Synanon
Encyclopedia
The Synanon organization, initially a drug rehabilitation
program, was founded by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich, Sr., (1913–1997) in 1958, in Santa Monica, California
, United States. By the early 1960s, Synanon had also become an alternative community, attracting people with its emphasis on living a self-examined life, as aided by group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game". Synanon ultimately became the Church of Synanon in the 1970s, and disbanded permanently in 1989 due to many alleged criminal activities, including attempted murder, and civil legal problems, including Federal tax-evasion problems with the Internal Revenue Service.
(A.A.), was said to be an admired speaker at A.A. meetings. Those suffering from addictions to illegal drugs, besides alcohol, were considered to be significantly different than alcoholics, and therefore were not accepted into A.A. Dederich decided to create his own program to respond to their needs. He was said to have coined the phrase "today is the first day of the rest of your life" During 1965, Columbia Pictures
produced a movie, Synanon, which was directed by Richard Quine
, and starred Edmond O'Brien
as Chuck Dederich, and also Chuck Connors
, Stella Stevens
, Richard Conte
, and Eartha Kitt
.
Synanon began as a two-year residential program, but Dederich soon concluded that its members could never graduate, because a full recovery was impossible. The Synanon organization also developed a business that sold promotional items. This became a successful enterprise that for a time generated roughly $10 million per year.
Synanon purchased the Club Casa del Mar, a large beachside hotel in Santa Monica, and this was used as its headquarters and as a dormitory for those undergoing anti-drug treatment. Later on, Synanon acquired a large industrial building, which had been the home of the Oakland Athletic Club, in Oakland, California
, and then transformed it into a residential facility for Synanon's members. Outsiders were permitted to attend the "Synanon Game" there as well. Children were reared communally in the Synanon School, and juveniles were often ordered to enroll in Synanon by California's courts.
Professionals, even those without drug addictions, were invited to join Synanon. The New York psychiatrist Daniel Casriel M.D.
, founder of AREBA (today the oldest surviving private addiction treatment centre in the United States) and cofounder of Daytop Village
(one of the world’s largest therapeutic communities) visited in 1962 and lived there in 1963 and wrote a book about his experiences. Control over members occurred through the "Game". The "Game" could have been considered to be a therapeutic tool, likened to a form of group therapy; or else to a form of a "social control", in which members humiliated one another and encouraged the exposure of one-another's innermost weaknesses, or maybe both of these. Beginning in the mid-1970s, women in Synanon were required to shave their heads, and married couples were made to break up and take new partners. Men were given forced vasectomies, and a few pregnant women were forced to have abortions.
The film director George Lucas
needed a large group of people with shaved heads for the filming of his movie THX 1138
, and so he hired some of his extras from Synanon. Robert Altman
hired members of Synanon to be extras for the gambling scenes in his movie California Split
.
in Marin County
and in Badger, Tulare County, Synanon had erected buildings without the legally-required permits, had created a trash dump, and built an airstrip. Taxation issues also arose, naturally. In response to these accusations, Dederich declared that Synanon was a tax exempt
religious organization, the "Church of Synanon."
Legal problems continued, despite this change. Children who had been assigned to Synanon began running away, and an "underground railroad" had been created in the area that sought to help them return to their parents. Beatings of Synanon's opponents and its ex-members, "splittees", occurred across California. A state Grand Jury
in Marin County issued a scathing report in 1978 that attacked Synanon for the very strong evidence of its child abuse
, and also for the monetary profits that flowed to Dederich. The Grand Jury report also rebuked the governmental authorities involved for their lack of oversight, although stopped short of directly interceding in the Synanon situation.
Though many San Francisco area newspapers and broadcasters covered the Synanon case, they were largely silenced by legal action from Synanon's lawyers, who made claims of libel. These lawsuits ultimately turned out to be a large part of Synanon's undoing, by giving journalists access to Synanon's own internal documents.
, influenced by his Synanon experience, founded CEDU
Education. CEDU's schools used the confrontation model of Synanon. The CEDU model was widely influential on the development of parent-choice, private-pay residential programs. People originally inspired by their CEDU experience developed or strongly influenced a significant number of the schools in the Therapeutic boarding school
industry.
