“So we had to get down to causes and conditions.” (Chapter 5, Big Book)
Sometimes people say, “I’m doing inventory on [insert name]”. Of course, one isn’t. One is doing inventory on oneself.
So why does one have to write about other people at start of the Step Four?
If the kitchen is a mess, yet one has been commanded to go in and cook a meal, one must clear the kitchen: the resentment must be cleared first in order that one can write sober and sound inventory.
This resentment inventory, apparently about others, reveals one’s own values, beliefs, and attitudes and, if one investigates further, the ego’s cherished gameplan, partly concealed as it is below the surface, like the coils of a sea monster.
When I’m doing in inventory on Sally or Cheryl, I’m really doing inventory on me.