Everything Old is New Again

[ajax13]

"Richelle Hall wrote
at 9:39pm on October 18th, 2007
I know the idea of AARC came from Straight, nobody argues that. The two models are similar in many ways, but they are so different at the same time."

Here is what our Justice Minister had to say in the Alberta Legislature in 1999:
"The AARC model is unique in Calgary and perhaps the world and was developed and based on the research and analysis of Dr. Vause."
http://www.aarc.ab.ca/endorsement.html

Here's what a couple of fellows had to say about the place that produced the idea of AARC:

"Straight officials have generously allowed me to witness some of their group sessions firsthand . . . I believe that Straight's treatment can be fairly compared with 'brainwashing' in prisoner-of-war camps as documented by Brown (1963, chap. 2). Thus, procedures that would be reprehensible in any context outside of a prisoner-of-war camp are considered acceptable 'treatment' in the case of drug addiction.
Dr. Bruce K. Alexander of Simon Fraser University in Peaceful Measures: Canada's Way Out of the 'War on Drugs', p. 75 and referencing Techniques of Persuasion: From Propaganda to Brainwashing by J. A. C. Brown. 
 

Straight, like many religious cults, has maintained its right to conceal its aims from potential inductees. . .By any objective standard, the activities of Straight Inc. and its imitators run afoul of these criteria [Susan Andersen's Four Criteria for inferring cult-like deceptive practices]. While Straight may be among the worst offenders, it is far from alone.
From Treatment, Thought Reform, and the Road to Hell by Professor Barry L. Beyerstein, a leading Canadian researcher on opiates and brain functioning who operates a laboratory at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada."

So apparently the idea for AARC came from a religious cult that used procedures that these fellows thought very similar to brainwashing in POW camps.

[Ursus]

...So apparently the idea for AARC came from a religious cult that used procedures that these fellows thought very similar to brainwashing in POW camps.

Whadya mean with "SIMILAR?" Brainwashing is brainwashing is brainwashing... with pretty much the same methodology used here. 

Unless you were referring to POW camps being similar to AARC... In which case, ah yes, some of the inmates of the latter... might do well to equivocate their experience with that of being in the former, from what I've read...

BTW, thanks for those good reading refs; gold mine for later perusal, for sure...