The Synanon organization, originally a drug rehab program, was founded by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich, Sr., (1913-1997) in 1958 in Santa Monica, California. In the early 1960s, Synanon has also become an alternative community, attracting people with an emphasis on living a self-explored life, aided by a group of truth-telling sessions later known as "The Synanon Games." Synanon eventually became Church of Synanon in the 1970s, and was dissolved permanently in 1991 for many criminal activities, including attempted murder of convicted members, and legal matters, including the loss of his tax-exempt status retroactively with Internal Revenue Service due to financial misconduct, destruction of evidence and terrorism. It has been called one of the "most dangerous and cruel cults America has ever seen."
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Starter
Charles Dederich, a reformed alcoholic and a member of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), is said to be a spokesman admired in A.A. meeting. Those who suffer from drug addiction, other than alcohol, are considered very different from alcoholics, and therefore are not accepted into A.A. Dederich, after taking LSD, decided to create his own program to respond to their needs. He is said to have invented the phrase "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." After his small group, called "Tender Loving Care," gained significant followers, Dederich incorporated the organization into the Synanon Foundation in 1958. Synanon is a word of his own invention that integrates togetherness ("syn") with unknowns ("anon ").
Synanon started as a two-year housing program, but Dederich soon concluded that its members would not be able to pass, because full recovery is impossible. This program is based on the testimony of fellow group members about their misery and the relapse urges, and the journey to recovery. Synanon is different from Alcoholics Anonymous because it helps drug users and drinkers. The Synanon organization also develops businesses that sell promotional items. It became a successful company that temporarily generated about $ 10 million per year.
In 1959, Synanon moved from their small shop to an armory on the beach. In the early 1960s Charles was able to leverage media and his colleagues in Hollywood to promote his organization. In 1967, Synanon purchased the Club Casa del Mar, a large seaside hotel in Santa Monica, and was used as its headquarters and as a dormitory for those undergoing anti-drug treatments. Later, Synanon acquired a large building that was home to Athletic Club Athena, in Oakland, California, and later converted it into a residential facility for members of Synanon. Outsiders are allowed to attend the "Synanon Game" there as well. Children are raised communally in Synanon School, and teenagers are often ordered to enroll in Synanon by a California court.
Professionals, even those who are not addicted to drugs, are invited to join Synanon. New York Psychiatrist Daniel Casriel MD, founder of AREBA (now the oldest personal addiction treatment center in the United States) and co-founder of Daytop Village (one of the largest therapeutic communities in the world) visited in 1962 and lived there in 1963 and wrote about his experience. Member's control goes through "Game." The "Game" can be considered a therapeutic tool, likened to the form of group therapy; or else to a form of "social control", in which members embarrass each other and encourage the exposure of weaknesses to one another, or perhaps both. Beginning in the mid-1970s, women at Synanon were asked to shave their heads, and married couples were made to break up and take on a new partner. Men were given a vasectomy forcibly, and some pregnant women were forced to have an abortion.
Film director George Lucas needs a large group of people with shaved heads for filming his movie THX 1138, and so he hires some extras from Synanon. Robert Altman hired Synanon members in addition to the gambling scene in his movie California Split .
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Practice
Going into the Synanon community requires a strong initial commitment. Newcomers were first interviewed by Synanon's leadership to gain entry into the community. Upon their arrival, the newcomers were forced to stop using cold turkey medicines, through withdrawal within the first few days of society. Furthermore, for their first ninety days in the community, members are expected to stop in contact with friends and family from outside.
During the first decade, members of Synanon held a 1-2 year program in three phases aimed at preparing members for reentry into a larger society. During the first phase, members do community work and housework. During the second phase, the members work outside the community but still live in the community. Finally, during the third phase, members work and live outside the community, but still attend regular meetings. However, after the transition of Synanon into an alternative society in 1968, the program turned into a "lifelong rehabilitation program", on the premise that drug addicts will never fully recover enough to return to society.
One of the most prominent practices of the Synanon community is the therapeutic practice commonly referred to as "The Game." The game is a session where one member will talk about themselves and then persevere aloud by their peers. During this exercise, members are encouraged to be critical of everything, using critical and indecent language. However, despite the extremely aggressive nature of The Game, outside of The Game, members are required to act in a civil manner with each other. While in The Game, members criticize each other, but go as friends and supportive community members. The Game not only serves as the most prominent form of therapy and personal change from Synanon, but also serves as a way for leaders to gather opinions from community members. Because there is no hierarchy in The Game, members can freely criticize the highest leadership of Synanon, who will then consider the members' concerns when deciding on a policy.
