Addicted to Recovery confronts one of the most prevalent sins in the church in our day: The sin of self-absorption. Subtitled, "Exposing the False Gospel of Psychotherapy/Escaping the Trap of Victim Mentality," the reader is taken on a tour of "Christian" psychologists' offices as one case study after another demonstrates the foundational flaws of the Recovery Movement. The authors are both trained medical doctors, he is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry and an associate chief of staff at a veterans' hospital; she is a dermatologist in private practice and faculty member at a medical school.

They point out that the church's obsession with the "wisdom" of this world and a lack of trust in God's word for dealing with people's problems have led the church into integrating the true gospel with a false and contradictory gospel of self-discovery and self-actualization. Rather than a biblical world-view that recognizes the congenital sinfulness of man in need of a Savior, many have adopted Freud's "clean slate" view of man as being born good and at the mercy of what others do to him during his childhood thereby distorting man's view of sin. The Bible says we sin because we are sinners; psychology says we are sinners because we sin and we sin because of stored hurts laying dormant in our subconscious mind. The psychotherapists' never ending job therefore is to help the client recall all of life's stored hurts and bring them back from the sea of forgetfulness. Magically by doing so, as the theory goes, by confronting the inner child of the subconscious mind it becomes disarmed and no longer under control, freeing the person to live a sanctified life.

One of "Christian" psychology's favorite axioms, they point out, is that when the Bible commands us to "love one another as we love ourselves," it is really commanding us to love ourselves or we will be unable to love others. But, the Almys warn, "It is a cultic twisting of Scripture to suggest that the human being has difficulty loving himself and for this reason has problems obeying the Golden Rule." And I might add, this is a classic example of isogesis, the reading into a text what the person wants it to say instead of exegesis, the getting out of the text what the writer intended to say.

Trends in modern day Recovery programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymis' 12-step program, often distort a Christian's view of his relationship with God. God becomes a tool to get what you want out of life instead of the reason for life itself. The God of the Recovery Movement is much like the God of the Positive Confession movement, a means to an end instead of an end in Himself. The Almys explain: "Christian magazines carry ads offering books on healing memories, satisfying your love hunger, getting more for yourself, Christian therapy, user-friendly churches, outrageous joy, engaging the evening, breaking through to spiritual maturity, and your personal plan for finding significance." The big "paradigm shift" has taken place in the church as the focus of faith "seems subtly to shift from the glorification of God to the gratification of man."

The book's case studies also document how therapy often fosters an unbiblical dependency for the patient, many of whom do not make a move without first consulting their therapist. Even cult leaders would covet such control such power over people who continue to spend their hard-earned wages on their imaginary friend. After all, do these counselors really care about their clients or will they drop them as soon as the bills can no longer be paid? "A false gospel always brings bondage," say the Almys. "Our techniques never end; our therapy sessions go on until either our bodies can no longer climb the stairs to the counselor's office or our insurance coverage runs out."

One trend in the church for which the Recovery Movement deserves full blame is the change in the terminology spoken by Christians. Terms that cannot be found in the Bible are bantered about, such as co-dependency, dysfunctional, denial, inner child, etc. This book refers to this as "psychobabble." Many in the church who are not interested in Talk Therapy are told that they are in denial because it is believed that 95% of us come from dysfunctional families. Many Bible believing Christians find it difficult to fellowship with our psychologized counterparts in the things of the Lord because we don't speak the same language.

The only criticism I have with Addicted to Recovery is in what it doesn't say, not with what it does say. Considering the impressive credentials of the authors I would like to see them address the question of what a Christian should do for a loved one who has an extreme breakdown with reality. What can the medical profession offer a person who is suffering from hallucinations and dementia, who is unable to discern real from imaginary activity. Where does demonic oppression and possession come in? Where do we send deranged, psychotic individuals for help? How can we protect our feeble-minded loved ones from falling into the hands of a witch doctor in the medical profession? What drug therapies are valid and which ones endanger the patient or fall under the category of pharmekia? What can a Biblical counselor do for such a one? As precious and right as the Word of God is, it is foolishness to the unbeliever, so where do we turn for help when dealing with psychotic unbelievers? Do we just turn them over to the world to be further influenced away from the faith? What valid help does psychiatry offer in such a case?

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