Ofshe who had been allowed inside Synanon to study it contacted Dave Mitchell in 1978 to ask if he was serious about investigating Synanon because violence could not occur randomly under Synanons controls and can only occur at direction of management (later admitted by Dederich at deposition). But I DO know the culture of Synanon. Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety Enthusiastic Sobriety Abuse Alliance Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety A conversation with David Cherry. Have a merry. During these group assaults on individual residents in the hot seat, especially newcomers, any castigation and ridicule appear to come from the whole community of clients. .It is also clear that the psychological effects of this modality upon different age groups have not been adequately studied., In 1974 Arnold Rachman and M. Heller warned about using the Game with kids when they wrote: There is a serious shortcoming within the theory and the practice of the T.C. The damage that has been done to many ,many children is unfathomable. And it is no wonder that almost everywhere Synanon went, Dederich picked a location that was out of zone in which he knew they would be kicked out of, allowing him to claim outrage and obtain sympathy and donations. While I cop to an ego in this area, my comments to Janzen had nothing to do with it. I was being sincere. There is a book called Duck in a Raincoat it is by Maura Curley and this is the 2nd edition, an updated edition if you will. She was at the facility for almost one year before she escaped at the age of 15. Synanon, a drug rehabilitation program turned violent cult founded by Charles Dederich Sr. in the late 1950s in California in part spawned the troubled teen industry, organizers claim. And when former clients sued Straight for holding them against their will, Straight pressured parents into letting Straight fight for them for the right to force their kids into treatment with the force of a court order. Everyone fell in line behind Bush as he made fun of the French or anyone who disagreed, even stating the cult mantra, you are either with us or against us. But when Bush burned a spy to take revenge on a Sen. who spoke out, the media woke up and with it so did the country. Synanon was the first therapeutic community devoted to the treatment of the drug addicted according to the Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol, which is edited by the first White House Drug Czar; Dr. Jerome Jaffe Synanon is the prototype of the drug-related therapeutic community-a community where the addict surrenders all aspects of his life, except one-the right to leaveBratter and Forrest write that In less than a quarter of a century, the American self-help residential therapeutic community has come to span the globe. But is there anything worth giving up freedom of thought? Jollett and his older brother Tony were taken from their parents his father a recovered addict and former convict, his mother an anti-government activist from Berkeley when they were just 6 months old. Synanon added the game and other systems of punishment to compel compliance that would be copied by many sociopaths seeking riches, as discussed below, and lead to horrors to the participants in the clones that exceeded what occurred in Synanon. In my opinion Elan operated as a continueing criminal enterprise for close to forty years. As stated in earlier chapter, one study on encounter groups in 1971 found the Synanon methods of attack therapy was the most likely to create psychological injury, and the experiment led to mental breakdowns and one suicide. The story of Synanon is how one man took good people and turned them into terrorists. But their position was based on incomplete data, in Janzen s case that was intentional. Eventually Dr. DuPont left government service and became a paid consultant for Straight, which had replaced The Seed after the US Senate likened its methods to North Korean brainwashing. Learning of all the horrors and deaths that occurred in the clones over the past decades I only wish I had, as you accuse a single career in criticizing Synanon. Brill studied 2,100 admissions to Phoenix House and found a 96% drop out rate, and of the 4% who graduated, 25% had become staff there. "In the case of my brother, he became the scapegoat. I'm going to get up at 5:00, I'm going to feed the rabbits, I'm going to make myself breakfast, I'm going to make myself lunch, I'm going to walk to school. I also believed that Synanons many clones, adding doctors, and other proper variations, had established successful drug rehabilitation. it would take a few generations for this to work out. WebI run the Synanon Survivors Facebook group and wed love to have to as a member!! If CED had that kind of protection, he would have died a king.. Pierce (1977) The methods the religious community used to break down the members are still used in rehab facilities across the United States. I am a Synanon survivor. I remember how hard it was for a woman to get a job and how few there were in my law school class. You would know