History is full of similar situations, with similar results, where the group eventually mutated out of its violent stageslike Christianity and Mormons. How everyone went along who stayed is the legacy of Synanon and a lesson in human behavior and warnings of the danger of secluded societies. Others reported in 1973 that the Synanon absorbing members was retention, not rehabilitation, a result found unfortunately in many of the Synanon clones, which Synanon bragged 2,400 existed. When I asked if he had studied brainwashing he said he had not. Nonprofit Organization. We know that a, that a, only one out of I think 25 is going to stay long enough to be of any consequence at all. I dont have much to argue with what you say about the people in Synanon and do not disagree they helped others, they were there to do that. Some have shown that synanon confrontations can potentially be psychologically damaging and may not be suitable for all audiences-especially for adolescents. Whatever truth might lie within, I concluded with ease that some people being addicted was a price of free thought. WebSynanon Survivors is celebrating 4 years!!! It is also a story of the unconditional love between No doubt their belief in Synanon was so strong that they had a good influence on others, but unfortunately they were also subjected to the Synanon system which from the early days warned of the enemy at the door (which Dederich eventually confessed at deposition he made up to bond followers), and later declared that you could never go home or contact outsiders. Fourteen-year-old Martin Lee Anderson was murdered within 3 hours of his arrival at a Florida boot camp that was run by the local sheriff, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, on January 6, 2006. Simon, also using the Lifton model, concluded there was a danger in observing Synanon through participation because one could be caught up in the brainwashing. Today, troubled-teen programs use Synanon-like tactics, advertising themselves to parents as solutions for everything from poor study habits to substance misuse. But is there anything worth giving up freedom of thought? I witnessed a few cow boy ass kickings. still, we had not had a good Republican president since Eisenhower. Further, I wrote that the study of cults is studying a microcosm of the greater society. In the introduction I asked the question was Charles Dederich just another sociopath who rose to power or was he a Jedi Knight seduced by the Dark Side. Spare the Rod Healing. The autopsy report stated that he died from a perforated ulcer, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. 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. Jollett says his feelings were not validated by his mother, who instead relied on him for comfort. The first book was published in 1991, and the updated edition was published Decenber 13, 2012. is a different Comments here are for input, questions, and providing of facts. He had the addicts psychologically tested and found Synanon did not change people internallythat they were still antisocial. Its a real field day.. The problem I thought was that the men did not know what to do in response which increased the divorce rate. Dinosaur Survivors Leave a Reply Cancel reply. It is true, we are lied to, propagandized and subject to many attempts to have us all think the same way. Eventually, on the subject of rehabilitation, Ofshe would write, Synanon was the failure thats gave birth to an industry.. A haunting tale of estrangement, Synanon Kid, is a coming-of-age story of hope, survival, and determination. : troubledteens. (17), The evidence has shown that brutal, verbal confrontation sessions are no more effective in controlling drug abuse among adult hard-core heroin addicts than other methods of control. ***. He found that at Odyssey House only 25% of admissions stay more than 30 days, that the rate is down to 9.7% after six months, 5.6% at 1 year, and 2.8% after 18 months; the programs required length of stay to graduate.. In 1974, Congress opened an investigation into such behavior-modification programs, finding that The Seed had used methods similar to the highly refined brainwashing techniques employed by the North Koreans. Synanon did not even keep it from the public. Further it established shelter and group support could aid those truly wanting to stop. The money was too good; parents panicking at the finding of a joint and willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to anyone with the sales pitch, never quite understanding the tortures and deaths that awaited. Dr. Roger Meyer, a professor of psychiatry at Boston University, and formerly the Acting Chief of the Center for Studies of Narcotics and Drug Abuse at NIMH, was one of the first to question the wisdom of subjecting kids to the brutality of the Synanon Game. The founder, Charles Dederich, ordered his cult followers to divorce and swap partners, with more than 200 couples complying. Seven years before that trial Goldfarb had written a book calling for prison reform using the Synanon-style therapeutic community. We have multiple groups dedicated to ending the TTI (Troubled Teen Industry) as well, that work in conjunction with mine, this is how I discovered this story! The effects of this type of interaction upon a fragile self-image and upon later impulse control in the world at large have not been determined. On June 27, 1990, six weeks after the death of Michelle Sutton, 16-year-old Kristin Chase died at the Challenger wilderness camp in Utah of hyperthermia and dehydration after a 5-mile forced march in 105-degree heat. Dederich in the early days would not release statistics claiming that a dope fiend would identify with whatever percentage failed and therefore would not come; finally declaring in 1967 it was such a failure that no one should ever leave. A scheme that was illegal, it led to arrests in Arizona. Since I alone have the records (UCLA has only what Synanon chose to give it) I felt obligated. Where you at synanon in 1972-1973? But before I wrote this, there were many before me who wrote the same thing trying to put an end to the warped Synanon system that as Dederich said was based on hate. 