The present paper aims to question if the admission of impotence, included in the twelve steps of alcoholics anonymous, it is against Sartre’s notion of freedom, indicating a position taken by AA of understanding alcoholism as a compulsion, where only the action of an external power can provide recuperation. The authors conclude that, if the programming of twelve steps has been having so effective is because, even when not aware, it has been working with the dimension of choice that allows that each person can at every moment determinate his own destiny.
freedom; compulsion; alcoholics anonymous