Father William B. O’Brien, the founder of New York's Daytop Village
, included Synanon's group encounters and confrontational approach in his research into addiction treatment methods.
Author, journalist and activist Maia Szalavitz claims to chart the influence of Synanon in other programs including Phoenix House
and Boot Camps in addition to those mentioned above.
Synanon is heavily implicated in the late-1972 or early-1973 disappearance of Rose Lena Cole, who was ordered by a court to enroll in Synanon before she disappeared. She has not been seen or heard from since.
During the summer of 1978, the NBC Nightly News
produced a news segment on the controversies surrounding Synanon. Following this broadcast, several executives of the NBC
network and its corporate chairman allegedly received hundreds of threats from Synanon members and supporters. However, NBC continued with a series of reports on the Synanon situation on the NBC Nightly News.
On September 21, 1978, ex-Synanon member Phil Ritter was severely beaten by two Synanon members, which caused him to fall into a coma for a week. Fluid leaked into his spinal column, which caused a near-fatal case of spinal meningitis.
Several weeks later, on October 11, 1978, two Synanon members placed a de-rattled rattlesnake
in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz
of Pacific Palisades, California. Morantz had successfully brought suit in behalf of a woman abducted by Synanon. The snake bit and almost killed him.
Six weeks later, the Los Angeles Police Department
performed a search of the ranch in Badger that found a recorded speech by Dederich in which he said, "We're not going to mess with the old-time, turn-the-other-cheek religious postures ... our religious posture is: Don't mess with us. You can get killed dead, literally dead ... these are real threats," he snarled. "They are draining life's blood from us, and expecting us to play by their silly rules. We will make the rules. I see nothing frightening about it ... I am quite willing to break some lawyer's legs, and next break his wife's legs, and threaten to cut their child's arm off. That is the end of that lawyer. That is a very satisfactory, humane way of transmitting information. ... I really do want an ear in a glass of alcohol on my desk."
Dederich was arrested while drunk on December 2, 1978. The two other Synanon residents, one of whom was Lance Kenton, the son of the musician Stan Kenton
, pleaded "no contest
" to charges of assault, and also conspiracy to commit murder. While his associates went to jail, Dederich himself avoided imprisonment by formally stepping down as the chairman of Synanon.
Much of the violence by Synanon had been carried out by a group within Synanon called the "Imperial Marines."
The Point Reyes Light
, a small-circulation weekly newspaper in Marin County, received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
in 1979 in recognition of its coverage of Synanon when other news agencies avoided reporting on it.
Synanon struggled to survive without its leader, and also with a severely tarnished reputation. The Internal Revenue Service
sued for $17 million in back taxes, and all of its properties were confiscated and sold. Synanon formally dissolved in 1991.
, and Art Pepper
(Pepper discussed his Synanon experiences at length in his autobiography Straight Life), and the actor Matthew "Stymie" Beard. In 1962, Pass formed a band, made up of Synanon patients, who recorded an album titled, The Sounds of Synanon. The Synanon organization was praised by the motivational speaker Florrie Fisher
in her speeches to high school students, and she credited Synanon with curing her of her heroin addiction. Synanon also inspired the creation of successful programs such as the Delancey Street Foundation
, co-founded by John Maher, a former Synanon member. Many former members still value what they see as the positive aspects of Synanon, primarily its strong sense of community, and remain in close contact, in person or through on-line chat groups, and have gone into business together.
A branch of Synanon that was founded in Germany
in 1971 is still in operation.
's song "Lenny Bruce", from his album Shot of Love
(Bruce "never made it to Synanon."). It is also referred to in the song "Opening Doors" from Stephen Sondheim
's musical Merrily We Roll Along
, which mentions it as a hypothetical song title in a satirical revue of the 1960s.
The TV producer/ writer J. Michael Straczynski
used a version of the Synanon Game in his science-fiction TV series Babylon 5
, in the episodes "Signs and Portents
" and "Comes the Inquisitor
".
The New-Path drug treatment centers in the science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick
's novel A Scanner Darkly
bear numerous similarities to Synanon. Dick's novel VALIS
also makes reference to the Synanon building in Oakland, California
.
