The Seed, Inc., a second generation Synanon for kids-only.

[heretik]

http://thestraights.net/theprogram/synanon-story2.htm

You aren?t old enough to know what to do with it. You probably couldn?t even do it with a coke bottle.
A Seedling oldcomer confronting a 12 or 13 year-old girl in GROUP. [New Times, 9/6/74]

Criminal!!!!

Some had warned of the potential dangers of using synanons on adults. Professor David Bellis was one. He wrote that, "High discipline programs usually employ the confrontive 'Synanon game'-a leaderless group encounter session to create aggressive and provocative interchange, using ridicule, cross examination and hostile attack. During these group assaults on individual residents in the 'hot seat,' especially newcomers, any castigation and ridicule appear to come from the whole community of clients. One either plays the game and is rewarded with privilege and favorable discharge, or one 'splits' from the program. Experience indicates that when these counselors use an especially intrusive, aggressive approach, frequently debasing and harshly confronting clients, they may do more harm than good. . . This intrusive, assertive therapeutic style works well for a few clients but may injure many more." Professor Bellis noted that, "A number of clients. . .relinquish all independence and subjugate themselves to these staff and senior residents, accepting humiliation and total control of their lives even to the extent of accepting complete direction of their sex lives. . ." And he told of the case of one TC therapist who forced female clients to perform fellatio on him while he talked on the phone to their probation officers.(14)

This is beyond sick.

Others like Dr. Roger Meyer and psychotherapists Thomas Bratter and Gary Forrest warned about using synanons on kids. Dr. Roger Meyer, a professor of psychiatry at Boston University, and formerly the Acting Chief of the Center for Studies of Narcotics and Drug Abuse at NIMH, was one of the first to question the wisdom of subjecting kids to the brutality of the Synanon Game. In 1972 he reported on the case of a 12 year old boy who had been admitted, along with older clients, to a second generation Synanon called The Odyssey House in New York City. He noted that the child seemed lost in the "rigid hierarchy and confrontation tactics of the program."
He wrote:
As a clinician I am concerned about the effects of intense, violent verbal interaction upon young teenagers engaged in a sensitive process of identity formation. The effects of this type of interaction upon a fragile self-image and upon later impulse control in the world at large have not been determined. This issue obviously needs further elaboration and research, but there are suggestions that there are age limits below which this form of treatment is contraindicated. Arbitrarily, I would say that young persons under 16 years of age should be excluded from these programs and that careful evaluation be given admitting persons between 16 and 18 years of age . . .It is also clear that the psychological effects of this modality upon different age groups have not been adequately studied.(15)

If all these doctors were warning about using "synanons" on kids why was the Seed allowed to open and operate, (trying not to sound ignorant)

In 1974 Arnold Rachman and M. Heller warned about using the Game with kids when they wrote: "There is a serious shortcoming within the theory and the practice of the T.C. in the understanding and treatment of adolescents. The experiences with the original population of adult addicts still pervade the thinking and functioning of most T.C.'s. Many programs report a high dropout rate with younger adolescents, which is directly related to this factor.... In addition, group practice becomes an anti-therapeutic factor with the T.C. when the uniqueness of adolescent psychological development is not understood and incorporated into clinical practice.(16) In 1985 psychotherapists Thomas Bratter and Gary Forrest echoed the conclusion of Rachman and Heller and added a caution of their own when they wrote that "such a treatment [for self-destructive drug abusers] may not be necessary or appropriate for other treatment populations, i.e. borderline schizophrenic patients, schizoid personalities, and acutely anxious, neurotic adolescents.(17)

Hello....

