Step 4 — Moral Inventory – Kathleen B. – Wilson House Big Book Workshop Retreat – 2026

About This Speaker Tape

Andy and Kathleen break down the mechanics of the Fourth Step, treating the inventory as a 'fact-finding and fact-facing process.' Andy uses a football replay analogy to describe how resentments act as slow-motion loops of past pain, catapulting him out of the present moment and away from his Higher Power. He details the 'truth filters' of pen and paper, and the danger of remaining a victim. Kathleen describes the inventory as cleaning out a fridge to check expiration dates, confronting the 'ick' of past behaviors and the lies she told herself to survive.

They move through the grit of sex and conduct inventories, discussing the 'imperious urge' and the need to move from self-reliance to a reliance on a Higher Power to avoid the fatal nature of resentment.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opening: Andy discusses Step 3 mechanics and the transition to Step 4
• 6:15 Filtering the problem down from the allergy to resentments
• 11:30 Football replay analogy and the Latin root of resentment
• 16:45 Resentments against institutions and principles
• 21:20 Kathleen: Step 4 as a fact-finding process and the fridge analogy
• 26:10 The 'lie I tell myself' and the middle school dance story
• 30:40 Transition to Fear Inventory: the mask of anger
• 34:15 Andy: Turning over rocks and the 'when in doubt, write it out' rule
• 37:50 Andy's experience with fear of flying and reliance on Higher Power
• 41:10 Sex/Conduct Inventory: the 'ideal' and the 'scumbag' realization
• 45:30 Kathleen: Overcoming shame and the fatal nature of resentments