7Alcoholics Ambiguous is a critical piece of work which thoroughly explores how the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous may have unknowingly strayed from its intended purpose and, as a consequence, become less effective than it had originally proved to be. The manuscript discusses how some sections of the Big Book may have been misunderstood, the difficulties which may have accompanied the necessary inclusion of some AA members who may not have been real alcoholics, those criteria which endeavour to differentiate the person with a drinking problem from someone who has acquired a drinking illness, the nature of the motives behind the pursuit and nourishment of a spiritual experience, and the role that the AA meeting has to play in the overall context of recovery. The book also seeks to explain why there can be a reluctance by some AA members to accept that their fellowship has any problems to speak of at all, and how the oral tradition has inadvertently usurped and confused the earnest deliberations of the original written construct of the 12 step recovery programme. The general objective of Alcoholics Ambiguous is to present an overview of the circumstances which have led to a decline in the efficacy of AA in some of its quarters. It is the opinion of the author that such a catalogue of determining factors has escaped the scrutiny of the fellowship both in the past and the present, as its burgeoning membership may have increasingly hampered its ability to sustain those practical initiatives which are relevant to its tradition of service. Alcoholics Ambiguous means to quell any confusion abroad in the meeting rooms about the true message of recovery, and to draw AA's attention to how ideological changes within the fellowship have slowly led to a subtle embargo on the development of its own progress.