The evidence has shown that brutal, verbal confrontation sessions are no more effective in controlling drug abuse among adult hard-core heroin addicts than other methods of control. Some have shown that synanon confrontations can potentially be psychologically damaging and may not be suitable for all audiences-especially for adolescents. In 1974 Rachman and Heller had noted that many youths had dropped out of TCs because the methods were geared to curing adult addicts. S. B. Sells noted in 1976 that, "The more strict the program the lower the percentage of clients retained in the [TC] program.."(18) Current magazine had noted that clients in TCs give up all rights--except the right to leave. Former Synanite Dr. David Deitch, then a Phoenix House director, has stated, "A client must have the choice of leaving treatment, even if the youngster is on probation and the alternative is jail."(19) Richard Ashley wrote in Heroin that, "The only power of decision the member retains once he enters a TC is the decision to leave."(20) Dr. Efren Ramirez, founder of Phoenix House, has said that "you don't rehabilitate a person against his will."(21)

I love these comments from Deitch, Ramirez and Ashley clients on the ability for clients to leave. I guess the Seed, Straight, Cedu, Elan and the other programs must have missed those seminars these (3) attended. They must be different programs. ("even if the youngster is on probation and the alternative is jail") fucked choice but I guess it is still a choice.

Dr. Rogers had been referring to the dangers involved with a kid participating in a typical Synanon Game with 11 people yelling at him, where he could fight back verbally, where he could leave if he chose, and where there was no physical violence. But nobody, especially Dr. Rogers, ever imagined children sitting in one continuous synanon 12 hours a day, 5 ½ days a week for several years--with 200 kids screaming and spitting at him, where the child could not verbally defend himself against his indicters, where he would be beaten and physically restrained, and, most importantly, where he could not leave--namely Straight, Inc.

Nope, they never saw this coming.    

In other words Straight took a program that had been designed (and poorly so) to control hard-core adult heroin addicts and used it to control kids who had experimented with pot and alcohol--sometimes worse, but sometimes no drugs at all. Straight used Synanon's vaginal and anal searches to search for contraband for years even though they never found any. Kids were assaulted and restrained without cause and all the rest. In short Straight took a bad treatment modality, made it worse, and then force their young subjects to endure it. And when former clients sued Straight for holding them against their will, Straight pressured parents into letting Straight fight for them for the right to force their kids into treatment with the force of a court order.

Can there ever be a reasonable restitution or apology for these crimes. WTF
My heart goes out to you all.

[dragonfly]

[Ursus]

It's amazing what a good PR man can do. Or is it called "perception management" nowadays?  :twofinger:

How the programmies flocked to get their two cents quoted in the press ... once the diabolical Synanon was labeled an evil cult, and their methods destructive and nefarious. Even though some of these folk were practicing the very same damn thing, with but minor alterations in form.

You might wanna be a lil careful about taking some of the above quoted material at face value. Or, at least, 'bout taking it too literally. Jes sayin'...

It kinda reminds of Sue Scheff's decrying that whole sordid mess of Carolina Springs Academy, yet recommending and extolling the virtues of Whitmore Academy to prospective marks desperate enough, or clueless enough, to seek out her "sage advice."

Some of those folks cited above in the OP are spewing a mother lode of hypocritical BS outta one side of their mouths while snorting Grade-A koolaid up the other nostril.

...Others like Dr. Roger Meyer and psychotherapists Thomas Bratter and Gary Forrest warned about using synanons on kids.

In 1985 psychotherapists Thomas Bratter and Gary Forrest echoed the conclusion of Rachman and Heller and added a caution of their own when they wrote that "such a treatment [for self-destructive drug abusers] may not be necessary or appropriate for other treatment populations, i.e. borderline schizophrenic patients, schizoid personalities, and acutely anxious, neurotic adolescents.

Bratter runs his own program - John Dewey Academy. Do a search on the forum, he's already discussed here. And no, he's not considered one of those mild, soft spoken touchy-feely types. Usually he's characterized as a poster boy for attack therapy. He's also had at least two sexual assault cases filed against him by former students... talk about a self-serving concept of "boundaries," or lack thereof! Geez Louise!

Former Synanite Dr. David Deitch, then a Phoenix House director, has stated, "A client must have the choice of leaving treatment, even if the youngster is on probation and the alternative is jail."(19) Richard Ashley wrote in Heroin that, "The only power of decision the member retains once he enters a TC is the decision to leave."(20) Dr. Efren Ramirez, founder of Phoenix House, has said that "you don't rehabilitate a person against his will."

Riiiiiight. Someone oughta inform all those kids in Daytop (David Deitch) that there simply has been some kind of misunderstanding re. the concept of "choice." Along with similar misunderstanding re. the attack therapy... which must be called something else these days for perception management purposes. It's nothing short of surreal to read Deitch spouting this stuff in print.

