Originally Posted by
MicroMacro 
Strange mental blank spot? I've never heard of that.
What is it?
It comes from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous - Chapter 3 - More About Alcoholism (Page 42-43).
Originally Posted by Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st Ed., Ch. 3
They had said that though I did raise a defense, it would one day give way before some trivial reason for having a drink. Well, just that did happen and more, for what I had learned of alcoholism did not occur to me at all. I knew from that moment that I had an alcoholic mind. I saw that will power and self-knowledge would not help in those strange mental blank spots...
Once more: The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power.
You may draw your own conclusions, but when AA says powerless over alcohol, as in Step 1, it means
powerless over the desire for alcohol.