Cults: their destructive power

Extracts from the aacultwatch forum (old)

“These extracts from AA Grapevine articles 1968-1975, are a tiny fragment of AA history which shows how easily a destructive cult can gain power to influence the medical profession and AA group members. The Synanon cult was not AA, but it was influential on both the medical profession and AA before it became known as an abusive cult.........

“About Alcoholism - Alcoholism Information, Research and Treatment” (AA Grapevine May 1972) (Extracts)

"Alcoholism and other addictions as they affect women will be the theme of the Spring Conference of the Michigan Alcohol and Addiction Association, to be held May 7-8-9 at the Pantlind Hotel in Lansing, Mich…. …..Two panel discussions, both under the theme heading "The Addicted Woman," will consider different types of drug addiction. Alcohol will be the concern of the first, with an all-female panel comprising four AAs and one Al-Anon. Heroin and other "hard drugs" will be discussed by a Synanon panel.

For further information, write: Box 61, Lansing, Mich."

“40-hour Marathon Meetings” (AA Grapevine March 1968) (Extracts)

". . .The long hours in marathon bid fair to open the heart. . .
IT'S EASY to assume that we aren't going to see much change in the AA way of doing business in years to come. There are signs this is much too easy an assumption.

From the East Coast and the West Coast come separate reports[1] of a new kind of small, intense AA meeting, not confined to AA members, but including anyone who will abide by the rules of the meeting. The purpose of these meetings is self-inventory: how I am doing now……

….The main emphasis is on truth--the whole truth, not the abridged version which has become expected and appropriate at AA open meetings. Ah, you say, that's all very well, but you surely don't mean the whole truth, do you? Sex, perversions included. Thefts. Slanders. The really nasty stuff?

Evidently those proposing the new meetings do mean just that: the whole truth, including all the etceteras, as corrective for an AA which is tending to become conventional, even evasive. They propose the whole truth as a resource especially for those with a terrible burden of guilt which they can no longer lay down in public in AA.

As one reads the history of AA, it seems evident that in the beginning, among the close, small groups of the first days, any guilt could be unloaded. The price for freedom from the guilt was willingness to change, willingness to stop doing whatever was producing the guilt--starting with stopping drinking…..

…….The new meetings are designed to put all those participating in them in a position to furnish real help to a member wanting to change. The group is going to ask him for a commitment to stop whatever he is doing wrong, and it will expect him to report back regularly to the group on progress--admitting failure, without breast-beating, when he has failed…….

…….You're alarmed, you say? This is much too much invasion of privacy by the group? Not so. Remember, one is a member of the group by free choice. One is in the group precisely to get the help the group offers. …….

……The quintessence of the new kind of meetings is the "marathon." Evidently the idea for these comes most directly and recently from the programs for narcotics addicts called Synanon and Daytop. Both of these came out of AA, as a matter of historical development, but they are changed in important ways from the original AA program. The parentage is still evident, however, and nowhere more so than in the appeal to rigorous honesty. The climate of Synanon and Daytop, as best one can tell from reports and from minimal direct exposure, is much closer to the tone and intention of the fifth chapter of AA's Big Book than are most AA meetings today. While AA has waxed genteel, and eager to avoid discussion of unpleasant truths, drug addicts are willing--indeed obliged--to go to any lengths of honesty to be rid of their sociopathic or psychopathic behavior patterns.

Thus the marathon--forty hours of continuous meeting with a five-hour sleep-break halfway through. In two experiences of mine--one in a non-AA and one in an AA setting--thirty-five hours has proved barely sufficient for the "Fifth Steps" of some sixteen people assembled for the adventure. Marathons, unexpectedly, do not prove physically exhausting. One gets a second wind after eight or ten hours. (Food is provided at regular mealtimes) ………”

1*See Pages 6 and 9 --Ed.

Anonymous”

“I Have Walked down Those Same Streets” (AA Grapevine September 1971) (Extracts)

To a daughter in trouble comes this message of love--a sharing of experience to remind and comfort us all

"DEAR ALLISON:

This is probably the hardest and most important letter I have ever had to write. I am trying to communicate to you that I not only love you and care about you, but truly understand your problems--because I have had similar troubles in my own life……..

…..For me, Alcoholics Anonymous was the answer. For you? This is something you must decide for yourself. The Synanon program and the experiments conducted at Day-top both have been successful for many. Would either help you? Well, go and find out…….

…Mother

“About Alcoholism” (AA Grapevine June 1975)

"Two Hospital Programs

Many of these items are contrary to AA philosophy. Their publication here does not mean that the Grapevine endorses or approves them; they are offered solely for your information.

A combination of the approaches used by Synanon and Alcoholics Anonymous has led to development of a third type of treatment which can be especially effective with both narcotics and alcohol abusers.

Samuel W. Anglin of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C., noted that the combined treatment is of special value for recovering narcotics addicts who develop a dependency on alcohol, and for polydrug abusers. The approach has been used at the hospital for more than a year "with a relatively high degree of success," he reported.

Among specific benefits he cited were:

The former addict's problems of overcoming loneliness and gaining social growth are eased by participation in the recovery network of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous; Synanon's intense behavior-modification techniques speed up the alcoholic's realization he is an alcoholic and not just a "heavy drinker"; with the combined treatment, costs are dramatically reduced, since only one facility, one staff, one training program are required. Self-help aspect also leads to cost reduction; in the single setting, individuals receive preventive education on a variety of drugs they may not be familiar with and are also more likely to encounter individuals from other generations and other cultures."

The Journal (Addiction Research Fou)”

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

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