hear the interview.

On November 11, 2023, we are having a signing of my new book, The Twelve Step Pathway: A Heroic Journey of Recovery. It will be held at The Berman Center, 6425 Powers Ferry Road, Sandy Springs, GA. We will be in the first floor conference room which you can’t miss as it is just beyond the front door. We will hold the event from 11 to 12:30. The book may be purchased on site.

Thanks to Mr. Frank Reiss of A Capella Books for providing this service. Light refreshments will be served. Y’all come now!

Michael Cowl Gordon, a specialist in addiction medicine with extensive personal experience in recovery, offers a captivating book that combines clinical insight with the power of the 12-step program – “The Twelve Step Pathway – A Heroic Journey of Recovery“.

Through a collection of individual stories, Gordon beautifully demonstrates how individuals struggling with addiction can embark on a transformative journey of recovery. By utilizing the metaphor of the hero’s journey, he convincingly explains why the 12-step program holds the key to overcoming addiction.

This book is not only beneficial for clinicians seeking to understand the potential of the program but also provides a vivid portrayal of the strength and nuance within Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for those in recovery. Gordon skillfully interweaves literature, clinical expertise, and spirituality, creating an engaging read that offers profound insights into addiction and recovery from both the clinician and patient perspectives.

As an addiction physician in recovery myself, I highly recommend this book for its unwavering integrity, expansive literary scope, profound philosophical insights, and invaluable practical tips. Reading this book was like to going to a fabulous conference of excellent speakers. The stories were more than interesting and Gordon’s own grasp of AA and of the larger world of recovery was very telling. Finally, this book is a call to the power of abstinence in the world of addiction medicine, where harm reduction dominates. Gordon portrays the potency of thriving, rather than just surviving addiction.

Vera Tarman, MD

I am pleased to announce that my new book, The Twelve Step Pathway: A Heroic Journey of Recovery, is now scheduled for release by the publisher, Rowman & Littlefield on November 1, 2023.

With this book I present the idea of recovery from addiction as a heroic journey. I explain the heroic journey as an eight stage process as delineated by Joseph Campbell. I also devote some space to ideas of Carl Jung, a pioneering psychiatrist who played an inadvertent but key role in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The stages of the journey are:

  1. The Call to Adventure
  2. Refusal of the Call (or wish to refuse)
  3. Acceptance of the Call (and receipt of gifts that will promise success)
  4. The Adventure
  5. Achievement of the Quest
  6. The call to Return to the Kingdom with the Treasure
  7. Refusal of the Call to Return (or wish to refuse)
  8. Return to the Kingdom with the Treasure (for the benefit of the heroes’ community)

I give background on Bill Wilson, a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and identify how each of the twelve steps play an important role in the successful journey. A chapter is devoted to explaining the disease of addiction.

Included in the book are stories of eight individuals, written in their own words, in which they tell what their life of active addiction was like, what happened to arrest the disease, and what their life is like now as a recovering person. I also include the story of the biblical patriarch Jacob. I show how each of the stories illustrate the components of a heroic journey.

Finally, at the end of the book I include a workbook to help the reader examine his or her own life and recovery from the point of view of a heroic journey. As more information about the publication becomes available, I will post it.

Some time last year I made the comment to Judy, my dear wife, that I don’t think I experience joy.

She found this disturbing, and bought me The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, by Douglas Abrams, and tells the story of the visit of Archbishop Desmond Tutu to His Holiness, the Dalai Lama on the occasion of the Dalai Lama’s eightieth birthday. Meeting at the home of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, they spent five days together talking about joy.

I found the interaction of these two great spiritual leaders to be a special pleasure, and I believe I have learned some important lessons, as well as having been reminded of others. For one thing, I discovered that I had a limited understanding of joy. I had thought it was extreme happiness. I now understand happiness to be a mind experience based on how things are going in life. Joy is more of a heart /soul experience which comes from within, and does not depend upon external conditions.

They identify eight pillars of joy, four of the mind and four of the heart. The four pillars of the mind are perspective, humor, humility, and acceptance. The four pillars of the heart are forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity. One achieves a joyful life by cultivating these characteristics through experiencing life and through meditation. Experiencing life is necessary to joy because it is not possible to to forgive, to be grateful, to accept the past, to be humble without having experienced suffering. How can I have compassion for you unless I can relate to your suffering? How can I be grateful if I have not suffered injustice and deprivation?

According to these great men, certain important characteristics are part of human nature. These include an instinct for fairness (justice), a need to be part of a community, and an instinct to be compassionate. Though coming from different religious traditions, they found little to disagree about. What was clear was that they knew how to have fun, and they enjoyed teasing, laughing with and at themselves and each other. They were playful, hardly what I would have expected from men who had experienced the lives of struggle that had been their lot.

