Dale,
Welcome to the forum. What you say is clear to me and while such discussions are easier face to face ... or different... what I like about this form of communication is that it is a bit like being able to respond to the person writing a book... and in this case there are number of authors including you, and quite a few readers who don't write at all.
What you say about drug dependence makes sense and echoes what Richard wrote previously... so now that you've begun, please continue...
I would be interested to hear how you integrate Gestalt theory with the 12 Steps approach.
Brian