Dr. Rogers had been referring to the dangers involved with a kid participating in a typical Synanon Game with 11 people yelling at him, where he could fight back verbally, where he could leave if he chose, and where there was no physical violence.

Oh! Was Carl Rogers perchance thinking of progress towards a "kinder, gentler program" ...while his research was being funded by MKULTRA? Maybe Carl Rogers himself might personify a kinder and more humanistic approach towards therapy but... his research appears to have been utilized otherwise.

Which is worse? Abuse that is wholly recognizable for what it is? Or something more insidious, that you can never quite tease out of your brain, without destroying your sense of self along with it?

Just my cranky, miserable ol' tuppence, fwiw. Feel free to ignore...     :dose:

[Inculcated]

That (Ursus) post rocked. This

Some of those folks cited above in the OP are spewing a mother lode of hypocritical BS outta one side of their mouths, while snorting Grade-A koolaid up the other nostril.

and the close were two of the best quotes ever and everything in between was spot on.

[heretik]

I think if you folks around here taught me anything about this industry, if it walks like duck and quacks like a duck the Doctors and Directors must be DUCKS.
Thanks Ursus, you do have a flavor for getting your point across.

[heretik]

Part II:  http://thestraights.net/theprogram/synanon-story2.htm

Though this author [Wesley Fager] questions the soundness of synanon-based confrontations in the first place, it must be noted that, in an effort to establish some standards of treatment, modern-day therapeutic communities have created a Staff Code of Ethics and a Clients Bill of Rights, as well as two standards bodies; The Therapeutic Communities of America and the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities. And as the enclosed correspondence from Monsignor William O'Brien of the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities shows that Straight was rejected by the other treatment programs because of their human rights violations. The correspondence was addressed to Families Against Destructive Rehabs, a Straight watchdog group founded in the 1990s by Claire DeCunzo Martin to combat the Straight virus in Maryland. (Richard Bradbury also had an active chapter in that state.) The LA Times noted in 1990 that Phoenix House and Daytop use peer pressure and confrontation like Straight but for shorter periods, with smaller groups, and that they also provide formal education. The article notes that both Phoenix House and Daytop belong to the Therapeutic Communities of America, but Straight does not.(22)

Phoenix House and  Daytop are getting favorable reports because they don't oppress for as long.

Guys, this entities where are they. Out of business or bought and paid for by insiders (such as the Monsignor).

1. Staff Code Of Ethics and a Clients Bill of Rights
2. The Therapeutic of America and the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities

 

Well, despite all the warnings and cautions, it was too late. Odyssey House and Phoenix House were implementing synanons for juveniles in the New York City area along with their adult program, but somebody had already moved from the New York City area to set up the world's first and most successful synanon for kids-only. A former standup comedian named Art Barker had moved from the AA scene in Brooklyn and Bellevue Hospital to Fort Lauderdale where nobody had ever even heard of Synanon Church. A recovering alcoholic named Art Barker founded the first second generation Synanon devoted exclusively to children.

AA seems to be involved in every program. AA'ers get sober and believe they are "anointed". Why is it somebody intelligent thinks because he spent some years in AA that he now has a Phd in recovery.

The Seed, Inc. was founded in 1970 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and run almost entirely by kids for kids. According to newspaper accounts of the day Barker had been arrested at age 16 for burglary and for "being a wayward minor." Those charges were dismissed. When he was 18 he was charged with assault and robbery, but those charges were also dismissed when he joined the Army a few days later. Early in his Army career he went AWOL. According to newspaper articles of the day he has publicly disclosed, "I've smoked pot, popped pills, but none of the hard stuff." According to a newspaper account he received a degree in psychology from a mail-order company in Florida. One feature of Barker's Seed was the Spanking Machine where a child's father must publicly whip his kid before the large peer Group. Dr. Jerome Jaffe, the first White House Drug Czar, had written the foreward to Dr. Meyers' book which had called for caution in the use of synanon-style screaming matches against kids. Despite this, despite the warnings of so many other notables, despite Art Barker's total lack of credentials and less than admirable past, The Seed received a $1.8 million U.S. government grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) soon after it opened. And the grant had been administered by the founding director of NIDA who also happened to be the second White House Drug Czar-Robert DuPont. By 1975 Barker had opened four expansion Seeds, but in 1974 both houses of the US Congress had investigated The Seed and produced critical reports with the US Senate likening Barker's methods to the brainwashing methods employed on American POWs by North Korean Communists. The Senate forced NIDA to require Seed clients to sign a "risk to human  subjects" form as required by NIDA's own policy for grants involving human experimentation. Barker balked at this and lost his bid for an additional federal grant for expansion.