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. '", After Tony went to rehab, their dad quit his job to be home with them and cooked dinner every night. It was only after the invasion of Iraq and discovery that the administration dangerously burned a spy to get even with for Sen. husband who wrote the administration had no evidence of Iraq weapons of mass destruction when it created a greater attack than 911 itself, that journalist took back their mandate to look for the truth and present that truth the country. They didn't know," he says. The story of Synanon is how one man took good people and turned them into terrorists. No one knows the actual final fate of the 19. When he begged to see a doctor, the staff sneered at him and called him a faker and asked him if he were homosexual.. Rogers had been referring to the dangers involved with a kid participating in a typical Synanon Game with 11 people yelling at him, where he could fight back verbally, where he could leave if he chose, and where there was no physical violence. And I think he saw I might be going down that path, too. I think Synanon was one of the most important stories of the 20th-century and leaves us with one of the most documented histories that is worth studying and learning from. Many programs report a high dropout rate with younger adolescents, which is directly related to this factor. Books have steadily been written stating the same, perhaps the best was Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids by Ms. Maia Szalavitz. Synanon. The Synanon organization, initially a drug rehabilitation program, was founded by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich, Sr., (19131997) in 1958 in Santa Monica, California. By the early 1960s, Synanon had also become an alternative community, attracting people with its emphasis on living a self-examined life, Maybe it's the leader's fault. Some children were taken to foreign countries, or islands, although foreign countries have done more to stop them than our government. It just seems monstrous.". And thats it for the idea that Synanon played a role in curing drug addiction. WebASTART is a community of professionals, family members and survivors working to protect children from abuse and neglect in residential programs, and ensure families have safe and effective community-based care. Yablonsky in his 60s book, totally bought into the enemys conspiracy and that people were against Synanon because blacks lived with whites. Rocker Mikel Jollett's Memoir on Cult Childhood Is 'Primal Scream' WebJan 2010 - Present13 years 2 months United States Im a CEDU Survivor who created & runs the Synanon Survivors Group on Facebook. Many people who grew up in the cult remember being abused, abandoned and malnourished as children. Unlike Janzen, I was not looking for fans from any groups, but to record the knowledge I obtained so it might benefit others, as well as presenting an interesting read. As stated above, as Dederich believed this, his squeezes and toss outslike old timer Bill Crawford was willfully sentencing one to death for CEDs ego and financial gain. It does appear prior post returned and I did respond to you at length. Instead it is led to countless deaths, destruction of lives and still continues today. Eventually, the future could only be Orwellian. Let alone, 'Okay, here you go stranger I've never met, take care of my kid. And it was repeated in books by Yablonsky and Endore and unfortunately repeated a decade ago by Janzen. I'm going to rise up above all this kind of stuff, and I'm going to take care of everyone. Sam Gillette is a books Writer/Reporter for People.com and People Magazine. As stated in the Skeptics Dictionary, law enforcement officials, politicians and religious leaders helped push those fearing addiction to what it determined was primarily rackets designed to make money with little regard for human well-being (like Elan and CeDu). 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. ", Jollett continued to struggle with past traumas as a young teen and adult. Fatherhood has made him more cognizant of how much trauma he experienced as a child, as it has for other former Synanon kids who have become parents. He became the one to blame, he was the angry one. I suspected this would happen, because it is well known that people in cults go from outrageous anger to a final whimsical yearning at the end for a time of spirit and comradeship. "And probing into this world of the traumatized child. This was Synanon had its worse, andit is not permitted here. I dont think this means we are losing our civil rights as dramatically as you think, because I think most people see through this and are disgusted by it. Maybe if I had written sooner some would still be alive. Hillary Clinton probably wouldve made a good president, the Alaskan Gov. What is mysterious about this? If you have read all my entries you would know I have written about the early philosophies of the early Synanon and how many who incorporated those philosophies because of that when they left came forward to testify because of those philosophies. When I was first fighting Synanon, however, things were very black and White. In what ways are we just wrong? The reviewer for his section on synanons for prisoners is none other than Dr. Robert DuPont, the second White House Drug Czar and founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and who administered a whopping $1.8 million contract to an experimental, start-up synanon for kids-only called The Seed in Fort Lauderdale. He interviewed Richard Ofshe but then without explanation he wrote Ofshes discourses of brainwashing interesting, but not applicable. All Rights Reserved. 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. And while because it was so small, its influence in non-publicized areas is doubtful. People had to know its dangers before making choices to support or join. I had never been arrested nor done drugs. I immediately sensed he was writing a book in which he was avoiding obtaining information that might challenge his view. "Sometimes I think about this book as this primal scream, this assertion: 'This happened. Janzen could have had this dissertation, but he was not looking for truth. I am still not in the same league with Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, nor the late Margaret Singer, but what all of us shared was a hands-on experience. 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. He participated in several missions, and arguably would have lived a better life but for his exposure to Synanon. After Bush lied to us and caused mass distraction in Iraq that outdid 9/11, this country was much like a cult which is expected to happen when one is subjected itself to terrorism. And as the classic 1971 Stanford prison experiment demonstrated, creating situations in which the severe treatment of powerless people is rewarded inevitably yields abuse. For People.com and people Magazine the group eventually mutated out of its stageslike. Mutated out of its violent stageslike Christianity and Mormons to many attempts to have us all think the same.! For everything from poor study habits to substance misuse by his mother, who instead relied on for! 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