I picked up on some powerful statements which provide guidance for what to seek in life. For example, there is no benefit to loving my neighbor as myself if I do not love myself. And from the Archbishop, “The path of joy (is) connection, and the path of sorrow (is) separation. When we see others as separate, they become a threat. When we see others as part of us, as connected, as interdependent, then there is no challenge we cannot face—together.” He also said, “As we discover more joy we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreak without being broken.” And from the Dalai Lama: “Too much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others’ well-being is the source of happiness.” He adds, “The only thing that will bring happiness is compassion and warmheartedness. This really brings inner strength and self-confidence, develops trust, and trust brings friendship. We are social animals, and cooperation is necessary for our survival, but cooperation is entirely based on trust.”

For many years, but especially for the past year or two I have spent much time contemplating spiritual matters. One of the words that I meditate on daily is compassion. Many times during the day I remind myself to be compassionate and kind. It was encouraging to read that compassion tops the list of human virtues to which to aspire. Compassion means to “suffer with.” Having compassion for others is a direct antidote to the constricting trap of self-absorption. As in the Cherokee saying, you can either feed the Good Wolf or the Bad Wolf.

Clearly, the pursuit of joy will be successful through the pursuit of loving qualities, those of compassion, forgiveness, and generosity. In this way we can develop the qualities of gratefulness, acceptance, and humility, and as I have begun to experience and finally recognize for myself, joy. May you all find your own joy on your journey through life.

A review of Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps by Richard Rohr, Franciscan Media, 2011, 2021

Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest of the Roman Catholic church who has been gifted with deep spiritual awareness along with superb communication skills. Thus, he has been able to educate and inspire people for many years, people who were suffering and seeking to make sense of their lives. In 2011 he brought new insights into the problem of addictions with the publication of this marvelous book. It was updated and reissued in 2021. He draws on his life experience as a priest, educator, and counselor in this effort. He shares pearls of wisdom gleaned from the Bible as well as from some of my spiritual mentors including Meister Eckhart, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, and Thomas Merton.

Father Rohr understands addiction as excessive attachment to anything which feeds the ego (e.g. wealth, power, sex) or provides an escape from life (e.g. alcohol, food, gambling). Even religion can be an addiction. He rightly says that because of the denial involved in such a process the afflicted person, group, or society is unable to see the situation for what it has become. Such attachments squeeze the spiritual breath out of people, groups, and even whole societies.

Father Rohr understands that many people are unable to find the spiritual answer to their addictions in the church—that the spiritual solution for such people is in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous or other Twelve Step fellowship. He says that the way out of the addictive dilemma must be a spiritual one, but seldom do persons with addictions find religion to be an effective starting point on their journey of healing. In this regard, the program of Alcoholics Anonymous provides the spiritual community and plan of action that meets this need.

As Father Richard says, and as often been heard at meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, “Religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell, and spirituality is for those who have already been there.” He emphasizes the importance of ego reduction, of moving the center of awareness from the head to the heart where we are most likely to make a personal connection with a Higher Power, whether called God or not. He says that learning to pray is the work of moving the effort from the head to the heart where we can feel the spiritual energy rather than thinking about it.

His book provides a valuable understanding of recovery as a spiritual pathway, guided by the Twelve Steps. My hope is that this book finds its way to the millions of people who are involved at any stage of recovery from addiction, or indeed any life circumstance which has brought on suffering.

After somewhat in excess of fifty years, I am finally giving up the clinical practice of medicine.

I closed my private practice in 2019, but have continued as the Medical Director of the Berman Center, an Intensive Out-Patient and Partial Hospitalization Program in Atlanta where we treat both addictive and mental health disorders. My last day at the Berman Center will be February 28, 2023.

As I look back, I have immense gratitude for the opportunity to share in the struggles of what must be thousands of people, some of whom have told me that I made a difference in their lives. On February 24, I am receiving a Lifetime Service Award from the Caron Foundation in Atlanta. It seems to me that the two main and obviously related criteria for such an award are that one must work for a very long time, and not die before the Awards Breakfast.

However, the concept of retirement does not apply, because I have a new career as an author. Although I did publish Autobiography of a Georgia Cat in 2004, I then gave up writing, finding that it took up too much of my time. My plan was to resume writing after retirement from clinical practice. Closing my office gave me the needed time to resume writing, this time not a novel but a non-fiction book in my field of addiction.

I am pleased to announce that my book, The Twelve Step Pathway: A Heroic Journey of Recovery, will be published by Rowman & Littlefield this fall. As time goes on I will post further information. The book is the first in-depth treatment of the convergence of the Twelve Steps with the Heroic Journey, and I hope it will find a receptive audience. As always, my goal in life has been to help others, and I believe many people will find this book a useful user’s manual to have in their recovery tool kit.