In his 1977 novel. "Not sleeping, Just Dead", Charles Alverson
, who lived in Synanon for six months in 1967 as a ‘straight’ or non-addicted resident, sends his private eye Joe Goodey to solve a suspected murder at The Institute, an organization that bears more than a passing resemblance to Synanon.
Synanon is mentioned in Joan Didion
's essay The White Album
.
Synanon appears in the movie "Unknown" as Liam Neeson is flipping through the yellow pages in Berlin.
Drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...
program, was founded by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich, Sr., (1913–1997) in 1958, in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, United States. By the early 1960s, Synanon had also become an alternative community, attracting people with its emphasis on living a self-examined life, as aided by group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game". Synanon ultimately became the Church of Synanon in the 1970s, and disbanded permanently in 1989 due to many alleged criminal activities, including attempted murder, and civil legal problems, including Federal tax-evasion problems with the Internal Revenue Service.
Beginnings
Charles Dederich, a reformed alcoholic and a member of Alcoholics AnonymousAlcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
(A.A.), was said to be an admired speaker at A.A. meetings. Those suffering from addictions to illegal drugs, besides alcohol, were considered to be significantly different than alcoholics, and therefore were not accepted into A.A. Dederich decided to create his own program to respond to their needs. He was said to have coined the phrase "today is the first day of the rest of your life" During 1965, Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
produced a movie, Synanon, which was directed by Richard Quine
Richard Quine
Richard Quine was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year...
, and starred Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa...
as Chuck Dederich, and also Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
, Stella Stevens
Stella Stevens
Stella Stevens Stella Stevens Stella Stevens (born October 1, 1938 is an American film, television and stage actress, who began her acting career in 1959 and starred in such popular films as The Nutty Professor, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Silencers, The Ballad of Cable Hogue and The...
, Richard Conte
Richard Conte
Richard Conte was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films from the 1940s through 1970s, including I'll Cry Tomorrow and The Godfather.-Life and career:...
, and Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
.
Synanon began as a two-year residential program, but Dederich soon concluded that its members could never graduate, because a full recovery was impossible. The Synanon organization also developed a business that sold promotional items. This became a successful enterprise that for a time generated roughly $10 million per year.
Synanon purchased the Club Casa del Mar, a large beachside hotel in Santa Monica, and this was used as its headquarters and as a dormitory for those undergoing anti-drug treatment. Later on, Synanon acquired a large industrial building, which had been the home of the Oakland Athletic Club, in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, and then transformed it into a residential facility for Synanon's members. Outsiders were permitted to attend the "Synanon Game" there as well. Children were reared communally in the Synanon School, and juveniles were often ordered to enroll in Synanon by California's courts.
Professionals, even those without drug addictions, were invited to join Synanon. The New York psychiatrist Daniel Casriel M.D.
Daniel Harold Casriel
Daniel Harold Casriel was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author. He was born in New York City on 1 Mar, 1924 and died at his home in Manhattan on 7 June 1983 age 59 from a form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis...
, founder of AREBA (today the oldest surviving private addiction treatment centre in the United States) and cofounder of Daytop Village
Daytop
Daytop, or Daytop Village, is a drug addiction treatment organization with facilities in New York and New Jersey. It was founded in 1963 by Dr. Daniel Casriel M.D along with Monsignor William B. O'Brien a Roman Catholic priest and founder and the president of the World Federation of Therapeutic...
(one of the world’s largest therapeutic communities) visited in 1962 and lived there in 1963 and wrote a book about his experiences. Control over members occurred through the "Game". The "Game" could have been considered to be a therapeutic tool, likened to a form of group therapy; or else to a form of a "social control", in which members humiliated one another and encouraged the exposure of one-another's innermost weaknesses, or maybe both of these. Beginning in the mid-1970s, women in Synanon were required to shave their heads, and married couples were made to break up and take new partners. Men were given forced vasectomies, and a few pregnant women were forced to have abortions.
The film director George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
needed a large group of people with shaved heads for the filming of his movie THX 1138
THX 1138
THX 1138 is a 1971 science fiction film directed by George Lucas in his directorial debut. The film is based on a screenplay by Lucas and Walter Murch...
