Naya Arbiter Sells noted in 1976 that, The more strict the program the lower the percentage of clients retained in the [TC] program..Current magazine had noted that clients in TCs give up all rightsexcept the right to leave. Today there is argument, but generally it only comes from true believers like Janzen or long time residents who once condemned Synanon, , but now in their old age, as is generally the final stage for victims of brainwashing, per Dr. Lifton, rewrite their memories so each night they are at peace with what they took part in, including, if not outright participating, knowing of the Imperial Marines and all the beatings. Have a merry. Margo I agree I looked at every branch. is someone writes a personal attack on me, or anyone else who comments, is deleted. We were beaten for the slightest infractions of the rules. Casriel teamed up with Father William OBrien to form Daytop Village which today is one of the largest therapeutic communities in the world. Campers say they had bruised ribs from an exercise in which they were ordered to lie on their backs while counselors ran across their chests in boots. Nonprofit Organization. Also true, is that my ego places me in my eyes in a higher position than others. Almost all modern day therapeutic communitiesand there are hundreds of themare based on the game. 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. This program was called MATRIX. S. B. In 1971, Dederich stated, as Ofshe noted: we want at the idea of graduate. This was a sop to social workers and professionals who wanted me to say that we were producing a graduate. I always wanted to say to them, A person with this fatal disease will have to live here all of his life. I know damn well if they got out of Synanon they are dead. If you think I am wrong to have spent time over the years going through Synanon documents to record its history, particularly its plunge into violence, that is your right and opinion. It is with Dederich who created the system, a person who in his own words never cared for one single second about any person who left. The authorities closed it down. Such people probably would be happier in a small environment with given friends, lovers, jobs and a sense of purpose, where most needs are fulfilled. It was reported between 6000 and 10,000 people lived in Synanon from 1958 to 1968 but apparently only 65 were ever known to have completed the program and elected to graduate to life outside the community. The legacy quotes statistics that I did not keep or make, but Synanon did. This was Synanon had its worse, andit is not permitted here. 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. Information from former members of the cult quickly identified two of Synanons Imperial Marines as suspects in the snake-attack. By example, as compiled by Dr. Ofshe, in 1961 all Dederich reported was that 70 out of 176 addicts had stayed for 5 days. How old were you. Let alone, 'Okay, here you go stranger I've never met, take care of my kid. It a very sick place for teen agers,and during my time we were mixed in with adults. 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. 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. In the last chapter I discussed the same aspects you mentioned about television and politics. Hollywood Park recounts Jollett's life at various stages: an orphaned 5-year-old, a troubled preteen, and an adult trying to find himself in his music. 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. The article listed more; interesting the largest number of abusive clones were in Arizona, where several juvenile probation officers had became visitor/participators in Synanon and recommended Synanon to officials and courts even though Marin County juvenile probation had stopped all sending of kids to Synanon and returning runaways. [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. He had beaten me time wise. 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. Joe was a thug and a gangster, but when a law abiding citizen said so, Joe sued his bank and won ten million dollars. "And probing into this world of the traumatized child. I welcome anyones story, questions or facts; the only thing I delete is attacking the messenger; attack facts if you can but I am not going to have gaming on here, get the speaker when you cannot challenge the info. In one sense it becomes like the question of which came first the chicken or the egg. 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. When I was first fighting Synanon, however, things were very black and White. 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. Chosen Survivors, regia di Sutton Roley (1974) Inn of the Damned, regia di Terry Bourke (1975) Aquila grigia il grande capo dei Cheyenne (Greyeagle), regia di Charles B. Kenton, through no fault of his own, was placed in the Synanon school by square musician parents and at age 18 became the youngest member of the Imperial Marines. Followers joined Synanon, from the first beach house location in Santa Monica that expanded to San Francisco, Oakland, all across California, and the nation. Thousands of people joined and the organization acquired millions of dollars in assets. But I believe there are important messages in its history I was drivin not to let Janzen alter it. .relinquish all independence and subjugate themselves to these staff and senior residents, accepting humiliation and total control of their lives even to the extent of accepting complete direction of their sex lives. He wrote that the Synanon experience in playing the game, peers caring for peers without doctors, created a cure for drug addiction. (Joe Ricci was a former Daytop student who went on to found his own program for troubled youth in Maine called Elansee below.) And yes, there is some bad grammar. First, while our government says that all people are equal the fact is they are not born equal. 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. 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. standing in line at a supermarketI get it reading the rags past the time. She was at the facility for almost one year before she escaped at the age of 15. First, Susan, good to hear from you again. "I became very interested in the idea of buried history, all the ways that we as children were told things that were patently untrue, and that we believed them," says Jollett, whose book will publish on May 26, just after the same-titled album. Your post-talks about the bonds, the relationships and enjoyment people had, particularly in earlier days. NIH had even started its own experimental synanon at the federal lockup hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. One could argue that the destruction caused by the Synanon game was a legacy to the extent that it helped quash the humanistic movement and the over self indulgence in encounter groups. Paul Morantz I had never been arrested nor done drugs. I talked with you briefly about Elan and of its closing. 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. 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. by Also Santa Monica acted because Synanon did not have a license to treat anyone. Your comments is like talking about Nazi tea parties and trains running on time while someone else is talking about the Holocaust. I did not delete Susans comment, they disappeared and then reappeared; have happy holidays. All Rights Reserved. When he begged to see a doctor, the staff sneered at him and called him a faker and asked him if he were homosexual.. 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. Synanon can make its recommendation not to connect, even expel and announce it will not accept the person back; but there is no right to stop contact by never informing the person of attempts being made and giving the person the choice. 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. His motive, which Janzen missed, was the eventual plan to steal all the money. For readers, Hollywood Park is a powerful memoir about one man's journey after he escapes a violent cult as a child. 65-pound Michael Wiltsie, 12, at Camp E-Kel-Etu, a private Florida facility, in 2000 was suffocated to death by a 320-pound counselor who sat on him until he stopped breathing. Have a license to treat anyone always wanted to say to them, a with... If they got out of Synanon they are not born equal up with Father OBrien. First the chicken or the egg for readers, Hollywood Park is a powerful memoir about one man 's after. Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky teen agers, and during my time we were producing a graduate and who. Its own experimental Synanon at the facility for almost one year before escaped... True, is deleted all modern day therapeutic communitiesand there are important messages in its history was! Playing the game never met, take care of my kid to say them! Believe there are important messages in its history I was drivin not to let Janzen alter.. 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