This episode of AA Beyond Belief the Podcast features an interview with William Porter, author of Alcohol Explained. William lives in London, England with his wife and two young children. He is currently a lawyer and previously served with the 4th (Volunteer) Battalion of the Parachute Regiment.
Alcohol Explained is a compelling examination of alcohol addiction, helpful to anyone who is coming to terms with a drinking problem or has a friend or loved one struggling with alcohol addiction. What follows is a summary of the book that William was kind enough to write which includes links to his website and reviews of the book.
Alcohol Explained
By William Porter
My object when writing Alcohol Explained was to explain alcohol and alcoholism from a chemical, physiological, and psychological standpoint.
So did I achieve my objective? That is not for me to say, it is for the alcoholics and problem drinkers the world over to say. It is they who will be the ultimate judge. And I genuinely believe that it is for them to judge, not for the so-called experts on addiction (unless they themselves have been addicted). It is the alcoholic who knows most about the phenomenon of alcoholism and who is best placed to judge if I have hit the mark or not, after all, it is they who have lived and breathed this curse for however many years they have suffered it. An ‘expert’ on alcoholism who has never suffered from alcoholism is like a person trying to write a travel guide for a country they have never visited.
Alcohol Explained does not touch on the spiritual side. It does not argue for or against the existence of God; this discussion is simply not addressed. This is not to say the book is only for atheists; it is simply for anyone who believes that spirituality and religion need not be the answer to addiction. So yes, it is for the atheist, but also for the person who believes that if there is a God, he (or she) doesn’t solve our problems for us, but rather has provided us with the potential for great intelligence, empathy, understanding and perception, and left it up to us to use these to solve our own problems. We tend to turn to God when we are confronted by something we don’t understand. A few thousand years ago we saw God everywhere. If the crops failed, it was God; if a baby was born with a caul on its face it was God, if there was an eclipse it was God. Now we know there are other explanations for these phenomena other than God directly causing them.
God steps back further and further into the shadows as we shed the light of understanding more and more onto the universe we live in. Will we one day shed light on the entire universe, and find there is no place left for God to hide? If we do ever get to this stage will we find God or nothing? Who knows, and frankly who cares? This theoretical place is so far away that if it happens at all, it won’t be in our lifetime, or our children’s, or grandchildren’s or great grandchildren’s lifetimes. All we need to do now is to open our minds to the possibility that things we do not understand now may be capable of explanation without recourse to the spiritual.
Alcohol Explained is not a doctrine you have to follow or a set of steps or instructions you need to accept and work through. It is not a personal testimony designed to inspire you to a life of sobriety. It is simply information. It is science, observations, and conclusions. And by science, I am using the Oxford Dictionary definition of the word: “The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.”
So what is the response to the book so far? This you can read for yourselves. The website for the book contains some feedback, and both the US and UK Amazon sites have reviews on the book (they both have different reviews, so it is worth looking at both of them). What I will say is that every review is a genuine review, there is not a single review or a single piece of feedback from someone I know; these are all reviews from people who have independently read the book and very kindly taken the time to leave feedback.
If you are interested in reading further, the first five Chapters are available for free on the website. You don’t have to put in an email or anything to get to them; just open a page and here they are. There is also a section on the website entitled ‘Additional Content.’ When I wrote Alcohol Explained I wanted it to be as short and concise as it reasonably could be, I couldn’t cover everything because the book would become too long and unwieldy. I tried to include what I thought were the keys points needed to get a good overall understanding of alcohol and alcoholism. It was not an easy call to make, and even now I am far from sure that I have got it right. Be that as it may, the Additional Content section of the site contains both additional chapters that didn’t make it into the book, and chapters that made it into later editions (placed on the website so that people who have earlier editions of the book don’t need to buy extra copies).
Between the first five chapters and the additional content, you should get a fairly good idea of what is in the book. If you find something in the first five chapters and the additional content that is interesting or useful then, the chances are that you will find something interesting or useful in the rest of the book. If you think it is all a load of old rubbish then, frankly, the rest of the book doesn’t get any better, and you are better off saving your money. However, I hope you do find something of use to you. I found the book incredibly difficult to write, and very nearly didn’t bother. If you do find anything in there of use, anything at all, then as far as I am concerned the effort was worthwhile.
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