Quotes - Step Four

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Chapter 4

Page 42

"Made a searching and fearless moral inventory
of ourselves."

CREATION gave us instincts for a purpose. Without them
we wouldn't be complete human beings. If men and women
didn't exert themselves to be secure in their persons, made
no effort to harvest food or construct shelter, there would
be no survival. If they didn't reproduce, the earth wouldn't
be populated. If there were no social instinct, if men cared
nothing for the society of one another, there would be no
society. So these desires—for the sex relation, for material
and emotional security, and for companionship—are per-
fectly necessary and right, and surely God-given.

Yet these instincts, so necessary for our existence, of-
ten far exceed their proper functions. Powerfully, blindly,
many times subtly, they drive us, dominate us, and insist
upon ruling our lives. Our desires for sex, for material and
emotional security, and for an important place in society
often tyrannize us. When thus out of joint, man's natural
desires cause him great trouble, practically all the trouble
there is. No human being, however good, is exempt from
these troubles. Nearly every serious emotional problem
can be seen as a case of misdirected instinct. When that
happens, our great natural assets, the instincts, have turned
into physical and mental liabilities.

Step Four is our vigorous and painstaking effort to dis-
cover what these liabilities in each of us have been, and are.