, and so he hired some of his extras from Synanon. Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
hired members of Synanon to be extras for the gambling scenes in his movie California Split
California Split
California Split is a 1974 film directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of gamblers. It was the first non-Cinerama movie to use eight-track stereo sound.-Plot:...
.
Lifetime rehabilitation concept
Beginning in 1974, the legal authorities began to investigate Synanon's practices. The concept of "lifetime rehabilitation" did not agree with therapeutic norms, and it was alleged that the Synanon group was running an unauthorized medical clinic. Furthermore, it was alleged that on remote properties in California such as at Tomales BayTomales Bay
Tomales Bay is a long narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. It is approximately 15 miles long and averages nearly 1.0 miles wide, effectively separating the Point Reyes Peninsula from the mainland of Marin County. It is located...
in Marin County
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
and in Badger, Tulare County, Synanon had erected buildings without the legally-required permits, had created a trash dump, and built an airstrip. Taxation issues also arose, naturally. In response to these accusations, Dederich declared that Synanon was a tax exempt
Tax exemption
Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
religious organization, the "Church of Synanon."
Legal problems continued, despite this change. Children who had been assigned to Synanon began running away, and an "underground railroad" had been created in the area that sought to help them return to their parents. Beatings of Synanon's opponents and its ex-members, "splittees", occurred across California. A state Grand Jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
in Marin County issued a scathing report in 1978 that attacked Synanon for the very strong evidence of its child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
, and also for the monetary profits that flowed to Dederich. The Grand Jury report also rebuked the governmental authorities involved for their lack of oversight, although stopped short of directly interceding in the Synanon situation.
Though many San Francisco area newspapers and broadcasters covered the Synanon case, they were largely silenced by legal action from Synanon's lawyers, who made claims of libel. These lawsuits ultimately turned out to be a large part of Synanon's undoing, by giving journalists access to Synanon's own internal documents.
Synanon's influence in the behavior-modification field
Mel WassermanMel Wasserman
Mel Wasserman was a businessman, entrepreneur and founder of CEDU Education. He was a pioneer in the Therapeutic Boarding School industry.-Biography:...
, influenced by his Synanon experience, founded CEDU
CEDU
CEDU Educational Services, Inc., known simply as CEDU , was founded in 1967 by Mel Wasserman and his wife Brigitta. The company owned and operated several therapeutic boarding schools and behavior modification programs in California and Idaho....
Education. CEDU's schools used the confrontation model of Synanon. The CEDU model was widely influential on the development of parent-choice, private-pay residential programs. People originally inspired by their CEDU experience developed or strongly influenced a significant number of the schools in the Therapeutic boarding school
Therapeutic boarding school
A therapeutic boarding school , alternatively known as an emotional growth boarding school, is a boarding school based on the therapeutic community model that offers an educational program together with specialized structure and supervision for students with emotional and behavioral problems,...
industry.
Father William B. O’Brien, the founder of New York's Daytop Village
Daytop
Daytop, or Daytop Village, is a drug addiction treatment organization with facilities in New York and New Jersey. It was founded in 1963 by Dr. Daniel Casriel M.D along with Monsignor William B. O'Brien a Roman Catholic priest and founder and the president of the World Federation of Therapeutic...
, included Synanon's group encounters and confrontational approach in his research into addiction treatment methods.
Author, journalist and activist Maia Szalavitz claims to chart the influence of Synanon in other programs including Phoenix House
Phoenix House
Phoenix House is a nonprofit drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization operating in ten states with 150 programs. Programs serve individuals, families, and communities affected by substance abuse and dependency.- History :...
and Boot Camps in addition to those mentioned above.
Alleged criminal activity
On March 20, 1978, a former member of Synanon was severely beaten (for being a "splittee") during his honeymoon when he took his bride to show her where he had once lived at the Walker Creek Ranch.Synanon is heavily implicated in the late-1972 or early-1973 disappearance of Rose Lena Cole, who was ordered by a court to enroll in Synanon before she disappeared. She has not been seen or heard from since.
