Emotional Sobriety: The Next Step in Recovery
Emotional Sobriety: The Next Step in Recovery
Allen Berger & Thom Rutledge
Made a Searching & Fearless Moral Inventory (Of Someone Else)
27 minutes Posted May 12, 2026 at 5:45 am.
Emotional Sobriety
Step 16: Taking Other People's Inventory
How to Manipulate the World
How to Stop Being a Manipulator
Tom Brokaw on Therapy
The Self in Recovery
Intro to Self-Realization
Tom Clancy on His Meditations
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27:15
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Show notes
Thom’s Nutshell:
Step 16: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of someone else. I can’t say I wasn’t warned. They told me to stop at 12.
“Taking others’ inventory” gets to the heart of our functioning. Allen brings this back to Piaget’s studies of pre-operational stages of development. Our emotional development influences our consciousness, and the more immaturity we have, the more we look at the world as reflections of ourselves. Rather than trying to manipulate these people and situations, in emotional sobriety we can try to meet them with empathy to have the best experience we can. The outcome of “taking inventory” all depends on motive.
Our music is provided by the great southern artist Jefferson Ross. Learn more about Jefferson at jeffersonross.com
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Learn more about Joe C., Secular AA and Rebellion Dogs here:
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Friendly Circle Berlin workshops: https://friendlycircleberlin.org/events
 
Allen’s book, 12 Essential Insights for Emotional Sobriety: https://www.amazon.com/12-Essential-Insights-Emotional-Sobriety/dp/1955415129/
 
Join Allen & Thom at our Thursday night, 7pm PST Zoom meeting on Emotional Sobriety and the Steps (login information below): 
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For our ongoing workshop video series on Emotional Sobriety and the 12 Steps, visit our YouTube channel here:
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We appreciate feedback! Contact Patrick, our producer, at [email protected] for any questions or comments.