On 2003-05-29 18:41:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Ginger, maybe you should stick to the things you know about and not give advise to someone who really needs help. You are telling this mother to just let it run its course?
Actually, now... I told this mother to check with a well known professional psychologist and author who has dealt extensively with addiction and addiction treatment issues for decades. Stanton Peele is well known and well respected in his field. The
only people who hate him, that I know of, are the fundie zealots (like PFC ppl) who take offence at the suggestion that their way is not the only way. And I gave her a link to an advocacy group that keeps an eye on abusive and poorly run methadone clinics.
Please remember, both of you (the mom who started this thread and our PFC pundit here) that PFC does NOT employ accepted, successful methods to treat addiction. The program they use is based on the methods developed by Chuck Dederich in the Synanon Church. That was before ol'e Chuck wound up doing prison time for conspiracy to murder after his followers placed a poisonous snake in the mail box of a lawyer who was suing on behalf of a woman who wanted to leave the cult.
Assuming the person talking about his/her experience at pathway is a liar. You sound like the one that is trying to do the brainwashing, maybe you have more in common with all these treatment centers that you despise so much. Encourage this mom to get help for her son.
I do assume that some of the people talking about their experience at PFC are lying. I don't see how any reasonable person could come to any other conclusion, seeing as how different people are telling completely contradictory stories.
Here's the thing, though. Ryan and those who agree with him are telling essentially the same story that I lived 20 years ago. This is not surprising, since I already knew that PFC used to be called Straight, Inc. until they were sued and investigated out of business over all the same complaints.
On the other side, we have Program supporters who are saying just about exactly the same things that Straight supporters used to say away back when and saying it all in the same mean, spiteful, hysterical words that has always characterized this cult.
Here's a good article lifted (by permission) from a book called
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism by By Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.
Milieu Control
The most basic feature of the thought reform environment, the psychological current upon which all else depends, is the control of human communication. Through this milieu control the totalist environment seeks to establish domain over not only the individual's communication with the outside (all that he sees and hears, reads or writes, experiences, and expresses), but also - in its penetration of his inner life - over what we may speak of as his communication with himself. It creates an atmosphere uncomfortably reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984.
Full Article: http://www.rickross.com/reference/brain ... ing19.html
You should read that. In fact, buy the book or see if they have it at the library. It may save you years of stumbling around figuring things out for yourself. And these are precious years, kid! More than any other time in your life, the choices you make now will set the stage for, not only your future, but that of your kids and grandkids and even the community in which you live.
God, grant this mother the wisdom to talk with someone who knows what they are talking about.
"
Indeed!
The last struggles of a great superstition are very frequently the worst.
--Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918)