During the summer of 1978, the NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
produced a news segment on the controversies surrounding Synanon. Following this broadcast, several executives of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
network and its corporate chairman allegedly received hundreds of threats from Synanon members and supporters. However, NBC continued with a series of reports on the Synanon situation on the NBC Nightly News.
On September 21, 1978, ex-Synanon member Phil Ritter was severely beaten by two Synanon members, which caused him to fall into a coma for a week. Fluid leaked into his spinal column, which caused a near-fatal case of spinal meningitis.
Several weeks later, on October 11, 1978, two Synanon members placed a de-rattled rattlesnake
Rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae . There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central...
in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz
Paul Morantz
Paul Morantz is an attorney at law specializing in the prosecution of fanatical cults, religious or otherwise, and their leaders for harmful conduct. He is most recognized for his cases against Synanon, a behavior modification drug rehabilitation group in the 1970s, which attempted to kill Morantz...
of Pacific Palisades, California. Morantz had successfully brought suit in behalf of a woman abducted by Synanon. The snake bit and almost killed him.
Six weeks later, the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
performed a search of the ranch in Badger that found a recorded speech by Dederich in which he said, "We're not going to mess with the old-time, turn-the-other-cheek religious postures ... our religious posture is: Don't mess with us. You can get killed dead, literally dead ... these are real threats," he snarled. "They are draining life's blood from us, and expecting us to play by their silly rules. We will make the rules. I see nothing frightening about it ... I am quite willing to break some lawyer's legs, and next break his wife's legs, and threaten to cut their child's arm off. That is the end of that lawyer. That is a very satisfactory, humane way of transmitting information. ... I really do want an ear in a glass of alcohol on my desk."
Dederich was arrested while drunk on December 2, 1978. The two other Synanon residents, one of whom was Lance Kenton, the son of the musician Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
, pleaded "no contest
Nolo contendere
is a legal term that comes from the Latin for "I do not wish to contend." It is also referred to as a plea of no contest.In criminal trials, and in some common law jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of...
" to charges of assault, and also conspiracy to commit murder. While his associates went to jail, Dederich himself avoided imprisonment by formally stepping down as the chairman of Synanon.
Much of the violence by Synanon had been carried out by a group within Synanon called the "Imperial Marines."
The Point Reyes Light
The Point Reyes Light
The Point Reyes Light is a weekly newspaper published since 1948 in western Marin County, California. The Light gained national attention in 1979 due to its reporting on a cult, Synanon, and the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the paper for this coverage...
, a small-circulation weekly newspaper in Marin County, received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service has been awarded since 1918 for a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalistic resources. Those resources, as well as reporting, may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics,...
in 1979 in recognition of its coverage of Synanon when other news agencies avoided reporting on it.
Synanon struggled to survive without its leader, and also with a severely tarnished reputation. The Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
sued for $17 million in back taxes, and all of its properties were confiscated and sold. Synanon formally dissolved in 1991.
Successes
Despite its controversies and its downfall, the Synanon program is credited with curing some people of their addictions. For example, Synanon was credited with curing, at least temporarily, the heroin-addicted jazz musicians Frank Rehak, Joe PassJoe Pass
Joe Pass was an Italian-American jazz guitarist of Sicilian descent. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of the 20th century...
, and Art Pepper
Art Pepper
Art Pepper , born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.About Pepper, Scott Yanow of All Music stated, "In the 1950s he was one of the few altoists that was able to develop his own sound despite the dominant influence of Charlie Parker" and: "When Art Pepper...
(Pepper discussed his Synanon experiences at length in his autobiography Straight Life), and the actor Matthew "Stymie" Beard. In 1962, Pass formed a band, made up of Synanon patients, who recorded an album titled, The Sounds of Synanon. The Synanon organization was praised by the motivational speaker Florrie Fisher
Florrie Fisher
Florence "Florrie" Fisher was an American motivational speaker in the 1960s and 1970s who traveled to high schools in the United States, telling stories about her past as a heroin addict and prostitute...
in her speeches to high school students, and she credited Synanon with curing her of her heroin addiction. Synanon also inspired the creation of successful programs such as the Delancey Street Foundation
Delancey Street Foundation
The Delancey Street Foundation, often simply referred to as Delancey Street, is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that provides residential rehabilitation services and vocational training for substance abusers and convicted criminals...
