Fact remains it still stems from Straight and Synanon, which is definately classified as a cult. Read some postings and do a little research they have PTSD. If you went there as a student you just might too. If you didn't you have NO IDEA what your talking about!
Actually, I believe I said in that post that I did indeed go there. I wrote
This, however, may have changed after I left. I don't know.
Sorry if you missed that part.
Unless you are asking if I went to straight or synanon, which I did not.
I think, however, that based on the testimony I have heard from people who were in straight, their experience was much harsher and more brutal than what we went through. (I personally think that straight makes CEDU look like a resort spa. But it's also important to note that CEDU went through many incarnations, and my experience may be different from someone who was there in the 90s or 00s. I've heard that when I was there, the program was more coercive and more difficult to resist, but later on after I left there were more accounts of structural abuse, such as the introduction of Ascent and jumpsuits, for example.)
However, that's beside the point as to whether or not CEDU itself was a cult. And furthermore, whether CEDU was a cult or not still does not erase the fact that the experience itself was very disturbing and weird. I want that to be clear, that just because I find the CEDU schools to be missing some key components that would qualify it as a cult, that does not mean that its behavior and practices don't make it any less damaging to many alumni.
In fact, whether it was cult-like and used cult-like tactics only or whether is was a full-blown cult may be a rather moot point, since the results of being in either are so similar. So they didn't keep you around forever and expect you to be a lifetime member residing at a commune. That's good, but so what?
Also, blownaway, you bring up a very good point about students coming back to teach as staff. I had not thought about that. You are right, that there is some retention. But I still wouldn't qualify it as intense or rigorous as say, a lifespring recruiter trying to draw people into the fold. Lifespring was a cult. We used the exact same workshop. However, we didn't have the pyramid scheme and zealous recruitment structure and expectations, nor did we want people to stay forever within the organization, which is what distinguishes CEDU from being a cult, IMO. The
tactics were identical, but not the organizational infrastructure. Some people may see this as splitting hairs, but I see it as a huge, fundamental difference.
But like I said before, I don't really think it matters much, because the results on the participants are the same.
As for the PTSD, isn't there going to be a study launched regarding the after affects of people who attended behavior mod schools? I recall that they were gearing up to do a survey. It was in a thread in the troubled teen industry forum, here:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... =20#130330The link they referred to is here:
http://cfs.fmhi.usf.edu/cfsnews/2005news/A_START.htmlHowever, I went to that link and didn't find any survey, so I don't know where they are at in terms of getting that going.
