On 2005-12-28 14:48:00, Scarred in St Pete wrote:
Do people who have endured such a nightmare ever fully get over it? They told my parents I would never be normal unless a completed the program...I escaped after 8 months and do not feel normal. Does anyone know what they meant by not being normal unless the program was completed?
Well, yes and no. I think my dad's childhood and life was a good deal tougher than mine in many ways. It made him the angry, raging, hard nosed sob that he was. But it didn't stop him, entirely, from explaining to us what he was so pissed about. And it was valid. Even when our parents contradict themselves, it's still our lot to sort the worthwhile from the trash.
I think the Straight term 'normal' was code for 'a perfectly compliant, clean cut, drug free, opinionless perpetual child who you shall always control with just a look'.
Don't worry, graduates came out even more tweaked, if anything. Staffers, often even moreso.
He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_12s4.html' target='_new'> James Burgh 1774