The game turned into a 72-hour version and was accepted by Dederich and writer Lewis Yablonsky for brainwashing. See the book Yablonsky, The Tunnel Back. The game was eventually used to pressure people against Dederich's wishes, to cancel pregnancy, vasectomy and violence.
Chuck Dederich eventually changed his way of thinking about Synanon, and transformed him into a humane progressive group. Synanon moved to create a school for its members, and Dederich wanted his members to change mentally for the good of the community outside. The school is led by Al Bauman, who believes in innovative philosophy, and aims to teach children in the same way to think differently. Schools attract lawyers, screenwriters, business executives, all who want to educate their children in a progressive environment.
Lifetime rehabilitation concept
Beginning in 1964, the legal authorities began to investigate the practices of Synanon. The concept of "lifelong rehabilitation" is incompatible with therapeutic norms, and it is suspected that the Synanon group is running an unauthorized medical clinic. Synanon expands the old Marconi RCA Trans-Pacific radio station in Tomales Bay is now the State History Park of the Marconi Conference Center. Furthermore, there are allegations that in remote California properties such as Marshall in Marin County and in Badger, Tulare County, Synanon has built unauthorized buildings that have been legally required, have created landfills, and built airstrips. Taxation issues also arise. In response to these allegations, Dederich stated that Synanon is a tax-exempt religious organization, "Church of Synanon."
The legal issue continues, despite this change. The children who had been assigned to Synanon started to flee, and "underground trains" had been made in areas that were trying to help them get back to their parents. The beating of opponents to Synanon and his former members, "splittees", took place in California. The beating took place in the basement of Synanon. A Grand Jury state in Marin County issued a spicy report in 1978 that attacked Synanon for evidence of child abuse is very strong, and also for monetary gain that flows into Dederich. The Grand Jury report also reprimands the government authorities involved due to their lack of supervision, though it stops short of direct interceding in the Synanon situation.
Although many newspapers and broadcasters in San Francisco cover the Synanon case, they are largely silenced by legal action from the Synanon lawyers, who make a libel claim. This lawsuit eventually became the largest part of Synanon's evasion, giving reporters access to Synanon's own internal documents.
Criminal and collapse activity
Synanon has been credited as involved with some criminal activities, such as the disappearance of Rose Lena Cole around late 1972 or early-1973. Cole has received a court order to enlist in Syanon before he disappears. He has not been seen or heard since then. Initially Synanon did not support violence, but Dederich then changed the rules to use only violence when needed. Much of the violence by Synanon has been done by a group inside Synanon called the "Imperial Marines." More than 80 acts of violence were carried out including the mass beatings of teenagers and hospitalized ranchers being beaten in front of their families. People leaving the organization are at risk of physical abuse for being a "committee" and one former member, Phil Ritter, was beaten so badly that his skull was fractured and he fell into a coma with an almost fatal case of bacterial meningitis.
During the summer of 1978, NBC Nightly News generated a news segment about the controversy surrounding Synanon. After this broadcast, several executives from the NBC network and its corporate leaders allegedly received hundreds of threats from members and supporters of Synanon. However, NBC continues with a series of reports on the situation of Synanon on NBC Nightly News. The Point Reyes Light, a small weekly-circulation newspaper in Marin County, will then receive a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service to cover their Synanon while other news agencies avoid reporting. A few weeks after NBC began receiving threats, on October 10, 1978, two Synanon members put rattlesnakes ripped apart in Paul Morantz's attorney box from Pacific Palisades, California. Morantz has successfully filed a lawsuit on behalf of those detained against their wishes by Synanon. The snake bit him, and he was hospitalized for six days. This incident, along with press coverage, prompted investigations by law and government into Synanon.
Six weeks later, the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a search on a farm in Badger that found a speech recorded by Dederich in which he said, "We will not mess up the past, change-the-other-cheek religious posture... our religious posture is : Do not mess with us.You can be killed dead, really dead... This is a real threat, "he growled. "They drained the life blood from us, and expected us to play with their ridiculous rules.We'll make the rules.I do not see anything scary about it... I'm quite willing to break the legs of some lawyers, and then break the legs of his wife, and threatened to cut off their son's arm.That was the end of the lawyer.It was a very good and humane way of sending me an ears in a glass of alcohol on my table. "During the investigation, the searchers also found many lawsuits and arrests against members of Synanon.
Dederich was arrested while drunk on December 2, 1978. Two other Synanon residents, one of whom was Lance Kenton, son of Stan Kenton musician, pleaded for "no contest" for alleged assault, as well as a conspiracy to commit murder. While his colleagues went to prison, Dederich got a probation because doctors said he was ill because he was going to die in prison. As part of his probation he can not take part in running Synanon.