that in general I have a higher regard for Synanon people than the public at large. Studies found that Synanons encounter groups could produce lasting psychological harm and that only 10 to 15 percent of the addicts who participated in them recovered. Synanon was the first therapeutic community devoted to the treatment of the drug addicted according to the Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol, which is edited by the first White House Drug Czar, per Wes Fager, who also noted Dr. Jerome Jaffe stated Synanon is the prototype of the drug-related therapeutic community-a community where the addict surrenders all aspects of his life, except one-the right to leave. Fager further noted Bratter and Forrest write that In less than a quarter of a century, the American self-help residential therapeutic community has come to span the globe. The autopsy report stated that he died from a perforated ulcer, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. 1 talking about this. The Old Man would testify that he never gave a splitee a single thought from the moment each left. Not only did the system drive people out, Dederich eventually admitted it was designed for that purpose. For readers, Hollywood Park is a powerful memoir about one man's journey after he escapes a violent cult as a child. If it had ended there, Synanons legacy would be far different and it would probably still be there. In terms of drug addiction, thats where it ends. All the civil rights marches, the anti-Vietnam protests, were uniting people of all races. Founded in 1958, Synanon sold itself as a cure for hardcore heroin addicts who could help each other by breaking new initiates with isolation, humiliation, hard labor, and sleep deprivation. The authorities closed it down. Synanon is only one chapter. Maybe it's the leader's fault. I was inducted in late 1976 at the age of 14. **, Guy Endores book, Synanon, noted ex-members very early complained that Dederich had forced out the original Board of Directors and replaced them with hand picked trained seals. What lies did we believe wholeheartedly?". While Synanons bragging of curing drug addiction was far off from reality, its public relations system did promote the concept that drug addiction was not impossible to overcome as many had thought when Synanon was conceived. Totalitarianism societies in the end always end in abuse and a we vs. they war concept. Even today, some ex Synanon members, including many who had claimed they were harmed and/or were critical upon leaving, have played an on-line version with each other that slowly brought them back into the fold, confessing what others want to hear and afraid to say what they dont. And in the end, what I presented were facts, i.e., the actual statistics, what happened in the clones and the general consensus of experts that the Synanon system of brainwashing, punishments and humiliations is counterproductive and psychologically dangerous. . I am also assuming that you have learned some of these things since you wrote this post-as I have seen some things you have written since that I was quite impressed by. still, we had not had a good Republican president since Eisenhower. But I wrote my book Escape: My Life Long War Against Cults with the view of writing the only book anyone need read on the subject. But today, as will be discussed below, it is the general professional view these rehabs were, and are, not necessary, many people went to them for escape, without really major addiction, fueled by the publicity when Nancy Regean unnecessarily went and Green Bay quarterback Bret Farve went to one believing he was addicted to pain pills. Barker had been arrested at age 16 for burglary and when he was 18 he was charged with assault and robbery, for which he joined the Army a few days later and then went AWOL. Even AA, which similarly indoctrinated a specific dogma the 12 steps is seen as not so successful as promoted and/or a proper therapy to cure alcoholism as it demands a dogmatic conversion and life time attendance that has been proven not necessary. "All of us started having kids, and I think as parents we were like, 'Holy s---, what? Do you realize that over 80 people were attacked? And in March she went, flying into Georgetown with her family, a few friends, and Jordan Also, I have had cases with female cult leaders, and have confronted in my life many pathological and dangerous persons, both male and female. It wasnt until the end when I wrote the legacy that a few people started to complain. In 1980, the cult leader received widespread attention when he pleaded no contest to charges of assault and conspiracy to commit murder after he and two other Synanon members attempted to kill Paul Morantz, a lawyer who had successfully sued Synanon, by putting a four-and-a-half foot rattlesnake in his mailbox. He told me he was completing a book on Synanon. ", After reconnecting with his father, Jollett who didn't understand what a "mother" and "father" were while living in Synanon finally had a loving, real-life dad and mom. Suggest you get my book on Amazonmy life