The aim here was to contribute towards understanding the role of anonymity in the therapeutic model developed by the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) fellowship for caring for the "disease of alcoholism". A bibliographic search was conducted in the literature produced by AA on alcohol and alcoholism. A qualitative investigation was also carried out among AA groups located on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Interviews were held and several activities undertaken by its members were observed. AA's therapeutic model is conceived as a system in which symbolic reality is fundamental for representing alcoholism as a "chronic and fatal disease" and consequently for constructing the identity of "individuals with alcohol sickness". In fact, anonymity works as a fundamental symbolic mechanism in the healthdisease process experienced within AA. It links directly to constructing the identity of "individuals with alcohol sickness undergoing recovery" and consequently to subjectively reconstructing the fellowship's members.
Alcoholics Anonymous; Alcoholism; Anonymity; Identity; Rite of Passage