> What we have here is a rabbi mixing psychology with mussar,
I know as much as you do about AA, but in a wider look, R Twersky’s books are thoroughly Jewish. He is not using psychology to invent new type of mussar. To the opposite, he goes thoughtfully through Jewish sources and applies them to modern social and personal events, including those that he encountered in practice, including insights he learned from dealing with his patients and from them … He is not writing only about mental illness, but about psychology of normal people and their middos. For example, he quotes his former patient. Rav heard several years later that this patient found lost money (significant amount) and made an effort to return to the owner. Rav called him up to congratulate. The guy shared this insight: when I was getting high, the high laster for one night. Now, it is 6 months after I did the mitzva, and I still feel good when thinking about it.