It exposes the cruel abnormal policies, practices and propaganda the Synanon children were forced to endure in a so-called modern America. there were a lot of people in the early days who left because of the way Dederich was taking it, and its too bad the idea grew out of person with such a tortured past. TTI Survivor - Leviah Rose. Some children were taken to foreign countries, or islands, although foreign countries have done more to stop them than our government. Anybody. no Mr. Vandeman I am not deleting this as it is not as vulgar as the others. And yes, there is some bad grammar. 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. I remember you saying that you had not heard of Elan, yet you were aware of there being many Synanon spin off treatment centers. you might also want to watch Cal. In 1966 New York City Mayor John Lindsay hired Puerto Rican psychiatrist Efren Esteban Ramirez to run the citys Addiction Services Agency. Further, Yablonsky married a Synanon woman and admitted he felt any attack on Synanon was an attack on her. 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. Education website. Now theres a little room for you now. I have it. Tony, always angry as a child, sank into addiction at an early age and went to rehab. Further, I wrote that the study of cults is studying a microcosm of the greater society. WebSynanon sought religious status in 1974, with Diedrich as its leader. Children say they were punched, kicked and forced to eat dirt for minor infractions such as failing to stand up straight. 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. 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. You say it is unscientific nonsense, but prove that any of the statistics and studies were not accurate or that the events that took place in the clones did not happen. But you make many assumptions about me. Im rich. Finally, even the founder was not cured, returning to marijuana by 1977 and to an alcoholic stupor in 1978 that led to drunken parties throughout Synanon, as Phil Ritters and my murders were plotted, and the supposedly rehabilitated and reformed celebrated at the news of resulting injuries. 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. one, it was a hard fought battle. "All of us started having kids, and I think as parents we were like, 'Holy s---, what? As for women, I cant purport to be an expert, but having lived through the 60s Revolution and womens rights I do have my observations. Most of what I wrote was a no comment description in detail of Synanons evolution taken from its own records. You would make Wes Fager proud, I am sure, sadly he is no longer with us. 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., *.*.. It did make news. Almost all modern day therapeutic communitiesand there are hundreds of themare based on the game. A belief system based upon coercive persuasion is expected by all who have studied it to be largely abandoned when the pressures are removed. Dr. Jerome Jaffe, the first White House Drug Czar, had written the foreward to Dr. Meyers book which had called for caution in the use of synanon-style screaming matches against kids. (He considers his dad's partner, Bonnie, his mother. Eventually, on the subject of rehabilitation, Ofshe would write, Synanon was the failure thats gave birth to an industry.. Many entrepreneurs, previously excluded from the lucrative drug rehabilitation trade because of lack of a medical degree, have opened their own second, third, and fourth generation synanon-type therapeutic communities. Once again, her counselors said that she was faking when she complained. Died of dehydration. This is not limited to addicts. Society would have to catch up with Dederich on his ideas of dieting, exercise, and no smoking. Ms Szalavitz wrote there are hundreds of emotional growth boarding schools, wilderness camps, and tough love anti-drug programs that make up the billion-dollar teen residential treatment industry. In Is This A Camp Or Jail? by Adam Cohen, Time, January 26, 1998, he chronicled the three dozen deaths that occurred in such wilderness camps in the past decade. Dederich said those who left fell through the open manhole and would post descriptions of their calamities for all to see as a warning if they ever left. So is the eventual years later reverting to a longing for the days of comrades and cause. They made people like Bernie Kolb who I loved very much. There were countless communes and entities much larger that took in people of all races. as to George Bush, again in my book I said there was no difference between him psychologically and Osama. If CED had that kind of protection, he would have died a king.. In Maias book it is described one woman was not even allowed to leave a teen rehab after she turned 18, the organization threatening her mother to toss out her younger child if the mother took the older one back. I also believed that Synanons many clones, adding doctors, and other proper variations, had established successful drug rehabilitation. Dr. Roger Meyer and psychotherapists Thomas Bratter and Gary Forrest warned about using synanons on kids. 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. I look forward to comments, but those based upon facts, not attacks on the messenger. When they asked me, if an addict enters Synanon, how long will it take? My answer is, If he is lucky, it will take forever.. 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.. Synanon was a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center and movement-turned-cult in California that existed from 1958 to 1991. The Cedu schools (one in California, and one in Idaho) were each located in a mountain wilderness, and students soon discovered that they were teenage captives, without identification or money, in an imposing geography they could not easily or safely negotiate or escape. Paul Morantz 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. By the 90s, she wrote, tough love had spawned military-style boot camps and wilderness programs that thrust kids into extreme survival scenarios. Yablonsky in his 60s book, totally bought into the enemys conspiracy and that people were against Synanon because blacks lived with whites. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience., *..*.*. At the heart of the Cedu program was a philosophy that had grown out of various self-help movements of the 1960s and 70s, such as Lifespring, Werner Erhards EST, and most directly, from Charles E. Dederichs Synanon cult, church, and street-level heroin-cure program. Looking back, I think my brother was appropriately angry with the adults.". But I DO know the culture of Synanon. 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. By 1971 Dederich would submit that while 10 to 12,000 people had gone through Synanon only about 10% stayed free of drugs for as much as 2 years, which was similar to the statistics everyone else concluded, which were the same at Lexington Hospital when Synanon was founded. Let alone, 'Okay, here you go stranger I've never met, take care of my kid. 