Alcohol recovery in self-help groups: Surrender and narcissism.

This study was designed to determine if subjects participating more actively in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) were higher on surrender and lower on pathological narcissism than those less involved in AA or participating in Rational Recovery. Male subject groups scored as predicted on surrender. As hypothesized, surrender also correlated negatively with pathological narcissism and was not associated with nonpathological narcissism. Results failed to support the predicted relationship between levels of participation in AA and pathological narcissism. A sex difference was found both on pathological narcissism and on surrender. Females scored lower on narcissism and higher on surrender than males.