Well, being "forced" to change because of environmental factors certainly doesn't lead to meaningful, lasting, internalized change. In other words, it's environment specific and the behavior change doesn't follow the subject into new environments.
I'll tell you the single biggest indicator that Daytop could not have cared less if you actually made meaningful change: "Act As If." This means, don't rock the boat, shut your mouth and keep your head down and you'll get out.
In reality, Daytop uses an ineffective behavioral technique called "negative reinforcement." This is widely misunderstood as the application of unpleasant consequences following an undesired behavior. That isn't what it is.
"Negative reinforcement" is actually the cessation of an unpleasant stimulus following a desired behavior.
For example, you arrive at Daytop and people are in your face yelling, screaming, having "group on you," etc. This is the "unpleasant stimulus," if you will. Upon complete submission and acquiescence to the "program," they esentially leave you alone - the cessation of the unpleasant stimulus.
This is analagous to the classical negative reinforcement experiments involving lab animals.
An example: A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again the shock stops. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of the stopping of the shock.
This technique was shown to be ineffective by the very founders of behavior modification who developed this concept (you can research B.F. Skinner, J.B. Watson, et al).
In short, the concept of Daytop and other coercive BM facilities is flawed to its very core and the new programs we see springing up are simply a rehashing and repackaging of the same discredited approach.
Thanks for the compliment, by the way. I find an honest, fact-based approach makes the "true believers" of programs extremely angry, as they would have us all respond to scientific, intellectual problems with feelings-based, unscientific, emotionally evocative approaches.
The problem is that they don't work and have been proven without doubt not to work...
Thanks for your insight from a resident's perspective. I'd recommend you talk to Odie for another perspective - that of a program grad staff member who has had quite a bit of continuing classical education.
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"Compassion is the basis of morality."
-Arnold Schopenhauer[ This Message was edited by: Dysfunction Junction on 2006-06-06 10:57 ]