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. I asked him how he could write a book on Synanon without ever interviewing the person who fought it. And it was repeated in books by Yablonsky and Endore and unfortunately repeated a decade ago by Janzen. Thank you again Paul for taking my call back in May of 2011,and for taking an interest in the Elan cult. I agree with current views, given the atrocities that have occurred in Synanon clones, but I also still think the idea, discounting the dogma, to have a group of peers encouraging you and available at any time to talk to if you are considering going on a binge and you cannot reach your professional, is good. Dederich said free choice in the hands of an addict was like a gun in the hands of a baby. Charles was arrested while drunk in 1978 and was barred from any further leadership within the And back is my reply to you. The media pointed to me, but there were far many who had joined and fought to protect me as well as expose Synanon. The evil was he boasted that they would cut off any charity that did not do as Synanon told them to do. 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. But instead he made lab rats out of people. In his final letter to his mother, he wrote, They found my weakness and I want to go home.. What is mysterious about this? What was it one in 25 days for 2 years? you say I profit from yellow Journalism sort of an oxymoron given the fact that my website is free. "He was just this big, masculine, Italian, strong guy that loved his boys. In law, lawyers too much use the technique of attacking opposing counsel when they cannot attack the facts. For many academics, it is reviewing writing of others. "At that age, my response was to become the super kid. And that you should try to see people the way God sees them. 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. 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. Another myth perpetrated by old time Synanon members, and apology writers, like Janzen, looking for fans among ex-Synanon members, is that Synanon played a role in civil rights. .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. Others were taken below or in barns to be beaten. Fager wrote: Dr. 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. Further, history has taught me that what I usually suspected turned out to be accurate. In my opinion Elan operated as a continueing criminal enterprise for close to forty years. I gave you a ring and was most pleasantly surprised that you answered. ***. TimI didnt say I was the only one to fight Synanon. Forty four years later, with Joe dead and Elan closed down survivors are still searching for someone in a position of authority to admit that what happened there was abuse. 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. 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. In the book The Tunnel Back Yablonsky, Dederich and another Dr. discuss that the Synanon system is similar to Dr. Liftons discussion of Chinese brainwashing. 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. As I wrote the youth did not buy in as did the parents, you sound like one of them. Or a person could just stop. is someone writes a personal attack on me, or anyone else who comments, is deleted. Elan was known of using such standards as haircut, pull- up, the game and humiliating signs; but added a boxing ring for resisters to be plummeted by bigger guys until a bloody confession was extracted, regardless of its truth. In one sense it becomes like the question of which came first the chicken or the egg. "I can't tell you how many times a day I pick up my kid. Jollett says his feelings were not validated by his mother, who instead relied on him for comfort. Today as it is known that alcoholic recovery has a 40% success rate with no treatment at all; it is doubtful AA can surpass that. is probably the most clear and present danger the presidential office ever faced. The real origins of the Cedu schools remained hidden from the students, their parents and much of the staff until years after their graduation or departure. 5 years from now we wont need people like you.. Both AA and Synanon provided this insight, but unfortunately each bounded its members with an ideology and demand to never quit the organizations. Many have the support of state agencies, because of the past publicity for Synanon, unaware of what happened in California and assuming therefor these programs worked. Oh so very funny. they were supposed to be about love, while men were about war. When I was first fighting Synanon, however, things were very black and White. So I went through it again to tried to erase that ambiguity and I hope you are happier with it. In addition, group practice becomes an anti-therapeutic factor with the T.C. Out of 1,180 addicts who had entered Synanon in its first five years of operation, only 26 had graduated. Synanon Survivors. 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. As messages here seem to disappear and reappear per you request I am repeating it. 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! His motive, which Janzen missed, was the eventual plan to steal all the money. Dawnne Takeuchi, 18, was killed when she was thrown from a semi-truck near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, in June 1994. Even if the system had worked, the price was too high free will. 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. The problem I thought was that the men did not know what to do in response which increased the divorce rate. And in March she went, flying into Georgetown with her family, a few friends, and Jordan Many who studied Synanon agreed. Originally a nonviolent group, Diedrich created the Imperial Marines to maintain orderwithin and outside of the community. A 15-year-old boy died from a staph infection at a Colorado wilderness program. That did not exist in Synanon, that is what cemented its doom. Here we go!' 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. If you look at your post, you will see you bring up matters which were brought up in the entirety of my text and there is little difference. 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. If I did not want comments i would not have it set up too comments. When she finally was rescued by a grandmother, the organization was fortunately wiped out by the resulting civil judgment for damages. As I said, I would say the same of Janzen. Synanon did not even keep it from the public. see review. Its first example, naturally, as failure, was Synanon, and like Synanon, its clones became the darlings of the media and politicians in election years. Some of these programs were in the wilderness, some were high in the Mountains, or in deserts, or per parents trading children and keeping them in locked rooms when they were not in camps many of which were like old time chain gangs this saving cost of shelter and food. He spent 15 years Jollett, 45, tells PEOPLE about the abuse he and many other children experienced while growing up in the "school" of the infamous Synanon cult. Please buy the book. We either do that or we stop. 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. Below is a chart made by Maia in Mother Jones: A. Orange on his website lists interesting quotes: Tough Love: Abuse of a type particularly gratifying to the abuser, in that it combines the pleasures of sadism with those of self-righteousness. Rather, the organizations said they worked, so people believed it. He would want to know the reasons that motivated me, if he was in search for the truth. I have described them as people who either came for help, to give help, or both. But I believe there are important messages in its history I was drivin not to let Janzen alter it. Every time we let somebody into Synanon we assume an enormous liability and this is done consciously. if you have actual information please, but your tirades will be deleted. 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. 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. What lies did we believe wholeheartedly?". 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