, co-founded by John Maher, a former Synanon member. Many former members still value what they see as the positive aspects of Synanon, primarily its strong sense of community, and remain in close contact, in person or through on-line chat groups, and have gone into business together.
A branch of Synanon that was founded in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1971 is still in operation.
Popular depictions
Synanon is referred to in Bob DylanBob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's song "Lenny Bruce", from his album Shot of Love
Shot of Love
Shot of Love is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 21st studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 1981.It is generally considered to be Dylan's last of a trilogy of overtly religious, Christian albums. Also, it was his first since becoming born-again to focus on secular themes, from...
(Bruce "never made it to Synanon."). It is also referred to in the song "Opening Doors" from Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's musical Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along (musical)
Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart....
, which mentions it as a hypothetical song title in a satirical revue of the 1960s.
The TV producer/ writer J. Michael Straczynski
J. Michael Straczynski
Joseph Michael Straczynski , known professionally as J. Michael Straczynski and informally as Joe Straczynski or JMS, is an American writer and television producer. He works in films, television series, novels, short stories, comic books, and radio dramas. He is a playwright, a former journalist,...
used a version of the Synanon Game in his science-fiction TV series Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
, in the episodes "Signs and Portents
Signs and Portents
"Signs and Portents" is an episode from the first season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. It is the first episode of the series to dramatically advance the series "arc" and set up the events which lead up to the Shadow War; it was also used as the title for the entire first...
" and "Comes the Inquisitor
Comes the Inquisitor
-External links:* "Comes the Inquisitor" at Wikiquote...
".
The New-Path drug treatment centers in the science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's novel A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly is a BSFA Award winning 1977 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994...
bear numerous similarities to Synanon. Dick's novel VALIS
VALIS
VALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God....
also makes reference to the Synanon building in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
.
In his 1977 novel. "Not sleeping, Just Dead", Charles Alverson
Charles Alverson
Charles Elgin Alverson is a novelist, editor and screenwriter who has sometimes used the byline Chuck Alverson. He co-scripted the film Jabberwocky ....
, who lived in Synanon for six months in 1967 as a ‘straight’ or non-addicted resident, sends his private eye Joe Goodey to solve a suspected murder at The Institute, an organization that bears more than a passing resemblance to Synanon.
Synanon is mentioned in Joan Didion
Joan Didion
Joan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
's essay The White Album
The White Album (book)
The White Album is a 1979 book of essays by Joan Didion. The entire contents of this book are reprinted in Didion's We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction .-I...
.
Synanon appears in the movie "Unknown" as Liam Neeson is flipping through the yellow pages in Berlin.
See also
- attack therapyAttack therapyAttack therapy is a controversial type of psychotherapy evolved from ventilation therapy. It involves highly confrontational interaction between the patient and a therapist, or between the patient and fellow patients during group therapy, in which the patient may be verbally abused, denounced, or...
- Human potential movementHuman Potential MovementThe Human Potential Movement arose out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and formed around the concept of cultivating extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people...
- NarcononNarcononNarconon is a residential program aimed at substance abusers, headquartered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It operates through several dozen treatment centers worldwide, chiefly in the United States and Western Europe. Each Narconon center is independently owned and operated under a license...
, a separate religious rehabiliation program sponsored by ScientologyScientologyScientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics... - Prop 36
- Élan SchoolElan SchoolÉlan School was a private, coeducational, controversial residential behavior modification program and therapeutic boarding school in Poland, Androscoggin County, Maine...
External links
- A German offshoot of Synanon, in German.
- Rick A. Ross Institute (cult research).
- A site devoted to Synanon nostalgia, with links to other sites.
- http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/cole_rose.html, Girl who ran from Synanon and was never located.
- The Devil and John Walker by Paul MorantzPaul MorantzPaul Morantz is an attorney at law specializing in the prosecution of fanatical cults, religious or otherwise, and their leaders for harmful conduct. He is most recognized for his cases against Synanon, a behavior modification drug rehabilitation group in the 1970s, which attempted to kill Morantz...
(the lawyer targeted for killing by Dederich), an article on brainwashing in coercive groups, including Synanon.