Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Benchmark Young Adult School / Benchmark Transitions
PTSD
psy:
--- Quote from: ""exhausted"" ---Crap
Sounds like the staff get as brainwashed as the kids
And end up just as dysfunctional if they have a concience
it's such a shame that you can't even say that for every 1 child who suffers a 100 are 100% helped, healthy, happy adults today, even if it were a totally true statistic, that 1 is 1 too many, it's incredibly sad, not just for the child, but for the parents, the councilors and everyone involved, this si life altering stuff :(
--- End quote ---
Where I was, a CEDU clone, the staff used to go through the same workshops / Propheets the kids did, and on a more frequent basis. With est / Lifespring, which was designed to be strong enough for adults, I'm not sure if it's really possible to avoid the brainwashing. I don't know anybody from my "emotional growth school" who wasn't affected by it. Once you hack somebody's conscience into thinking abuse is good, hate is love etc., almost anything is possible.
I've never understood how, after absolutely destroying so many lives the staff could continue to think they were helping people. It's a good example of how much their concept of reality had been totally warped by exposure to the program and a constant cultist mentality.
For a while i tried to talk sense into them. I told them "Do you really think that this tough love bullshit is helping people. Look at the suicide attempts. Look at the AWOLs. Look at the kids you put on the streets. Look into their eyes." Some kids resisted longer than others but they all broke in the end. Once hope of leaving dies, it's over.
I'm actually quite surprised TSW was able to "snap out of it" and I wish more staff were like him.
Anne Bonney:
Whenever I read someone's account of a Lifesteps, EST, LifeSprings or any of the other seminars, I just get the chills. That is, to me, the most common and most dangerous part of these places. In Straight they were just called 'raps' :roll: (it started from The Seed which sprung up in the 70s). We had them all day long, every day. Before, after and in between we either recited the rules, the chain of command or sang infantile songs....all designed so that we had no time or opportunity to think for ourselves, at all. The 'raps' were supposed to force you to see the error of your ways and then talk about how Straight was helping you change your life and how grateful you were to have them care enough about you to point out all your faults and insecurities.......in front of 300-400 people in the most humiliating and confrontational manner possible. Break 'em down and build 'em back up. Yeah, they break you alright. That's for sure. I ended up doubting every instinct I had and those instincts had brought me through some pretty tough times. I didn't know where Straight ended and I began. I knew what they did to me wasn't right, but I couldnt' put my finger on exactly what had happened to me. It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I began to understand the depth of what was taken from me. I was just talking to one of my daughters about it last night. It's so nice to see her growing up. She caused herself a lot fo problems for about 6 years....I didn't know if I'd live through it but she made it through and watching her learn and grow is awesome. She's learning things about herself now at 21 that I'm just starting to at 41. Adolescence is the most difficult time in a person's life. That's when they start figuring out who they are. If you start fucking around with that process, you risk huge, permanent damage.
psy:
--- Quote from: ""Anne Bonney"" ---Whenever I read someone's account of a Lifesteps, EST, LifeSprings or any of the other seminars, I just get the chills. That is, to me, the most common and most dangerous part of these places. In Straight they were just called 'raps' :roll: (it started from The Seed which sprung up in the 70s). We had them all day long, every day. Before, after and in between we either recited the rules, the chain of command or sang infantile songs....all designed so that we had no time or opportunity to think for ourselves, at all. The 'raps' were supposed to force you to see the error of your ways and then talk about how Straight was helping you change your life and how grateful you were to have them care enough about you to point out all your faults and insecurities.......in front of 300-400 people in the most humiliating and confrontational manner possible. Break 'em down and build 'em back up. Yeah, they break you alright. That's for sure. I ended up doubting every instinct I had and those instincts had brought me through some pretty tough times. I didn't know where Straight ended and I began. I knew what they did to me wasn't right, but I couldnt' put my finger on exactly what had happened to me. It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I began to understand the depth of what was taken from me. I was just talking to one of my daughters about it last night. It's so nice to see her growing up. She caused herself a lot fo problems for about 6 years....I didn't know if I'd live through it but she made it through and watching her learn and grow is awesome. She's learning things about herself now at 21 that I'm just starting to at 41. Adolescence is the most difficult time in a person's life. That's when they start figuring out who they are. If you start fucking around with that process, you risk huge, permanent damage.
--- End quote ---
We had raps where i was too (even called em that). but what i'm talking about is completely different. It's basically a 24 hour marathon workshop with food and sleep deprivation, disclosure circles, trance inducing guided imagery, nlp, bioenergetics, etc etc... It's a totally different ballgame. Raps made you feel like shit. These marathon workshops made you feel like shit to break you down. Then the counselors would comfort you, after they had made you miserable, and you ended up feeling wonderful, euphoric, and just plain high, when you finished with them. You loved your counselor after that. It was guaranteed. Never saw it fail.
Straight is closer to synanon's original implementation while CEDU's Mel Wasserman added Lifespring, est, to the whole mix for extra measure. Afaik, if Straight used these methods, it must have been later in their existence. Still. Everything seems to lead back to Synanon at some point.
I can definitely relate to not knowing exactly what they did. That was the point. If you could figure out what they were doing you could protect yourself from it. If you only realized it on a subconscious level (as they wanted you to) you were fucked.
Anne Bonney:
The food and sleep deprivation, isolation was just the daily routine at Straight. We stayed at 'foster homes' (homes of other kids further along in the program) at night and spent 12 hours a day in 'the building', having raps and singing those stupid songs. Mondays and Fridays were "open meetings" when the parents came. Those days we'd spend up to 20 hours at 'the building'. You're right, I don't ever remember anyone love any of the staff, but the premise was the same. Break them down to build them up in Straight's image. After anyone spoke in raps the entire group would shout "love ya so-and-so". This included when someone would get "confronted" (the most harsh, abusive, sadistic form of 'help'). The group would spend an hour or two on this one person, completely humiliating and degrading them and then when they sat down they got that group "love ya" and were told that the group and staff were helping them by forcing them to see just how awful they were and we'd thank them one day.
Synanon does seem to be the one common thread running through all of these places.
Deborah:
RAPS came out of Synanon's "Game".
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... c&start=30
Anne, is there a direct connection to Straight and Synanon, or was it coincidence that they called them Raps?
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