In Re : Physical Abuse v. Psychological Abuse

[GregFL]

On 2005-09-13 13:19:00, marshall wrote:



Have I misunderstood what John is saying here?......He does seem to be implying some type of connection between Art and a program modeled after Synanon: "Spectrum House, that was loosely modeled after Synanon. The program was inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous, modified by Art,"




Or is John simply mentioning another rehab located nearby?

he was just mentioning that there was a synanon based rehab in the area, but that the seed was not one.  I know this from my conversation with him even tho I understand the post was a tad confusing.

The connection is there...that is the commonality of techniques. How Art learned them remains a mystery...maybe this other guy...this Dave R guy was a synanon member?

Crap...I just don't know.

[marshall]

Thanks for the clarification Greg. So the mystery remains. hmmm.

[Robin Martin]

On 2005-09-14 00:14:00, GregFL wrote:

"Well, unlike you Robin my parents at the direction of st Pete Staff went on an active campaign to enroll all my friends. their parents were invited over and we had to come in the room and give our "drug list" and then admit to doing drugs with their kids.
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OK - so that was THEM, you had no control over THEIR choices, only your own!

Integrity? Hell, there was no choice in the matter...
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You are correct - I had no choice but to drop the bullshit!!


Hey Robin...lookie here...real exchange going on!

Don't be so condescending Greg - it doesn't suit you! Well, actually it does but I won't go there :lol:

_________________
I bid you peace!

[JaLong]

OK Greg Now something is going on. Yeah! My best friend was staff in the seed. Her mother and some other parents of my "druggie friends" got together and heard how great the seed was. That is how I got in there. (along with a phoney court order). By the way, my former best friend is a lost puppie, going back to some very hard drugs after she left the seed. Guess it messed up some staff members too?? Haven't seen her since she left. Her brother told me not to even try to get in touch with her. "It would break my heart."
Julie

[Robin Martin]

On 2005-09-14 07:35:00, cleveland wrote:
Robin, the movie Thirteen is very instructive. I hit some low points but perhaps not that dramatic. However, the Seed did not give me the tools I use today. For instance, honesty. The Seed allowed only partial, 'acceptable' honesty and I think that is a problem. Perhaps it was not that way for you, but you left on your own. I stuck around.
Walter"

OK - this is the way it was "for me"...I came into the Seed in an extreme condition.  They conditoned me by means of "another" extreme.  After graduating, I managed to 'balance' out and find 'MY center'. No harm, no foul, to my life. I just grew up and got on w/ my life. I won't say the "Seed" gave me the tools, but watching my 'peers in practice', certainly proved to be an example of how I wanted to live my life and I incorporate most of what I learned there and then some!! Thanks Walter for acknowledging "Perhaps it was not that way for you." I truly respect that... :nworthy:

[cleveland]

Of course! We all have our own perceptions, and they are all valuable...

walter

[shanlea]

This is what I don't get in any of these sites. People recount true, accurate portrayals of gross therapeutic abuses, unethical, and misapplied coercive techniques and serious weaknesses within these programs that are systemic rather than isolated, and the programs are still defended as worthwhile.  How can any program be worthwhile if it is inherently abusive or cultic? I don't get it!

On my site (CEDU), we even get people who bash the anti CEDU participants but have yet to describe one tool or practice that is beneficial. They say the program helps, butcan never answer the program helps, but can never answer the question "how?"  And they never, ever address the systemic failures of the institution or how people were subjected to horrific psychological abuse and humiliation, and browbeaten to lie or hyperbolize about their past.  These pro program people NEVER have an answer to how a one size fits all philosophy helps individuals, or which tools help people once they are back in the real world, out of an isolated environment with it's own code, lingo, and mind set.

[GregFL]

Oh sure they do...the whole schmeal is justified, all of it, by the deadinsaneinjail mantra.

They really got this hammered home so much they believe they were so lost and worthless at 15 that they were dying.

sad but true.

I talked to some staff members from one of the recent incarnations of the seed called SAFE. They all told me they were addicts and dying before they came in. For the most part they were pimply faced little kids motivating and keeping watch over the caged newcomers. I asked them what they were addicted to and they said "drugs". I told them that addiction was a physical need for a substance and asked them specifically which substance they were addicted to.

NONE of them had an answer but instead asked me if I had read Miller Newton's book "gone way down".