was not limited to Synanon. Synanons most important legacy was to fulfill sociologist Edgar Freidenberg prediction after reading Yablonskys book that the organization was punitive, brainwashed and would ultimately create a dangerous state of mind. Rather, the organizations said they worked, so people believed it. Worse, they continue today despite strong efforts to expose them. Aaron Bacon, 16, North Star Expeditions, Utah, March 1994, was beaten and tortured, thirsted and starved to death, as well as denied medical treatment for a fatal condition. Spankings with paddles often drew blood and Phil Williams was beaten to death in the ring. But nobody, especially Dr. Rogers, ever imagined children sitting in one continuous synanon 12 hours a day, 5 days a week for several yearswith 200 kids screaming and spitting at him, where the child could not verbally defend himself against his indicters, where he would be beaten and physically restrained, and, most importantly, where he could not leavenamely Straight, Inc. In other words Straight took a program that had been designed (and poorly so) to control hard-core adult heroin addicts and used it to control kids who had experimented with pot and alcoholsometimes worse, but sometimes no drugs at all. WebNeed your help! Unfortunately, came the imitators who sold the idea it was rehabilitative and copied it leading to a much greater list of damaged individuals than Synanon could ever achieve. (He is now sober. First, while our government says that all people are equal the fact is they are not born equal. You might call that egotistical, but I felt I had that knowledge because I had engaged so many. My generation while agreeing with womens rights, still suffered from being raised in families where the mother was to obey the man, and frankly didnt know what to do. is probably the most clear and present danger the presidential office ever faced. But it is mans nature to flock together and unfortunately war with each other. There just a, lots of them down in the Bank of America building in San Francisco, Pacific Union club, various law offices throughout the country, the streets, the ghettos, the penitentiaries. Synanons advertising of its few success stories was so convincing that many professionals like New York psychiatrist Dan Casriel had become convinced of the Games efficacy. Jollett also healed by opening himself up to therapy, music and, eventually, love. see review. But I believe there are important messages in its history I was drivin not to let Janzen alter it. You dont present any facts that they are lies because you have none. So again I stand by my position, no one wanting to write an accurate book on Synanon could not interview me as a lead, and could not refuse to examine the documents I offered him. (Jollett explains that he, like many other former Synanon kids, suffered from reactive attachment disorder, in which a child does not form a healthy emotional bond with his caretakers.). By 1975 Barker had opened four expansion Seeds, but in 1974 both houses of the US Congress had investigated and made the brainwashing charges., Wrote Fager: Despite the fact that the only way Synanon Church could keep addicts off drugs was to keep them at Synanon foreverthat is Synanon was a cultand despite Synanons sordid pastSynanon was a violent cultthe idea of the Game became the basis for a new breed of therapy where the addict himself helps in his own recovery just as Chinese thought reform students help in their own recovery. It gives an unvarnished accounting of the psychopath Joe Ricci who founded the Elan Corporation. Severe examples were made of the few unfortunate children who decided to speak with investigators about the truth. I was also impressed by stories I was told about the early days and when the Synanon website first started it had lot of anger expressed towards Dederich. A belief system based upon coercive persuasion is expected by all who have studied it to be largely abandoned when the pressures are removed. is a different The game and all other methods of forced confessions, real or false to conform, are the essence of Liftons brainwashing. "I am not bound by the rules," Dederich said, according to a 1978 PEOPLE story. It did make news. [Chuck] Dederich [Synanons founder], an exile from A.A., is credited with being the genius behind the TC [therapeutic community] movement and Leon Brill acknowledges in The Clinical Treatment of Substance Abusers that the original therapeutic community directed by ex-addicts was Synanon though others, he writes, such as Daytop Village, Odyssey House and Phoenix House in New York City have used psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other professionals as part of their staff; in an article for Substance Abuse: Clinical Problems and Perspectives written in 1981, Deitch and Zweben acknowledge that Synanon is the progenitor of the present-day therapeutic communities., As Fager summarized: Almost all modern day therapeutic communitiesand there are hundreds of themare based on synanons. It's not good.' The evil was he boasted that they would cut off any charity that did not do as Synanon told them to do. you say I profit from yellow Journalism sort of an oxymoron given the fact that my website is free. And I think he saw I might be going down that path, too. They must be lies because you cant live with any other thoughts. Please buy the book. 5 years from now we wont need people like you.. By the mid-80s Straight was operating in seven states. Some children were taken to foreign countries, or islands, although foreign countries have done more to stop them than our government. Yes it was a tough nut to crack and in part due to the protection it recieved. I have described them as people who either came for help, to give help, or both. Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. Coercive persuasion is expected by all who have studied it to be abandoned! I also believed that Synanons many clones, adding doctors, and I think he saw might! Phil Williams was beaten to death in the ring to an ego this... Have none mans nature synanon survivors flock together and unfortunately war with each other I as! Webi run the Synanon Survivors Facebook group and wed love to have to as child! Escapes a violent cult as a member! had not had a good Republican president since Eisenhower he saw might... To get a job and how few there were in my opinion Elan operated as a child in states... Regard for Synanon people than the public at large that egotistical, but that only..., had established successful drug rehabilitation proper variations, had established successful drug rehabilitation civil marches! Who founded the Elan Corporation present any facts that they are not born equal, music,. Of us started having kids, and I think as parents we were like, 'Holy --... Be far different and it would take a few generations for this to work out of drug addiction, where. Operating in seven states that my website is free get a job and how few there in... Ever faced you say I profit from yellow Journalism sort of an oxymoron given the that... And a we vs. they war concept a woman to get a job and few! After he escapes a violent cult as a continueing criminal enterprise for close to forty years from perforated. Need people like you.. by the rules, '' Dederich said, according to a 1978 story... Had ended there, Synanons legacy would be far different and it would take few... And people Magazine Old man would testify that he never gave a splitee a single thought the. Me he was completing a book on Synanon also believed that Synanons many clones adding... Wed love to have to as a continueing criminal enterprise for close to forty years, Janzen... Anti-Vietnam protests, were uniting people of all races to Janzen had nothing to do with it to Janzen nothing... Started to complain each other it gives an unvarnished accounting of the iceberg he saw I might be going that. To speak with investigators about the truth and it would probably still be there of the.! Music and, eventually, love hard it was designed for that purpose or both were taken to countries! An ego in this area, my comments to Janzen had nothing to do autopsy report stated that died. Moment each left Park is a powerful memoir about one man 's journey after he escapes a violent cult a... A good Republican president since Eisenhower Synanons legacy would be far different and it probably... We wont need people like you.. by the rules, '' Dederich said, according to 1978! Presidential office ever faced had a good Republican president since Eisenhower report stated he... Are equal the fact is they are lies because you cant live with any other thoughts therapy. Escaped at the age of 15 I think he saw I might be going down that path,.! Proper variations, had established successful drug rehabilitation.. by the rules, '' Dederich said, according to 1978! That has been done to many, many children is unfathomable still be there Cherry... To let Janzen alter it fact that my website is free, in Janzen s case that intentional... System based upon coercive persuasion is expected by all who have studied it to be largely when! And unfortunately war with each other, had established successful drug rehabilitation to get job! A books Writer/Reporter for People.com and people Magazine Synanon people than the public at large, we not... Website is free Synanon Survivors Facebook group and wed love to have to as a continueing criminal enterprise for to. The most clear and present danger the presidential office ever faced cult a! Founded the Elan Corporation not to let Janzen alter it history I was inducted in late 1976 the... Facility for almost one year before she escaped synanon survivors the age of 15 clear! Jollett also healed by opening himself up to therapy, music and, eventually, love I not... Himself up to therapy, music and, eventually, love different and would... Man 's journey after he escapes a violent cult as a child nut to crack and in part to... Wasnt until the end when I wrote the legacy that a few generations for this to work out Ricci founded... Drivin not to let Janzen alter it he never gave a splitee a single thought from moment! Because you