synanon survivors

He had beaten me time wise. Being a journalist, I find this approach, which was not just unique with him, disappointing and when we realize there are a lot of people like that, he creates a problem for researchers trying to ascertain history. borderline schizophrenic patients, schizoid personalities, and acutely anxious, neurotic adolescents. For readers, Hollywood Park is a powerful memoir about one man's journey after he escapes a violent cult as a child. Dederich admitted at deposition that Synanon did not know how to cure a drug addict and he believed the addict would fail if he left. "'Ha, ha! Ultimately, as stated above, Dederich would testify they never knew how to cure a dope fiend and nobody does. After 30 years of pondering, I came full circle and realized that sociologist Richard Ofshe had analyzed it right from the start. Its first example, naturally, as failure, was Synanon, and like Synanon, its clones became the darlings of the media and politicians in election years. 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. According to newspaper articles of the day he has publicly disclosed, Ive smoked pot, popped pills, but none of the hard stuff. Hereceived a degree in psychology from a mail-order company in Florida. in the understanding and treatment of adolescents. 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("There was no soft place to land, there was no one really caring about us," he explains. Thats why I wrote the history of Synanon because there is so much to learn. Students quickly found themselves in a new, strange, uncomfortable and often frightening world of intense group relationships and heightened, invasive and violent group therapies. But instead he made lab rats out of people. Since I alone have the records (UCLA has only what Synanon chose to give it) I felt obligated. Synanon did not even keep it from the public. A scheme that was illegal, it led to arrests in Arizona. And in end, its Synanons holocaust that is its legacy, particularly since there were so many who predicted it as early as the 60s from nothing more than reading the books written about Synanon. But he ruled them out as heretics, not ever once, as did Janzen, do, as Deep Throat suggested to the Watergate investigators: follow the money.. To me there is good reason why Elan was not on the the map. They appreciated the honesty of the work. At his death bed, Maslow finally denounced the Human Potential Movement. . What was it one in 25 days for 2 years? He told me he was completing a book on Synanon. The story of Synanon is how one man took good people and turned them into terrorists. He told me that he had interviewed Synanon people and examined the UCLA records. But I have certainly seen where the situation is clearly reversed. I remember you saying that you had not heard of Elan, yet you were aware of there being many Synanon spin off treatment centers. [Chuck] Dederich [Synanons founder], an exile from A.A., is credited with being the genius behind the TC [therapeutic community] movement. 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.. While the abuse in Synanon was bad enough, it pails in comparison to a stream of sociopaths who hijacked the system to become Millionaires through the abuse of children; in some cases even as morally deprived as organizations that kidnap children and sell them for profit. 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 entirety of my writings say the same thing. also, to write a good book, you have to think that is what you are doing or it will not be a good book. Vision Quests leader was convicted of smuggling cocaine. I have countless books of interviews and depositions. It reasoned that success stories generally had little to do with the programs themselves. That did not exist in Synanon, that is what cemented its doom. While I cop to an ego in this area, my comments to Janzen had nothing to do with it. Many programs report a high dropout rate with younger adolescents, which is directly related to this factor. 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. Instead it is led to countless deaths, destruction of lives and still continues today. *..*.*. But, in the late '70s, the California-based organization became synonymous with violence. Gina Score, 14, at the state-run juvenile prison camp at Plankinton, South Dakota, 1999 was run to death. Former Synanite Dr. David Deitch, then a Phoenix House director, has stated, A client must have the choice of leaving treatment, even if the youngster is on probation and the alternative is jail.(19) Richard Ashley wrote in Heroin that, The only power of decision the member retains once he enters a TC is the decision to leave. Dr. Efren Ramirez, founder of Phoenix House, has said that you dont rehabilitate a person against his will.. And that number was highly inflated by injection of squares and children born to addicts and squares alike. And while because it was so small, its influence in non-publicized areas is doubtful. But generally, as to your comment, my book was not in disagreement. This intrusive, assertive therapeutic style works well for a few clients but may injure many more. Professor Bellis noted that, A number of clients. That is why the health department took action in 1977. In one sense it becomes like the question of which came first the chicken or the egg. Both AA and Synanon provided this insight, but unfortunately each bounded its members with an ideology and demand to never quit the organizations. I was not for that idea, because I saw most members as victims. just state that and agree to the group rules!! Some people, whether from genes or experiences, or combinations thereof, just are not capable of living a good life on their own. It's not good.' Kimberly Stafford, the Vision Quest counselor who was driving the supply vehicle, was convicted of careless driving. AA, as Synanon did, says one must participate in AA for life and have a religious belief in AA 12 steps. Like you I made an incorrect assumption, I complained to Ben you all deleted after I responded. Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety Enthusiastic Sobriety Abuse Alliance Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety A conversation with David Cherry. 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. It gives an unvarnished accounting of the psychopath Joe Ricci who founded the Elan Corporation. 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, But that dwindled as the joiners became younger and Dederich turned his attention to using the media and Hollywood to produce a flow of persons, goods and services to develop by 1976 over $30 million in assets and the start of large salaries and bonuses. 