Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry

Alex Asch's Story

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Anonymous:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... &forum=9&6

cmack:
In the video below Alex Asch talks about being locked up for 16 months at Stillwater Turnabout.

http://vimeo.com/13009311

The video runs for about 1 1/2 hours and appears to be a Q & A at a bookstore. At the time the video was made Alex had been out for about 1 month.

Alex gives a rambling account of his stay at Stillwater Turnabout. The BM techniques he describe sound very similar to those employed by Straight. His account was sometimes hard to follow, but it seems detainees weren't allowed shoes until level 4. Alex said he was searched 4 times a day on lower levels and twice a day on higher levels.

He got in trouble for writing. Apparently his anarchist philosophy wasn't well received by his Mormon captors. He said of the ~500 pages he wrote much was taken or destroyed by staff. At a certain point Alex apparently decided to try to play the system in order to get out. He talks about pretend tears and talking about his relationship with his parents in group. If I understood correctly Alex had level drops 15 different times.

Alex's intelligence allowed him to game the system and he doesn't appear to have bought into any of their propaganda. In fact he says that basically he became more manipulative and deceitful in order to get out. It seems that the outside attention Alex's placement had caused as well as his father's growing disillusionment with the program also hastened his removal.

Ursus:
From the article copied out in the OP (dated August 2003):

One year ago today, Alex Asch was 16 years old. He was proud to be an anarchist activist specializing in animal rights.

Alex was attending the summer session of the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont to advance his activism. His friends, other students and teachers said he was doing well.

But parents of youth today have nearly absolute power in the USA to lock their children away in psychiatric facilities.

And so one year ago today, private security guards arrived and took Alex to a Utah psychiatric facility, where he remains.[/size]
Fwiw, here's a thread about Zak Eveland, another young anarchist activist and great animal lover, who also got sent to a program ... in this case, two: Adirondack Leadership Expeditions and Hyde School:


* MISSING student: runaway
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=29057

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