(See
the new aacultwatch forum)
“In
the William White interview Mark Gilman talks of “The UK recovery
movement has already contributed to a paradigm shift in addiction
treatment. We can’t go back…” (p. 11)
http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/2011%20England,%20Mark%20Gilman%20Interview.pdf
While
“we” (or should he say he?) may not be able to go back, the
future direction of addiction treatment and its affiliation with
Alcoholics Anonymous can be changed. There is no sense in
perpetuating a continuum of a cultic infiltration of US government
policy and the addiction treatment industry, which has brought
sectors of the treatment industry into disrepute and in turn, by them
affiliating their programmes with AA, brought AA growth to a
standstill and drawn Alcoholics Anonymous into public controversy.
To
understand this paradigm shift, its power to change Alcoholics
Anonymous, the NHS, and private sectors of the treatment industry
into adopting a fundamentalist approach in which vulnerable
alcoholics and addicts in early recovery are exploited as a resource
for professionals, to be used in order to mentor others in a quasi-
professional role in an enclosed “recovery movement,” it may
necessary to understand this paradigm’s cultic root in Synanon, and
to place this whole “recovery movement” paradigm in context
within the greater paradigm shift in society towards fundamentalist
ideologies that have spread across the world in the latter half of
the twentieth century. The following is a link to filmed
lecture by Professor Margaret Thaler Singer, explaining how cults
have evolved into the mainstream of society since the 60s and 70s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rj4R4QhQg&feature=related
While
the Synanon cult was legally enforced to shut down in 1991, its
philosophy continues to be influential in addiction treatment.
“Recovery Champions” and De-Leon’s “Recovery-
Oriented-Intergration- System” appears to be a further step toward
fulfilling the prediction of Synanon’s founder of an amalgamation
of Therapeutic Communities which might not occur until after his
death. The following are extracts from “The Rise and Fall of
Synanon” by Rod Janzen, professor of history and social sciences at
Fresno Pacific University.
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Synanon-California-Utopia/dp/0801865832/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389542709&sr=1-1&keywords=the+rise+and+fall+of+synanon+Rod+Janzen
“One
of Synanon’s most important legacies is the international
therapeutic- communities (TC) movement. Member organizations not only
employ many Synanon people but operate according to Synanon
practices, including, peer counseling, status ladders,
confrontational group processing, voluntary enrolment, and at least
minimal residential requirements. Unlike Synanon however, TCs
sometimes employ professional psychiatrists and social workers, and
many accept government dollars and oversight. Chuck
Dederich once described TCs as ‘branches of Synanon Foundation,
Inc.’ and he predicted an ‘amalgamation’ that might not occur
until after his death” (The Rise and Fall of Synanon, Rod
Janzen,The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and
London, 2001, p. 2)
“The
Legacy of Synanon lives on in a number of venues. Synanon continues
for example, to have significant impact on drug rehabilitation and
prison reform via the ‘therapeutic communities’ (TC) movement.
Many Synanon people, now employed as TC counsellors, continue to
adhere to the foundation’s confrontational, peer-counseling
approach to drug addiction” (The Rise and Fall of Synanon, Rod
Janzen,2001, p. 242)
“….TCs
for the treatment of drug addiction were born in 1958 when Charles
Dederich began an experimental mutual aid community called Synanon.
While Synanon would not sustain its focus on addict rehabilitation,
its early years set the model for TCs all over the United States. The
model called for an addicts sustained (1-2 years) enmeshment in a
confrontive, caring community of recovering addicts -a community
that provided an authoritarian surrogate family in which the addict
was regressed, re-socialized and then given progressively greater
responsibility and contact with the outside community. The etiology
of addiction was defined characterologically and recovery was defined
as a process of emotional maturation. By 1975, there were more than
500 TCs in the U.S. modeled after Synanon. (Yablonsky, 1965,
Mitchell, Mitchell,& Ofshe,1980). (‘Trick or Treat? A
Century of American Responses to Heroin Addiction’ William L.
White
p.9) http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/2002HistoryofHeroinAddictionTreatment.pdf
“..The
shift from the Twelve Steps to therapy can be seen as early as
Charles Dederick’s founding of Synanon in 1958…” Kurtz, E.
(1999) (‘Whatever happened to twelve-step programs?’p.22)
http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/Dr.%20Ernie%20Kurtz%20on%20Twelve-Step%20Programs%2C%201996.pdf”
Note: Conference Questions can be downloaded in pdf from the GSO (GB) website. They are on pages 5-11, AA Service News, Issue 157, Winter 2013 http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/download/1/Library/Documents/AA%20Service%20News/157%20Winter%202013.pdf
Conference 2014 background material can be found on the GSO (GB) website. Follow the “Background Material for Conference 2014” link in the Document Library. http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/Members/Document-Library
Cheers
The
Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS
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