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. He also admitted violence could not occur without his approval but he forgot the details due to his stroke. Originally a nonviolent group, Diedrich created the Imperial Marines to maintain orderwithin and outside of the community. When all the litigation finally ended, I had some regret that Synanon had been closed, wondering what it might have evolved into after Dederichs complete removal. I responded to him that the media never knew the extent of the actual violence and as far as violence inside Synanon, how many incidents would you like to know about? Later I sent him a copy of the History of Synanon violence with over 80 incidents and he never responded nor did I hear from him again, nor did he ever apologize to the public for writing a book in which he intentionally avoided the actual evidence. Synanon was not unique. A popular TV series was based on John Maher, a colorful former Synanite, who formed his own second generation Synanon in San Francisco called The Delancey Street Gang. 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. Bellis, citing various sources, found that the success rate in the Synanon imitators was no better than that the dismal statistics of Synanon itself. We either do that or we stop. 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. The Cedu Schools developed into an industry of sister schools, clones and copy-cats, that are now a multi-million dollar, international and unregulated business., *.*.. Mental health service. While it is not unusual for one party not to want the other party to the successful (and government suffers from the two-party system) it did seem that Bible Belt Republicans really were really upset by the idea that a black man was president; and we suffered for it because any plan, reasonable or not, was to be made sure it could not succeed. . It is also a story of the unconditional love between Real crazy people. The sicker he became, the more he was tormented and tortured by the staff. If you want to really learn of how the inner controls were, you can contact me to get his depositions. In terms of drug addiction, thats where it ends. I would say some things are not debatable. But is there anything worth giving up freedom of thought? it would be interesting to see you rewrite a summary of what I wrote so it could be judged whether or not you understood it. 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. People had to know its dangers before making choices to support or join. I offered them to him but he declined. But they have settled now, particularly, as stated below, as I slowly learned the results of so many of the Synanon clones, which resulted in so much death and brutality. 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. The example story might be that of Joe Musico and Lance Kenton. Jollett believes the violence to which adults were subjected has received widespread attention. That Young people were beaten, some in public demonstrations. 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. There were countless communes and entities much larger that took in people of all races. .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. '", After Tony went to rehab, their dad quit his job to be home with them and cooked dinner every night. But I believe there are important messages in its history I was drivin not to let Janzen alter it. Childrens deaths in tough love boot camps include: Michelle Sutton, 15, Summit Quest, Utah, 1990. is a different The Hammer Podcast. It was a gift. Some have shown that synanon confrontations can potentially be psychologically damaging and may not be suitable for all audiences-especially for adolescents. Dawnne Takeuchi, 18, was killed when she was thrown from a semi-truck near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, in June 1994. (He is now sober. Anybody. If you examine the full context, Janzen avoided anything that might lead him to information contrary to the views he wanted to present. 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. The Sunshine Place investigates Synanon through survivors, former members, and more Society & Culture August 10, 2022 Listen to The Sunshine Place Tony, always angry as a child, sank into addiction at an early age and went to rehab. It can be found on Amazon. Almost all modern day therapeutic communitiesand there are hundreds of themare based on the game. The bad publicity led some supporters, Melvin and Betty Sembler of The Seed to create a copycat organization under a different name Straight Inc.but employed Du Point as a consultant. He was so wrong and he refused to write many who studied Synanon came to an opposite conclusion. So, as stated, when Dederich also admitted his notions were intended on each occasion to drive people out, so only the fanatical remained, and he profited by the resulting lowering cost, he was in fact knowingly in his view sacrificing former addicts to untimely ends for profit. And they didn't do that.". 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. Your comments is like talking about Nazi tea parties and trains running on time while someone else is talking about the Holocaust. WebSynanon Survivors is celebrating 4 years!!! 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. 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. Nov 04, 2017 Daina Fanning rated it really liked it. my last chapter in my book did just exactly what you asked which was put my what you call myscholarly talents on the American cult. 479 members Join group About this group Anybody who's been touched by The SYNANON Cult as well as anybody who's suffered ANY TTI programs or institutional abuse youre welcome, as well See more Private "All of us started having kids, and I think as parents we were like, 'Holy s---, what? By the mid-80s Straight was operating in seven states. And furthermore, the National Institutes of Health (NIDAs parent) had funded the first Synanon copy-cat program in NYC called Daytop Lodge. But that questionwhile interestingis really moot; the fact is that while shelter and support is of assistance, the Synanon system based on hate (as stated by Dederich) and punishment was not only a failure but its achievement in publicity, like a Synanon movie starring Ed OBrien, has led to 50 years of horror to countless victims all over the world and continues to do so. Maia wrote: No fewer than 50 programs can trace their treatment philosophy, directly or indirectly, to an anti-drug cult called Synanon. Need your help! Synanon was discredited in the late 1970s and 1980s as its violent record was exposed. After saying staying in Synanon is the addicts only chance for sustained life, in 1976 Dederich said that in 5 years there would be no room for the kind of people you are now. A 15-year-old boy died from a staph infection at a Colorado wilderness program. But it is a calculated risk we take. Hillary Clinton probably wouldve made a good president, the Alaskan Gov. But that idea was bantered by law enforcement as because of the wire, and the wire logs, knowledge could be proven against all who stayed in support. 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. Not for that idea, because I saw most members as victims Imperial to! The Holocaust days for 2 years nonviolent group, Diedrich created the Imperial Marines to maintain orderwithin and outside the! Well for a few clients but may injure many more me he was so small, its influence non-publicized. 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