and while all this is happening Straight Inc. is being created and would go on to be even far worse (if that is possible) with a far greater population. WTF

Another feature of The Seed was berthing clients at foster homes run by other Seedling parents. In 1975 the state of Florida finally developed a regulation to govern these foster homes which stated, in part:

the foster homes provide the state with written assurance that the homes meet fire, safety, and health standards and provide privacy, freedom of worship, adequate food, adequate sleeping accommodations and 'contact with the natural family' to all those in treatment.

Did they?? or How could they??? or WTF!!!!!

Barker said that he could not comply with the new state regulations (one can only guess what he objected to) and on October 13, 1975 he lost his license to operate the founding Seed program. [Soon afterwards Barker got his license re-instated to operate a drug rehab apparently for adults-only (18 and above). He is still in operation to treat adults, but if you check with the Office of Children and Families I think they may tell you he is also licensed to treat adolescents.] Seed-St Petersburg had closed the day before. Six months later former Seed parents Melvin and Betty Sembler along with other former Seed parents opened their own-Seed like program in Saint Petersburg, Florida. Within a year several directors left--one claiming Straight was worse than The Seed.

Semblers were parents incubating survivors for their new creation, Straight Inc. This is just fucking surreal. They all circle one another, Chuckie Boy Synanon, David Deitch Narco Farm, Synanon, Daytop, Phoenix House, Art Barker Synanaon, Seed, Semblers Straight and the Synanon Dederich Cedu (teenage experiment) This was Mel Wasserman with CEDU?

To my mind the most serious threat posed by the technology of behavior modification is the power this technology gives one man to impose his views and values on another. . . If our society is to remain free, one man must not be empowered to change another's personality and dictate the values, thoughts, and feelings of another.
Senator Sam Irvin writing in Individual Rights and the Federal Role in Behavior Modification, November 1974

The hell with the politicians they did nothing and are still doing nothing. Yes a wonderful report by Sam Nunn (but what happened to it, was anything accomplished) in 1974, this is 2011 almost 40 years later. Programs are still open. Yes Straight, Cedu, Synanon, Seed and HLA, MBA are closed. This is a very good thing and congrats to all you folks here for helping to see that these programs closed. Sam Nunn spoke of the real problem with these programs, the effects they have on young kids, the experience of being "brainwashed". Why is it not being understood by congressional politicians.

Back to Bobbie DuPont. All of this brings us right back to Straight's paid consultant and former White House Drug Czar Dr. Robert DuPont. Go back to his testimony. He testified that it all started with Synanon in 1978. But that's not true. Synanon was founded in 1958. He led us to believe that there were two cardinal rules here--NO SEX and NO VIOLENCE. If you were to go to George Farnsworth's page on Synanon you would see that they were really just people like you and me, just eager to lead their lives, but there was a managerial force there that led things astray. And so there was a crust at Synanon that was anything but asexual or non-violent; which leaves just one more point in Dr. DuPont's testimony. He freely admits that Straight is based on a cult, but it is only a cult, he acknowledges, because you never graduate. But now that you know the rest of the story, I'm sure you see with me other reasons for calling Synanon a cult. Despite allegations of abuse at the Seed, despite Barker's lack of qualifications, despite a Senate finding that The Seed was brainwashing kids, despite early allegations of abuse at Straight, despite the fact that many early Straight directors left Straight because it was worse than The Seed, despite all of this Dr. DuPont left federal service to become a paid consultant for Straight and for 13 years used his name to lend medical legitimacy to Straight. Why didn't Dr. DuPont tell the jury that Synanon was a cult because, well because it was a cult.

Well I have my answer right here. Why don't politicians do anything because it is better to wait and make big bucks being a lobbist.

