Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Benchmark Young Adult School / Benchmark Transitions

Benchmark chokes on Psy's legal burrito..

<< < (2/5) > >>

psy:

--- Quote from: "grum" ---is it ok to talk about the case now?
--- End quote ---
Actually, I have to get clearance from my lawyers on a few things (better to be safe than sorry).  I'll probably be releasing a press-release pretty soon after I pass it by them.  I have to ask them a few questions before I can let loose totally.

Che Gookin:

--- Quote ---the abusive practices was the "Friendship Workshop" which was a
28 confrontational form of group therapy which XXXXXX describes in detail in ,- 5 of his
-5-
1 declaration:
2 The room is prepared by covering all windows and taping all doorjambs so no
3 light from outside can enter. Watches and personal effects are confiscated so
4 the participants do not know the time other than the fact the session began in the
5 afternoon. XXXXXX "could only estimate" how long the session lasted and
6 believed it was at least 24 hours and possibly as long as 36 hours. (Benchmark
7 staff provided declarations indicating the time frame ran between 12-15 hours.)
8 During almost the entirety of this period the students were not allowed to sleep or
9 eat until the end of the session when they were fed and allowed to take a
10 "communal nap."
11 Near the beginning of the workshop the students, dressed in costumes, were
12 required to perform a skit written for them by the staff designed to highlight what
13 the staff believed to be their unresolved issues. XXXXXX found this public
14 ridicule embarrassing and humiliating and of no benefit and others told him they
15 felt the same way.
16 After the skit, came the disclosure circle during which the participants were
17 required to disclose intimate and shameful things they had never revealed before
18 while the staff played Kenny Roger's "Tell it all Brother" over and over.
19 Next the students were told to curl up in the fetal position on the floor and be
20 "rocks" - i.e. blocking out their feelings. As the Simon and Garfunkle song "i am
21 a Rock" played over and over, the group facilitator went around the room
22 shouting out intimate details and events at each person that the facilitator
23 believed caused the person to become emotionally isolated (i.e. like a rock). By
24 this time many students were crying.
25 Next, the students were told to lay on the floor with arms outstretched and eyes
26 closed (as opposed to the "closed" fetal position) and the facilitator would go
27 around to each person and comfort them, creating an artificial bond between the
28 facilitator and student through the intentional "breaking down/raising up" process during the marathon session.
--- End quote ---

And the sick fuckers bill themselves as leaders in the industry. Fuckers got a decent claim to being a leader in the 'teen torture industry' I'll give them that much.

As for being compassionate, caring, and driven by scientific principles they are lower than whale shit on the bottom of the ocean.

For being such great leaders these are the same knobs that wouldn't even give Psy's book on Cults(margret Mead) a second glance. They flat out refused to even consider looking at it.

Was it because they can't even read? Might be, but then I did offer a pop up book and they turned me down as well.

Che Gookin:
Another goodie:


--- Quote ---rd considers his experience at Benchmark to have been abusive and
3 harmful due to many of its practices. He was cut off from all contact with his family for
4 the first 30 days, and prevented from using his personal computer even though he (and
5 his parents) had been assured he would be allowed access to a computer due to a
6 writing disability he suffered. He was "verbally abused" by Benchmark staff, had his
7 mail read and privacy invaded, and was placed on a starvation diet (2 Cup-o-Noodle
8 soups and 1 granola bar per day) for being "hostile." At one point he was kicked out on
9 the streets and told not to come back for two days. (As his parents had been told not to
10 take him in he had no where to turn.) Crawford also claims to have witnessed or
11 learned of suicide attempts and that after he left Benchmark he states learned that a
12 student did commit suicide after a particularly abusive dressing down by a Benchmark
13 employee.
--- End quote ---

Yes... this is quality treatment...

In a gulag maybe...

 :twofinger:  Benchmark!

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Che Gookin" ---For being such great leaders these are the same knobs that wouldn't even give Psy's book on Cults(margret Mead) a second glance. They flat out refused to even consider looking at it.
--- End quote ---

Oh, I am sure they already know it by heart. They use a great many of the methods detailed therein.

BTW, I believe you meant to reference Cults in our Midst, by Margaret Thaler Singer, yes? Also by same author: Crazy Therapies.

Che Gookin:
That's the book, I have the copy Psy tried to get them to read at my Uncle's place in Washington State. Funny that you should look at it that way, but while they could recognize most of the tactics in the book they'd no doubt find someway to rationalize them. Such is the way of zealots and their ilk.

Some of the common themes that ring true between Mead's book and Benchmark include the tibbits about the Sciencetology slapp suits to silence opponents, various pressure tactics of cults used to gain compliance of new members, and the willingness of the cults to consquence members for independent thoughts.

Benchmark tried to slapp suit Psy..
Benchmark uses starvation diets, brainwashing seminars, and isolation to attempt to gain complaince.
Benchmark definitely uses consequences to threaten members of their 'family' to prevent them from expressing individual thoughts that run counter to the groupthink.

I'm not certain, Psy will have to elaborate on this, but I tend to remember one of the students saying something along the lines that if they talked to Psy they would get in trouble.

PSY? Did this happen or am I going senile?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page