General Interest > Thought Reform

The Macy Conferences:The Minds behind Mind Control

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Froderik:

--- Quote from: "dragonfly" ---It seems like it wasn't just brainwash for the sake of control and hysteria and human concern, it was and is flat out psychopathic greed based brainwashing....
--- End quote ---

Yeah, that assessment jibes with this speech i read a while back:
http://www.truthtree.com/Jello_Biafra.shtml

dragonfly:

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Awake" ---... Lawrence Kubie, who was part of the core group ...
--- End quote ---
Here's a book review by him which was published in the September-October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine (1951):

-------------- • -------------- • --------------

BOOK REVIEWS
Twentieth Anniversary Review of the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation (1930 to 1950)
New York, the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation, 1950, no pp., n.p.[/list]

The Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation has had so great an influence on American medicine that it comes as a surprise to be reminded by this little volume that the Foundation is only twenty years old. Indeed, it is hard to imagine what American medicine would be like today, without the stimulus and ferment which the Foundation has provided so generously. For many years to come, this summary of its activities will guide other foundations in their work, and I hope the federal government as well. The volume which modestly records these years of work is therefore a remarkable document, worthy of study by everyone who is interested in medical progress. Here is no mere perfunctory recital of twenty years of dry and dusty science. It is rather an exciting tribute to an inspired spirit.

In April, 1930, when Kate Macy Ladd endowed the Foundation in honor of her father, she wrote, "Experience seems to show that in an enlightened democracy, private organized philanthropy serves the purposes of human welfare best, not by replacing functions which rightfully should be supported by our communities, but by investigating, testing, and demonstrating the value of newer organized ideas for sustained undertakings, from which may gradually emerge social functions which in turn should be taken over and maintained by the public." This policy has guided the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation ever since.

Perhaps your reviewer is guilty of sentimentality, but he has an impression that the haunting and sensitive beauty of the portrait of Mrs. Ladd as a young woman infuses both this volume and the work of the Foundation which she launched. In both, there is a sense of dedication and a feeling of reverence for that collaboration of the spirit and the body to which Kate Macy Ladd herself was dedicated in her own life.

Under vigorous and far-sighted leadership, the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation guided American medicine on a voyage of discovery in uncharted seas. It took both foresight and courage for the young Foundation to devote its resources to the development of the new field of psychosomatic inquiry and practice. It took further courage not to shy away from such unpopular areas of investigation as psychoanalysis and hypnosis; and it took clear heads not to be drawn into unfruitful areas of partisan controversy. Through this courage and clarity, the Macy Foundation made a field of concrete scientific research and scientific education out of the slogan of "psychobiology." Indeed, this has been its consistent central concern. Around it have clustered a wide variety of related investigations, among which, to mention a few, one finds: blood clotting and allied problems, problems of infancy and childhood, cybernetics, metabolic interrelations, problems of aging, liver injury, factors regulating blood pressure, peptic ulcer, biological antioxidants, renal function, adrenal cortex, the development of antibiotic aerosols, connective tissues, nerve impulse, problems of consciousness, hypnotism, training in clinical psychology, the development of screening and selective techniques, and the development of psychotherapeutic methods.

One of the achievements of the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation has been its ability to span the gap between pure and applied research, and indeed between abstruse scientific research and such immediate practical problems as those which grew out of the war and the postwar struggle for lasting international peace. Thus, during the war it distributed reprints to medical officers who were scattered over the face of the earth; and since the war it has played a leading role in the effort to place the social sciences, including psychiatry, at the services of the World Health Organization (WHO) and of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Finally, through its unique working conferences the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation has shown that fruitful communication and collaboration are possible among representatives of disciplines which are poles apart.

If the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation were never to do anything more, medical education and medical research would still be in its debt beyond repayment. Happily for ourselves, however, we can look forward to many more years of leadership as productive as that which has characterized these first twenty years.

LAWRENCE S. KUBIE[/list]

dragonfly:

Awake:
For the most part I think the connection to synanon is the humanistic movement, but probably not the only one. There are a lot of theories and practices that developed within the humanistic movement that use cybernetics as a model for human behavior.  Gestalt therapy, transactional analysis, game theory, NLP, brief therapy, family therapy, hypnosis, all take from cybernetics. This link might be interesting viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27862&p=351344&hilit=eupsychia#p351344  . It links this stuff up rather well, specifically that Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the fathers of humanistic psychiatry. Rogers worked for mk-ultra, and Maslow was impressed with Synanon and likewise wanted to impress upon them his own humanistic values.


So, I think a very influential hand in Synanon was the humanistic movement, or the human potential movement. Humanistic psychology and encounter groups were really popular, this would’ve been bigger news of the day than synanon. Encounter groups were the main setting in which many of the humanistic techniques were meant to be used.  Synanon’s game is one form of encounter. Also the roots of the encounter group concept come from sensitivity training, or human relations training, which expressly can be used to mimick the thought reform model. This is also where the roots of group dynamics and organizational development come from. Lifespring is a good example the newer humanistic techniques for manipulating people. So basically I think this stuff just naturally found it’s way into Synanon, especially after the endorsement from Maslow. I can say with certainty that the Cedu program was very obviously experimenting with the humanistic ideas, and that had a close relationship with synanon, so anyways, that’s the best connection I’ve got.

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