Sobertown Podcast EP 282: Author Peg O’Connor - Higher and Friendly Powers: Transforming Addiction and Suffering
Viv, aka Sober iThrive interviews Dr Peg O'Connor on 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, Political Philosophy and Addiction Studies, and Author of:
“HIGHER AND FRIENDLY POWERS
TRANSFORMING ADDICTION AND SUFFERING
HIGHER”
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 even a better version of oneself.
In Higher and Friendly Powers, Peg O'Connor,
PEG O CONNOR PhD, 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, which combines Peg's deep personal wisdom with James's adventurous intellect, has the power to transform the way we live.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
1 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). A co-editor to multiple other titles, she is regularly published in trade journals and 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, as well as 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 got and helped her to 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 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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