From William Schaberg's Writing The Big Book, Page 376-377:

God Plus Moral Psychology

In opposition to Bill's strong emphasis on God, Hank had lobbied for a purely psychological explanation of their solution, one that was firmly based on the moral psychology of ego reduction and a life of increased usefulness to others:

    We are actually irreligious - but we are trying to be helpful - we have learned to be quiet
    - to be more truthful - to be more honest - to try to be more unselfish - to make other
    fellows troubles our - our troubles - and by folowing four steps we most of us have a
    religious experience. The fellowship - the unselfishness - appeals to us.

Bill actually agreed with most of this, recognizing Dr. Silkworth's ideas on moral psychology as a critical element in any meaningful and sustained recovery, but he didn't feel it was sufficient by itself for keeping someone sober. Wilson's model for gaining and maintaining sobriety was a much more balanced approach, incorporating spiritual, psychological, and physical parts, but with the greatest emphasis being placed firmly on the spiritual. still, his agreement with the real need fo r ego reduction and a life redirected toward usefulness to others made it easy for Bill to include any number of references to the  importance of moral psychology in what he wrote - noting, in just one dramatic example, that the recovered man's main job was to be "of maximum helpfulness to others." Beyond frequent references throughout these six chapters to the need to get outside of oneself and to become a useful participant in society, one chapter, "Working With Others," was devoted almost exclusively  to usefulness and little else.

Under these circumstances, it is impossible to say how much of the moral psychology and the regular emphasis on usefulness to others found in Bill Wilson's writings should be credited to Hank Parkhurst. But, with Bill's lavish inclusion of Hank's beloved psychological and altruistic elements in the text, it would hardly be fair to say that Parkhurst lost all his arguments with Wilson about the content and the tone of the Big Book. Bill was willing to emphasize the psychological aspect Hank considered so singularly important, agreeing that it was indispensable for recovery, but he just wasn't willing to abandon his belief in the central importance of religion or to remove the constant mentions of God as a critical and essential element of that solution. In the end, Bill clung to these spiritual elements, but he did blend them with the psychological solution that can be found so generously sprinkled throughout each of the chapters he wrote.

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