EP 282: Author Peg O'Connor - Higher and Friendly Powers: Transforming Addiction and Suffering
Host: Viv aka Sober_iThrive
Guest: Dr. Peg O’Connor
Viv, aka Sober iThrive, interviews Dr. Peg O'Connor in her book "Higher and Friendly Powers."
This is an amazing interview, and we graciously thank Dr. O'Connor for coming on the Sobertown Podcast and sharing her amazing insights and wisdom!
Interview with Peg O'Connor, Professor of Philosophy, Specializing in Feminist, Social, and Political Philosophy, and Author of: “HIGHER AND FRIENDLY POWERS TRANSFORMING ADDICTION AND SUFFERING.
An expansive alternative for those who have AND FRIENDiv struggled with the "higher power" of AA's 12-step POWERS program, Higher and Friendly Powers (Wildhouse Publications / August 24, 2022), offers a sense of human decency, moral ideals, and a better version of oneself. In Higher and Friendly Powers, Peg O'Connor, PEG O CONNOR, Ph.D., addresses an audience much like herself: those in recovery who have struggled with the Christian-centric God at the heart of Alcoholics Anonymous. She brings our attention to a little-known fact: the term "higher power," a touchstone in the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, was coined by William James, philosopher, psychologist, and intellectual giant of the early 20 century. By acting as our personal field guide through the world of William James, Peg shows that "higher power," as James conceived it is far more expansive than we might imagine. The book combines Peg's deep personal wisdom with James's adventurous intellect and can transform how we live.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Peg O'Connor, Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Her training is in moral philosophy, feminist philosophy, addiction studies, and the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. She believes that philosophy helped her to get and remain sober. Avoiding Alcoholics Anonymous for the first 20 years of her sobriety because of the concept of a "higher power," she is focused on using some of the great canonical thinkers in Western philosophy to illuminate dimensions of addiction. She further shares this in her new book, Higher and Friendly Powers: Transforming Addiction and Suffering (Wildhouse Publications, August 2022).
Dr. O'Connor is also the author of Life on the Rocks: Finding Meaning in Addiction and Recovery (Central Recovery Press, 2016), Morality and Our Complicated Form of Life: Feminist Wittgensteinian Metaethics (Penn State, 2008), and Oppression and Responsibility: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Social Practices and Moral Theory (Penn State, 2002). She is a co-editor of multiple other titles and is regularly published in trade journals. She writes a column, Philosophy Stirred, Not Shaken, for Psychology Today, which has nearly two million total views online, and select columns have appeared in the print publication.
Dr. O'Connor's expertise has been featured on BBC's Free Thinking and Canadian Public Radio's On Drugs podcast and in print and online publications ranging from The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Cosmo, and Marie Claire to Vice and Kinfolk. She has been invited to present on addiction and recovery at some of the country's most prestige universities, in addition to workshops and talks in church basements, classrooms, community centers, and treatment centers.
Dr. Peg O'Connor is a recovering alcoholic who maintains that philosophy helped her stay sober. For the last twelve years, she has shifted the focus of her work to using some of the great canonical thinkers in Western philosophy to illuminate dimensions of addiction. She understands addiction as a meaning-of-life problem, and no discipline is as well suited as philosophy to address the meaning-of-life questions.
Peg O'Conner's Website: https://pegoconnorauthor.com/
Amazon: Higher and Friendly Powers
Other Sober Resources:
No Sippy No Slippy. Not Another Drop No matter What.
Remember to Pour The Poison Down The Sink!!
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