The evolution of recovery and healing philosophies reveals a striking contrast between early 20th-century spiritual approaches and more contemporary psychological frameworks. The Oxford Group, a Christian-based movement that heavily influenced the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), emphasized the concept of “soul surgery”—a process of moral purification and the removal of sin. This notion of disintegration, where individuals sought to shed their defects of character to achieve spiritual fitness, became a core aspect of AA’s program. However, modern trauma-informed approaches, including parts work and psychedelic therapies, offer a different perspective. These contemporary methods focus on integration rather than elimination, encouraging individuals to embrace their full selves—flaws, traumas, and all—as vital aspects of personal wholeness. By comparing these two frameworks, we can explore how the journey of healing has shifted from a path of self-denial and purification to one of self-acceptance and integration.
The Oxford Group: “Soul Surgery” and the Removal of Sin
The Oxford Group, founded in the early 20th century by Dr. Frank Buchman, laid the groundwork for AA’s approach to recovery, particularly around the concept of moral inventory and “soul surgery.” Buchman believed that personal transformation occurred through a process of confession, restitution, and surrender to God. The Group’s ideas were rooted in a Christian framework, which emphasized sin and the need for redemption.
“Soul surgery” was the metaphor used to describe the process of identifying and removing the sinful aspects of a person’s character. The idea was that sin, manifested in selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear, was the primary cause of personal dysfunction, including addiction. The Oxford Group’s practices focused on confession of these faults, followed by surrender to God’s will, as a way to purify the soul and lead a moral, spiritually healthy life.
This belief was carried over into AA’s early framework. In AA, one of the core practices is to “remove the things that were blocking you,” often understood as character defects that prevent spiritual growth. In the 12 Steps of AA, individuals are encouraged to take a “fearless moral inventory,” admit their wrongdoings, and ask for the removal of these defects. The emphasis is on eliminating negative aspects to achieve spiritual fitness, framing the process as one of stripping away obstacles to connect more deeply with a higher power.
Modern Trauma-Informed Approaches: Embracing Wholeness
In contrast, recent advances in trauma-informed approaches, including parts work (such as Internal Family Systems, or IFS), focus less on “removing” parts of the self and more on integrating and embracing all aspects of the person. These approaches are rooted in psychological understandings of trauma and stress, which see dysfunction not as a result of moral failings or “sin,” but as adaptations to harmful experiences.
Internal Family Systems, for instance, posits that each person has different “parts,” some of which may develop protective roles in response to trauma. In this framework, addiction and other forms of dysfunction are not viewed as moral failings to be eradicated but as protective mechanisms that developed to manage emotional pain. The goal is not to disintegrate or remove these parts, but to understand and integrate them with the person’s whole self, leading to a sense of internal harmony.
Trauma-informed approaches emphasize self-compassion, understanding, and wholeness. Instead of rooting out “sins” or “defects,” the idea is to affirm each part of the self and allow these parts to work in harmony. There’s a strong emphasis on healing through safety, acceptance, and compassion, rather than judgment and confession.
Disintegration vs. Integration
The Oxford Group and AA’s approach can be seen as one of disintegration—dividing the self into acceptable and unacceptable parts, with the aim of removing or eliminating the negative aspects. The language of moral inventory and surrender suggests that certain aspects of the self are impediments to spiritual growth and must be shed. This is reinforced by concepts like the removal of defects of character, which implies a need to discard parts of the self that are flawed.
On the other hand, trauma-informed and psychedelic approaches lean into integration. Psychedelic therapy, which is gaining popularity as a tool for addressing trauma and addiction, focuses on “integration” as a key part of the healing process. These experiences often lead individuals to a sense of wholeness, where previously fragmented or disowned parts of themselves are embraced and re-integrated. The aim is not to “remove” anything but to bring about a deep understanding and acceptance of all aspects of one’s being.
Psychedelics and Spiritual Fitness
In the realm of psychedelic-assisted therapy, this idea of integration is especially prominent. Psychedelics such as psilocybin, MDMA, and ayahuasca are used in therapeutic settings to help individuals access suppressed memories, emotions, or parts of their identity. These substances, combined with therapeutic guidance, enable people to confront and process traumas, leading to greater emotional and spiritual wholeness. Rather than seeing certain emotions, memories, or aspects of the self as problems to be removed, these therapies encourage individuals to integrate them into their sense of self.
The language in psychedelic therapy is more about self-acceptance and connection, rather than the Oxford Group’s language of sin, defect, and surrender. In psychedelic journeys, participants often report feelings of deep interconnectedness and unity, both within themselves and with the world around them—a stark contrast to the Oxford Group’s focus on identifying and purging negative elements.
Affirmation vs. Denial
AA, while offering spiritual growth, often centers around the denial of the ego, personal shortcomings, and the need to remove or “let go” of certain parts of the self. This reflects a disintegrative mindset, wherein becoming spiritually fit requires rejecting certain behaviors or beliefs.
Conversely, modern trauma-informed practices, parts work, and psychedelic healing are rooted in affirming the self in all its complexity. These approaches encourage embracing the parts of the self that have been cast out, seen as “sinful,” or labeled defective. It’s an acknowledgment that all parts have value and, when understood, can contribute to a more harmonious, whole self.
A Shift from Removal to Embrace
The core difference between the Oxford Group’s influence on AA and contemporary trauma-informed or psychedelic-based approaches lies in their treatment of the self. The former focuses on disintegration, stripping away what is deemed negative or sinful to become more spiritually fit. It emphasizes moral purification and the removal of “defects.” The latter, by contrast, embraces integration, focusing on the wholeness of the self and the healing power of acceptance. Psychedelic and trauma-informed methods teach that healing comes not from the removal of parts of ourselves but through understanding, affirming, and integrating them.
As both approaches continue to exist in parallel, each offers valuable insights into personal and spiritual development, though their methodologies and philosophies diverge greatly. The older model offers a path of purification through surrender and sacrifice, while the newer methods suggest a more compassionate, holistic view that sees healing as embracing all aspects of the self.
