The A.A.'s first goal is to make an "unsparing survey of the human wreckage" left behind. "To a degree, he has already done this when taking moral inventory, but now the time has come when he ought to redouble his efforts to see how many people he has hurt, and in what ways." (Page 77) This is in marked contrast to the Big Book's one statement regarding our list of persons harmed: "We made it when we took inventory." (Page 76) Thus, in addition to a new goal, the Twelve and Twelve adds new directions for us to follow. This opening of old wounds and remembering old incidents may seem pointless and painful, but if we make a willing start, we will soon see the reason for proceeding, and our obstacles will diminish.

The first and most difficult obstacle is forgiveness. "To escape looking at the wrongs we have done another, we resentfully focus on the wrong he has done us. This is especially true if he has, in fact, behaved badly at all." (Page 78) This reflects a sentiment expressed in Step Four. (Twelve and Twelve Page 45-46) The author reminds us to catch ourselves when this thinking occurs: "It doesn’t make much sense when a real tosspot calls a kettle black." (Page 78) [It should be noted that a 'tosspot' is not a type of pot - it is an archaic term for a drunk. The author is therefore making his point and a clever pun at the same time.] We have often brought out the worst in others with our behaviour and attitudes, and have therefore have caused many of their actions we would now use to excuse some of our own. "In many instances we are really dealing with fellow sufferers, people whose woes we have increased." (Page 78) That others are frequently wrong, and sometimes sick is familiar to us from the Big Book. (Step Four, Page 66-67)

The second obstacle is that admitting our wrongs to ourselves, to God and in confidence to another human being is much easier than facing the people involved. We are sometimes overwhelmed by the prospect of facing these people. Others may not know of our actions - do we need to think about them? "These were some of the ways in which fear conspired with pride to hinder our making a list of all the people we had harmed." (Page 79)

Another snag, consists of "purposeful forgetting": We were the only ones hurt by our drinking, as we paid our bills, showed up at work, seldom drank at home, etc. This reasoning, which amounts to rationalization, "is an attitude which can only be changed by a deep and honest search of our motives and actions." (Page 79)

The Big Book has a single sentence on not being willing to make amends: "If we haven’t the will to do this [make amends], we ask until it comes." (Page 76) These three hindrances to willingness (resentment, fear and rationalization) can be seen as elaborations on this theme. The solution in the Big Book is a prayer for willingness, but here in the Twelve and Twelve we see an appeal to our reason and a suggestion for self-examination. We have already seen this difference in emphasis in the Big Book vis-a-vis the Twelve and Twelve in Step Six. There is no mention of prayer in either Step in the Twelve and Twelve.

In some cases we cannot make restitution, and in others action must be deferred. "[W]e should nevertheless make an accurate and really exhaustive survey of our past life as it has affected other people." (Page 79) Many times the harm caused others my not be great, but we may have harmed ourselves. "Very deep, sometimes quite forgotten, damaging emotional conflicts persist below the level of consciousness. At the time of these occurrences, they may actually have given our emotions violent twists which have since discolored our personalities and altered our lives for the worse." (Page 79-80) While there have been previous mentions of conflict in the literature, this level of psychological language is new at this point in the Twelve and Twelve. This passage appears to be the basis for the practice one sometimes sees of people putting themselves on their own amends list. It does not explicitly suggest doing that in this passage, and neither Book suggests in Step Nine making amends to ourselves.

We make this survey of harms done, regardless of the prospects for making amends, as there is another reason for doing so. "While the purpose of making restitution to others is paramount, it is equally necessary that we extricate from an examination of our personal relations every bit of information about ourselves and our fundamental difficulties that we can." (Page 80) Neither this purpose for the Step nor this call for another kind of self-survey is found in the Big Book, but both are consistent with the Big Book's stated goal of being of maximum service. The author continues: "Since defective relations with other human beings have nearly always been the immediate cause of our woes, including our alcoholism, no field of investigation could yield more satisfying and valuable rewards than this one." (Page 80) We have previously seen self-will (Big Book, Step Three), excessive instincts (Twelve and Twelve, Step Four) and lack of humility (Twelve and Twelve, Step Seven) called the cause of our problems. Since these are different terms for our character defects, which do contribute to poor relations with others, the statement here in Step Eight may be seen as an elaboration on the earlier statements, not a correction. The author concludes this section with the observation that we can go beyond superficial things and find the basic flaws in us, flaws "which sometimes were responsible for the whole pattern of our lives. Thoroughness, we have found, will pay— and pay handsomely." (Page 80)

Discussion then shifts to the question of harms done. What do we mean by that, and what kinds of harm do people do? "To define the word 'harm' in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual damage to people." (Page 80) This language is familiar to us from the previous chapter. A series of hypothetical examples follows, reminding us of similar examples given in Steps Three (Big Book) and Four (Twelve and Twelve) of the effects self-will and excessive instincts have on others. There is no explicit consideration in Step Eight in the Big Book of how we have harmed others, but it may be assumed that we have gotten a good idea based on that book's Step Three discussion of Self-will (Page 60-62) and Step Four's 'fourth column', in which we listed our part in past situations.

"We should, of course, ponder and weigh each instance carefully. We shall want to hold ourselves to the course of admitting the things we have done, meanwhile forgiving the wrongs done us, real or fancied." (Page 81-82) ("Where were we to blame? The inventory was ours, not the other man’s. " - Big Book, Page 67, Step Four) We are advised to avoid extreme judgments of ourselves and others, and aim for an objective view. ("We avoid hysterical thinking or advice." - Big Book, Page 70, Step Four)

There is no mention of a sponsor or spiritual advisor in this Step. However, there is mention on Page 82 of others' A.A. experience in the summary of this Step: "It is the beginning of the end of isolation from our fellows and from God."