Synanon .... again!

An extract from a mail we received:

“It's good to see others in the States are putting things together and that Synanon is coming into the picture. I think one day history is going to record that Synanon was a cult that didn't die, but dispersed into a multitude of mini-cults, a philosphy that continues to live on and evolve in the Therapeutic Communities Movement and treatment centres.

The article is not entirely correct in its stating Synanon as being "successful." Synanon was very successful as a business - a corporate cult, but the study of Synanon by Sociologist Richard Ofshe found that Synanon was unsuccessful in rehabilitating alcoholics and addicts. After visiting and studying Synanon, he described it as a "revolving door." Much of Synanon's claimed success in rehabilitation is attributable to Sociologist Lewis Yablonski. Yablonski was brainwashed by Dederick in his study of Synanon, served as a Synanon director and also fell in love and married a Synanon cult woman. So his work in promoting Synanon was deeply flawed, based on emotion rather than scientific evidence. Of all the professionals brainwashed by Dederich, Paul Morantz described Yablonski as "the most washed."

Some of the papers linked in Monday's "GSO Leads AA Members Away from Traditions -Again" blog bring the Synanon story up to date, especially those relating to David Deitch and George de Leon.

If you get the chance, I suggest you read "Synanon the Tunnel Back" by Lewis Yablonski, "The Light on Synanon, how a country weekly exposed a corporate cult and won the Pulitzer prize" by Dave Mitchell, Cathy Mitchell and Richard Ofshe (Seaview Books 1980) "The Rise and Fall of Synanon" by Rod Janzen, "Escape My life long War Against Cults" by Paul Morantz and "Help at Any Cost, How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids" by Maia Szalavitz

You couldn't make the Synanon story up if you tried: How a sociopathic alcoholic who failed to stay sober himself conned sociologists and psychiatrists into basing USA's mainstream addiction treatment model on his ideas.

Best wishes”

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alchoholics Anonymous)