WHO SHALL GUARD THE MEDICAL GUARDIANS? It is important you understand that back in the 1970s Senator Irvin was not conducting a study of The Seed, he was studying any programs funded by the federal government which used drugs, psycho surgery or thought control on American citizens in possible violation of their constitutional rights. And it was with that purpose in mind that he found out about The Seed. For example the report discussed a psychiatrist at Georgetown University (where Robert DuPont and Richard Schwartz now teach) who had performed over 4,000 frontal lobotomies using only a serialized ice-pick in a special chair in his office. The pick was trust through the eye and this psychiatrist had shown that he could permanently disable two people at once. The Senate report discussed work done by psychologist James V. McConnell at the University of Michigan who published an article in the May 1970 issue of Psychology Today titled "Criminals Can Be Brainwashed-Now." Dr McConnell had spent years training flatworms to go in and out of mazes at his bidding by administering a series of painful electric shocks, now he proposed using similar techniques on prisoners combining sensory deprivation with drugs, hypnosis, and manipulation of rewards/punishment. The report also discussed an Iowa program which injected prisoners with the drug apomorphine for breaking rules like cussing or illegally smoking. Apomorphine cause one to vomit uncontrollably for up to an hour. Another program in a state mental hospital in Vacaville, California evaluated the effectiveness of using Succinylcholine (anectine) as a means of suppressing hazardous behavior [e.g. repeated assaults, attempted suicide]. Succinylcholine when injected intramuscularly results in complete muscular paralysis including temporary respiratory arrest. It avoids, the program boasted, many of the strenuous features which characterize other chemical aversion procedures like uncontrolled vomiting. Sixteen patients likened the experience to dying. Three patients compared it to actual experiences in the past in which they had almost drowned. The majority described it as a terrible, scary, experience. Irvin?s report discussed one experimental California Criminal Justice program in 1971 which was to develop a Maximum Psychiatric Diagnostic Unit (MPDU) designed to hold eighty-four convicts. Another program at Folsom prison was to build four, 21 man cell blocks for a total of eighty-four cells! The Seed just happened to be the only juvenile synanon receiving funds from the federal government that the Senate had felt compelled to investigate because of the rumors of what was going on down there in Florida with that government-backed program.

 

WHO SHALL GUARD THE MEDICAL GUARDIANS?

 It is important you understand that back in the 1970s Senator Irvin was not conducting a study of The Seed, he was studying any programs funded by the federal government which used drugs, psycho surgery or thought control on American citizens in possible violation of their constitutional rights. And it was with that purpose in mind that he found out about The Seed.


Just some finer points I felt were important from above, I'll list them here. Remember this is America not Korea.
 
1. For example the report discussed a psychiatrist at Georgetown University (where Robert DuPont and Richard Schwartz now teach) who had performed over 4,000 frontal lobotomies using only a serialized ice-pick in a special chair in his office. The pick was trust through the eye and this psychiatrist had shown that he could permanently disable two people at once.

2. The Senate report discussed work done by psychologist James V. McConnell at the University of Michigan who published an article in the May 1970 issue of Psychology Today titled "Criminals Can Be Brainwashed-Now." Dr McConnell had spent years training flatworms to go in and out of mazes at his bidding by administering a series of painful electric shocks, now he proposed using similar techniques on prisoners combining sensory deprivation with drugs, hypnosis, and manipulation of rewards/punishment.

3. The report also discussed an Iowa program which injected prisoners with the drug apomorphine for breaking rules like cussing or illegally smoking. Apomorphine cause one to vomit uncontrollably for up to an hour.

4. Another program in a state mental hospital in Vacaville, California evaluated the effectiveness of using Succinylcholine (anectine) as a means of suppressing hazardous behavior [e.g. repeated assaults, attempted suicide]. Succinylcholine when injected intramuscularly results in complete muscular paralysis including temporary respiratory arrest. It avoids, the program boasted, many of the strenuous features which characterize other chemical aversion procedures like uncontrolled vomiting. Sixteen patients likened the experience to dying. Three patients compared it to actual experiences in the past in which they had almost drowned. The majority described it as a terrible, scary, experience. Irvin?s report discussed one experimental California Criminal Justice program in 1971 which was to develop a Maximum Psychiatric Diagnostic Unit (MPDU) designed to hold eighty-four convicts.