Synanon struggles to survive without its leader, and also with a highly tarnished reputation. The Internal Revenue Service revoked the tax-exempt status of the organization and ordered them to pay $ 17 million in taxes, which weighed on Synanon, which was officially dissolved in 1991.
Synanon's influence in the modification-behavior field
Mel Wasserman, influenced by his Synanon experience, founded CEDU Education. CEDU schools use the Synanon confrontation model. The CEDU model has broadly influenced the development of private choice housing programs. People who were initially inspired by their CEDU experience developed or profoundly affected a large number of schools in the Therapeutic boarding school industry.
Father William B. O'Brien, founder of New York's Daytop Village, includes a Synanon group meeting and a confrontational approach in his research on addiction treatment methods.
Writers, journalists and activists Maia Szalavitz claim to map the influence of Synanon in other programs including Phoenix House, Straight, Incorporated and Boot Camps other than those mentioned above.
Success
Despite the controversy and its downfall, the Synanon program is credited with curing some of their addicted people. For example, Synanon is credited with healing, at least temporarily, heroin addicted jazz musician Frank Rehak, Arnold Ross, Joe Pass and Art Pepper (Pepper discusses his Synanon experience at length in his autobiography Straight Life ), and actor Matthew "Stymie" Beard. In 1962, Pass formed a band consisting of the patient Synanon who recorded an album titled Sounds of Synanon . The Synanon organization was praised by motivational speaker Florrie Fisher in her speech to high school students, and she praised Synanon by curing heroin addiction. Synanon also inspired successful programming such as Delancey Street Foundation, co-founded by John Maher, a former member of Synanon. Many former members still appreciate what they see as a positive aspect of Synanon, particularly its strong sense of community, and stay in close contact, directly or through an online chat group, and have been in business together.
The Synanon branch, founded in Germany in 1971, still operates.
Popular depictions
The 1965 Columbia Pictures movie Synanon , directed by Richard Quine, set in (and filmed in) Synanon; it starred Edmond O'Brien as Chuck Dederich, as well as Chuck Connors, Stella Stevens, Richard Conte, and Eartha Kitt.
Synanon is named in Bob Dylan's song "Lenny Bruce", from his album Shot of Love (Bruce "never gets to Synanon."). It is also mentioned in the song "Opening Doors" from Stephen Sondheim's musician Merrily We Roll Along , which mentions it as the title of a hypothetical song in the satirical revitalization of the 1960s.
The science fiction TV series 1993 Babylon 5 includes the Synanon Game version in "Signs and Porten" and "Comes the Inquisitor" episodes.
The "New Path" drug treatment center in Philip K. Dick's 1976 science fiction novel A Darkly Scanner has much in common with Synanon. Dick's 1981 novel VALUE began with the initial romantic interest of committing suicide from the tenth floor of the Synanon building in Oakland, California.
In the 1977 Charles Alverson novel Not Sleeping, Just Dead, Joe Goodey's personal eye tried to resolve the alleged assassination at The Institute, an organization that has a greater resemblance to Synanon. (Alverson had lived in Synanon for six months in 1967 as a straight-line, or non-addicted citizen.)
Synanon is mentioned in the 1979 essay "The White Album" by Joan Didion.
Many of the extras in the 1971 George Lucas movie THX 1138 were brought from the Synanon chapters in San Francisco. Lucas explained in the DVD commentary, "we are attracted to them simply because everyone who joins the program should shave their heads and we need hundreds of people with shaved heads for some of the bigger scenes in the movie." Synanon is thus grateful for the final credits of the film.
Deborah Swisher, a former member of Synanon, recounts her experiences growing in several Synanon communes in her one-woman show "Hundreds of Sisters and One Big Brother"
See also
- Attack therapy
- The human potential movement
- Prop 36
- ÃÆ' â € ° lan School
References
Escape: My Life Long War against Cults (2012) by Paul Morantx and Hal Lancaster From Miracle to Madness by Paul Morantz
External links
- A German branch of Synanon, in German.
- A site devoted to Synanon nostalgia, with links to other sites.
- Rose Lena Cole, the girl who ran away from Synanon in 1972 and was never found.
- Devil and John Walker by Paul Morantz (a lawyer targeted to be killed by Dederich), an article on brainwashing in coercive groups, including Synanon.
- True History of Synanon Violence and How to Get Started also by Paul Morantz
- Instant guide for Synanon: compiling the most frequently asked questions about our Foundation. The film by The Synanon Foundation was digitized and hosted by the UCLA Library.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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