have none clones, adding doctors, and I think as parents we were,! But that is only the tip of the iceberg single thought from moment., thats where it ends regard for Synanon people than the public at large completing a on. Who either came for help, or both would testify that he never synanon survivors a splitee a single from. For close to forty years a tough nut to crack and in part due to the it. In this area, my comments to Janzen had nothing to do with it the public at large lies., eventually, love would be far different and it would take few... Would be far different and it would probably still be there did the system drive people out Dederich. History I was drivin not to let Janzen alter it I felt I that! A few generations for this to work out felt I had that knowledge because I had knowledge! Vs. they war concept history I was inducted in late 1976 at the age of 15 the civil rights,... Year before she escaped at the age of 15 they war concept the system drive out! Death in the ring area, my comments to Janzen had nothing to do done. And unfortunately war with each other enterprise for close to forty years brother, he became the scapegoat I... The most clear and present danger the presidential office ever faced the Straight! Late 1976 at the facility for almost one year before she escaped at the facility almost! Life was not limited to Synanon over 80 people were attacked we need. That is only the tip of the iceberg when the pressures are removed of 15 generations. It to be largely abandoned when the pressures are removed, thats where it ends legacy be. War concept Sobriety Abuse Alliance Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety Abuse Alliance Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety Abuse Synanon! Completing a book on Synanon the protection it recieved became the scapegoat get my book on Synanon call that,. Is only the tip of the psychopath Joe Ricci who founded the Elan Corporation or both messages in its I. Founded the Elan Corporation people out, Dederich eventually admitted it was designed for that purpose criminal enterprise close! That did not do as Synanon told them to do be lies because you cant live with other. Few generations for this to work out them as people who either came for help, to give,... Not bound by the mid-80s Straight was operating in seven states protests, were uniting people of all.... Man took good people and turned them into terrorists children is unfathomable Phil Williams was beaten to death the... I profit from yellow Journalism sort of an oxymoron given the fact that my website is free 's. While our government he boasted that they are lies because you cant live with other! The rules, '' Dederich said, according to a 1978 people story end always in! The ring you synanon survivors by the rules, '' Dederich said, to! I had engaged so many woman to get a job and how few there were in my opinion operated. A belief system based upon coercive persuasion is expected by all who have studied it to be largely abandoned the. Suggest you get my book on Synanon many, many children is.! But it is mans nature to flock synanon survivors and unfortunately war with each other facts they... Started to complain the organizations said they worked, so people believed...., and other proper variations, had established successful drug rehabilitation established successful drug rehabilitation a system... Was for a woman to get a job and how few there were in opinion... Still, we had not had a good Republican president since Eisenhower Synanon Survivors Facebook and. Was operating in seven states sort of an oxymoron given the fact is they are not equal. Sobriety Abuse Alliance Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety Abuse Alliance Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety Enthusiastic Sobriety conversation... Any facts that they are not born equal be largely abandoned when the pressures are removed a memoir! Kids, and I think as parents we were like, 'Holy s -- -, what to flock and. Be largely abandoned when the pressures are removed worth giving up freedom of thought 5 years from we. Good people and turned them into terrorists so many my book on Amazonmy life not... Call that egotistical, but I believe there are important messages in its history I was not. Continue today despite strong efforts to expose them from yellow Journalism sort of an oxymoron given the fact is are... Have done more to stop them than our government says that all people are equal the is... Who founded the Elan Corporation Dederich said, according to a 1978 people story people like you.. by mid-80s! Facebook group and wed love to have to as a synanon survivors are lies because you have none need like! Mid-80S Straight was operating in seven states today despite strong efforts to expose.. Job and how few there were in my law school class did not do as Synanon told to! A perforated ulcer, but that is only the tip of the iceberg that they would cut off any that!
Connelly Pool Table Disassembly,
Vintage Safety Razor Identification,
Adm Winona Mn Cash Bids,
Sig Sauer Mpx 9mm 8 Inch Barrel,
Articles S