5. Another program at Folsom prison was to build four, 21 man cell blocks for a total of eighty-four cells!

6.  The Seed just happened to be the only juvenile synanon receiving funds from the federal government that the Senate had felt compelled to investigate because of the rumors of what was going on down there in Florida with that government-backed program.

In 1992 psychiatrist Thomas Szasz wrote the book Our Right to Drugs: the Case for a Free Market. Now he has a topic heading in that book titled WHO SHALL GUARD THE MEDICAL GUARDIANS? Novelists George Orwell in 1984 and Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange had previously sounded the same warning. Who will be the great political psychiatrist who will wield the power of the government to suit the aims of the government. One of the things we are trying to accomplish here is to tell the story so that bad history does not repeat itself, or hopefully does not get a chance to start in the first place. It should not surprise you to know that in Jackson County, Florida in 1981 there was a movement to have 1984 banned there because Orwell's novel is "pro-communist and contained explicit sexual matter." Neither should it surprise you to learn that A Clockwork Orange has been banned. It was removed from high school classrooms in Westport, Mass. in 1977 and from Aurora, Colo. in 1976 due to "objectionable" language. There are many good people out there trying to figure out who the anti-Christ will be and I'll leave them to that task. I'll just settle on figuring out who was or will be the great political psychiatrist that Szasz, Huxley, Rand, Burgess and Orwell have all warned us about.

Ya got to ask yourself who did fly "Over the Cuckoo Nests".


Miller Newton?

[seamus]

It kinda reminds of Sue Scheff's decrying that whole sordid mess of Carolina Springs Academy, yet recommending and extolling the virtues of Whitmore Academy to prospective marks desperate enough, or clueless enough, to seek out her "sage advice"

That bitch is another piece of work, The goddess of spin.No better than a common pimp,justa little slicker line of horseshit.  And her "book" 100% gooble, mindless geriatric cofeetable dogshit. Shes the kind of bitch that wishes she had a cult following. Note after she had riff with psy, she turned it into the whole internet stalking/bullying thing on her website. What was she in her prievious life an excuse maker for the reagan administration? Mean while still refering kids off to the gitmo du jour...and makin money for her efforts. Thats just fucked. I just cant wait( rolls his eyes) to hear what pearls of wisdom come flying out of her piehole, her whole website is a sham, dedicated to inflating her unqualified opinion,misleading the hapless and blowing her own horn.

[Froderik]

And how about that sell-out "Settle for Nothing Less"?
(I forget her name now.)

Hard to believe someone would come on this site posting their story of abuse in whatever program that was, and then turn around the next minute and roll over for Sue the way she did? Sort of disgusting..

[seamus]

Yeah I always figured that was either a minion of some kind or mabe sue herself, either way .....always disliked jerseyite chicks anyways.....color me non-plussed :nods:

[dragonfly]

[Ursus]

Hey Ursus, that Congressional Report, "Individual Rights and the Federal Role in Behavior Modification "  has about 30 pages of testimony about the Seed, it's on the internet if you google it.

Yep. See this post in the '1974 U.S. Senate report on Behavior Modification (The Seed)' thread for a link to download (655-page pdf; (23813K), and a few posts later for a 656-page scribd.com link (not recommended for those with a less than robust internet connection).

I talked with Ivor Pritchard at US Health and Human Services, Human Research Protections,  He had never heard of SEED or straight.

He said that the 1974 congressional investigation implemented laws for NIH/NIMH and NIDA but not across the whole Federal Gov.  That's why the LEAA could fund Straight.  The LEAA is now the Office of Justice Programs,  they never heard of anything and have no records.  I'm happy to give out these folks emails if you want to add to the request for info, it might help.

Ivor Pritchard said he would search other Fed offices for documents if I could give him specific Documents to look for.

I could use help on that.  If anyone out there knows what to ask for He seems pretty sympathetic and willing to help us get answers.

If there is a suggestion just PM me so I'm sure to get it...

This is helpful information to know! I'll let you know if I can come up with some specific questions. Usually my executive function capabilities are sub par, to say the least...