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. And I think he saw I might be going down that path, too. In what ways are we just wrong? Your comments is like talking about Nazi tea parties and trains running on time while someone else is talking about the Holocaust. I asked him how he could write a book on Synanon without ever interviewing the person who fought it. And of course, this was what was best in early Synanon, i.e., peers to talk to and help if the craving starts; also support when kicking cold turkey, food and a roof. I was forced to watch twenty men and women beat a 14 year old girl in what we called a, Cowboy Ass kicking, for ten to twenty minutes. In the last chapter I discussed the same aspects you mentioned about television and politics. Many are dead, many are in prison ,and worse many roam the earth as emotional cripples from just having come in contact with Joe Ricci,and his henchmen that helped him run the Elan Corporation. In his final letter to his mother, he wrote, They found my weakness and I want to go home.. Naya Arbiter Gina Score, 14, at the state-run juvenile prison camp at Plankinton, South Dakota, 1999 was run to death. gave a grant to a Florida organization called The Seed, which applied Synanons methods to teenagers, even to those only suspected of trying drugs . The autopsy report stated that he died from a perforated ulcer, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes I think women are more revenge orientated, but it probably still comes down to the individual. First touted as a rehabilitation center for addicts when it was founded in 1958, Synanon helped thousands get sober and amassed $30 million or more in assets. It was bizarre, surreal,and violent it was not a school in any stretch of the imagination. 14-year-old Anthony Haynes died while attending a five-week boot camp operated by the Americas Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors Association. Jollett, 45, tells PEOPLE about the abuse he and many other children experienced while growing up in the "school" of the infamous Synanon cult. I am very aware of the early philosophies of Synanon. You know ts great fun, to watch that. And thank you for further documenting the direct connection of where all these horribly abusive re-education brainwashing treatment centers came from, the mother of them all Synanon. Totalitarianism societies in the end always end in abuse and a we vs. they war concept. And that was great. This story Margo I agree I looked at every branch. In contrast, Jollett's goals as a parent are simple. It was also capable of controling the floor show when ever there was an investigation, during these times Elan became a large weird hotel lobby, albeit briefly, while investigators simply saw our blank faces. 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, It was far from being just Synanon. 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. 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. A former member of Elan wrote: Elan is best described as a, sadistic, brutal, violent, soul-eating hellhole. At Elan, the Game was transformed into constant screaming and degradation and the physically rough treatment became all day violence. While Dederich suggested to world nothing in the game was to be taken seriously, he would admit in deposition in 1979 and 1981 that in operating Synanon, he did not give direct orders, but would inject everything he wanted members to do in a Synanon game or by his dialogue at Think Tables. Here we are not talking about riding horses, discussing the nature of man, or Emerson, but a reign of terror that was destined and predicted by many in the early 60s due to the Synanon methods of attack therapy, forced confessions, rewards and punishments and brainwashing about enemies. Its goal was to take it to the context of greater society.I would appreciate you know your feelings. Eventually, on the subject of rehabilitation, Ofshe would write, Synanon was the failure thats gave birth to an industry.. What is known about the early days, was that the older joiners were more likely to stay than the younger, and its initial opening success per Ofshe reflected that then the current age of entry was 34 or older; they were people who had a strong desire to remove themselves from the demanding regime of an addict/criminal life. But I have certainly seen where the situation is clearly reversed. when I was growing up I thought world would be a better place if women were in control. Yes it was a tough nut to crack and in part due to the protection it recieved. "I am not bound by the rules," Dederich said, according to a 1978 PEOPLE story. All Rights Reserved. Originally a nonviolent group, Diedrich created the Imperial Marines to maintain orderwithin and outside of the community. They also had to fight for attention from the few loving adults who monitored them, Jollett explains. Rather than a commune wonderfully described by Yablonsky and Janzen as reforming criminals, it made criminals out of non-criminals, and took former reformed criminals to a higher level of criminal violence. Please buy the book. But we are not Communist China, Communist Russia or Germanys Nazis. "'Ha, ha! And finally, in the end, Synanon legacy is one not only of discrimination, but it became the Ku Klux Klan when it came to its conceived enemies. Synanon did not even keep it from the public. Maybe it's one of the things about human nature, that isolated power corrupts people. Kimberly Stafford, the Vision Quest counselor who was driving the supply vehicle, was convicted of careless driving. Jollett believes the violence to which adults were subjected has received widespread attention. Further, Yablonsky married a Synanon woman and admitted he felt any attack on Synanon was an attack on her. 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. A business illiterate, I dont know an invoice from a purchase order or the difference between shipped and delivered. I think he recognized, 'Oh, is this one going to become an addict, too? This is not a criticism of that policy; but just the fact that it was insignificant in relation to the civil rights movement which was raging in the 60s and pushed by the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, and many black actors and athletes and my generation that marched and died in name of civil rights. You dont present any facts that they are lies because you have none. In reality, who was cured depended on how much each wanted it; and that generally holds true in all programs. (He considers his dad's partner, Bonnie, his mother. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. *..*.*. I am a Synanon survivor. 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. I was being sincere. As to CED I have no clear answer, but certainly his childhood traumas and abandonments were likely to produce pathology. Real crazy people. The methods the religious community used to break down the members are still used in rehab facilities across the United States. Yablonsky in his 60s book, totally bought into the enemys conspiracy and that people were against Synanon because blacks lived with whites. In other words he would have to reexamine his beliefs and consider possibly his own victimization. A scheme that was illegal, it led to arrests in Arizona. The Old Man would testify that he never gave a splitee a single thought from the moment each left. You would also have learned that I have been in the room with many Synanon people countless times. About six years ago, though, she began thinking it might be a good idea. He told me he was completing a book on Synanon. 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. People had to know its dangers before making choices to support or join. He participated in several missions, and arguably would have lived a better life but for his exposure to Synanon. 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. What is this thing that you think you're doing? 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. Some people, whether from genes or experiences, or combinations thereof, just are not capable of living a good life on their own. But generally, as to your comment, my book was not in disagreement. It was good that Synanon took in minorities, and when Dederich married Betty mixed marriages were not as commonplace as today. I listened to countless game tapes. . And he told of the case of one TC therapist who forced female clients to perform fellatio on him while he talked on the phone to their probation officers., *..**. The truth is Santa Monica was enforcing a valid zoning prohibition. 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. 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. And while because it was so small, its influence in non-publicized areas is doubtful. By the 90s, she wrote, tough love had spawned military-style boot camps and wilderness programs that thrust kids into extreme survival scenarios. Seven years before that trial Goldfarb had written a book calling for prison reform using the Synanon-style therapeutic community. For Jollett, experiencing his dad's love was a life-changing experience. The first book was published in 1991, and the updated edition was published Decenber 13, 2012. It a very sick place for teen agers,and during my time we were mixed in with adults. Following this broadcast, several executives of the NBC network and its corporate chairman allegedly received hundreds of threats from Synanon members and supporters. [31] NBC continued with a series of reports on the Synanon situation on the NBC Nightly News. 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. My discussion is on the known today dangers of a hatchery (abandonment syndrome) which Susan Richardson wrote about, the psychological affects of attack therapy which can cause psychological damage, including psychotic breaks (which happened at Synanon) and how everyone finally bought into the enemy at the door who were all prejudiced against them and finally reduced Synanon to a state of mind where propaganda ruled over truth, all the ideals were tossed out and a growing comparison to the Manson family was in place. That is just a fact. Jollett's father, though not in his life in the beginning, emerges as the hero in the book. 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. The enemys conspiracy and that generally holds true in all programs to Synanon,! 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