Willpower

Willpower: From the Dictionaries

The definition of “willpower” wins a brevity award at M-W.com:

Energetic determination.

The Rosetta Edition of Webster’s Online Dictionary takes a slightly different tack:

Control of one’s behavior.

Synonyms: self-command (n), self-control (n), self-will (n).

The WordNet 2.0 dictionary database hosted by Princeton lists one sense for willpower:

self-control, self-possession, possession, willpower, self-command, self-will — (the trait of resolutely controlling your own behavior)

Twelve-Step Approaches: Willpower is Not Enough

Arnold Washton and Donna Boundy captured one of the memes I remember from the 1980s in the title of their 1989 book, Willpower’s Not Enough: Recovering from Addictions of Every Kind. In the introduction, they summarize:

Willpower isn’t enough because it springs from the very thinking that causes the addiction — the belief that there is a “quick-fix” to everything and that if we just exert enough control we can avoid all pain and discomfort… when we try to break an addiction we [also] … think, “There’s got to be an easy way.”

Using willpower alone to break an addiction is what’s called “first-order change.” It never works very well because the “solution” comes out of the same mindset as the problem. When an addict has already lost control over her use of a mood-changer, how can yet another attempt at controlling it be a lasting solution?

In “second-order change” the problem — and the solution — are reframed within a different set of concepts and beliefs. Second-order change for addiction means not trying harder to control the addiction, but throwing up your hands and admitting defeat — admitting that you are not in control.

This thinking can be traced back to Bill W’s framing of his recovery, as described on page 154 of Bill W: My First 40 Years:

It was not daylight-clear why the clergymen’s advice “You can do it, but only with God’s help” hadn’t worked. By contrast, Rowland, Ebby, and I had admitted that we of ourselves couldn’t do anything at all. Nearly all the cases cited by Professor James had made the same admission… The sociologists and psychologist who would restore self-confidence had been mistaken. God-confidence was the thing, not self-confidence.

Seeds of Willpower: Self-reliance

While that sense of giving up self-confidence ultimately worked for Bill and others within A.A., there are also folks like Father Leo Booth who take an approach that emphasizes making decisions to change and taking conscious action in the context of what Booth calls “an adult relationship with God.”

From a psychoanalytic perspective, psychiatrist Lance Dodes names “You Need To Surrender” as the fourth of ten Myths of Addiction. On page 95 of The Heart of Addiction, he expands on that myth:

The idea that you must surrender your will before you can give up your addiction arose from … Step Three [of the 12 Steps]. This step is based … on the belief that, “Our whole trouble had been the misuse of will power.” …

While some people can make use of this idea, it is clearly not for everyone. … [T]he appropriate solution is not to shamefully admit that you cannot manage your life, but to take over more management of your life — by understanding yourself and your addiction better so you can use that understanding to take power more directly in the place of the addiction. The last thing you want to do is give up taking control of your life.

Willpower: A Good Start

So, what can we do to make positive, coherent sense of the willpower concept? I like the answers offered by Prochaska, Norcross, and DiClemente in their 1994 book, Changing For Good. After studying thousands of folks who made significant changes in their own behavior, they laid out four myths which can “keep us from freeing ourselves from self-defeating behaviors.” Here is the second one, from page 61:

Myth: It just takes willpower [to create self-change].

When we ask successful changers, “How did you do it?” the universal answer is, “Willpower.” Our research seemed to confirm what everybody already knew. When we examine what “willpower” means to people, however, two different definitions are given. The first is technical: a belief in our abilities to change behavior, and the decision to act on that belief.

The second, sweeping definition is that willpower represents every single technique, every effort under the sun, one can use in order to change. If this is so, then it is inevitable that it takes willpower to change. This is a classic case of circular reasoning.

Self-changers do indeed use willpower in the first, true sense of the word, but it is only one of nine change processes, the one we call commitment. People who rely solely upon willpower set themselves up for failure. If you believe willpower is all it takes, then you try to change and fail, it seems reasonable to conclude that you don’t have enough willpower. This may lead you to give up. But failure to change when relying only on willpower just means that willpower alone is not enough.

Putting the Pieces Together

So, are you as dizzy as I am yet? Depending on the dictionary, you could say that willpower is about tenacity or about control. A strict reading of 12-step spirituality says willpower is suspect, and yet a priest who uses the same steps insists on taking responsibility and action. An analyst challenges us to manage life better, but of course long-recovering AA folks are doing the same on many fronts. What gives?

Did you notice that the 12-steppers and the self-changers ended up agreeing on something, though? They both say that willpower is not enough, each with their own reasons. And, the dictionary folks echo the self-changers in finding divergent ways to name it.

Seems to me the primary issue is that willpower is often a fuzzy target, not a foundation, easy to knock down like a straw man, but that its self-reliant, committed core is the theme that folks who are successful in any endeavor end up embracing in their own way.