Alex Asch's Story

[Deborah]

Mind Freedom and Support Coalition International join the effort against the Industry, specifically Stillwater Turnabout in Utah.
Forgive this rather long post, but it is a story worth telling.
Deborah

ACTION: Your Mind & Human Rights - 10 August 2003
http://www.MindFreedom.org - *** please forward !!! ***

FREE ALEX ASCH!
GUILTY: OF BEING A YOUNG ANARCHIST ACTIVIST

TODAY IS ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF LOCK-UP
OF ALEX ASCH IN A PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTION,
WHEN HE WAS 16 YEARS OLD

ACTION: ALEX WANTS **YOU** TO BREAK THE SILENCE, AND TELL AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE ABOUT "PSYCHOLOGICAL FASICSM"

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.
Alex's main request: To break the silence about this "psychological fascism" that can happen to any youth, to any one, any where.
This psychiatric kidnapping is happening to thousands of youth.
This time it happened to an activist youth who was plugged into a number of social change movements. It can happen to you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACTION FOR ALEX: Please forward this information to your friends, colleagues, alternative media, activist organizations,and other people and groups who support freedom!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ON THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE PSYCHIATRIC KIDNAPPING OF ALEX ASCH
From: Ben Grosscup

In the Summer of 2002, I got to know Alex by
studying with him as a fellow classmate at the
Institute for Social Ecology (ISE), a progressive
educational institution that encourages students
to think for themselves and to think critically
about the world.
I saw him grow tremendously in his thinking
during the short time that I was studying with
him. I have seen Alex both in class and amongst
friends grappling with complex and important
questions of how to be good in society. From
these observations, I believe that Alex has shown
himself capable of thinking critically for himself
and making decent ethical judgments.
I find it totally tragic that Alex's parents and
Turnabout Stillwater, the Psychiatric Institution
that is now holding him, would cut short the sort
of critical inquiry that I saw Alex exploring at
ISE, only to place him in an authoritarian
institution that demands that he change his
character against his own will.
On this one year anniversary of his capture, I
look back on the year that has passed feeling sad
that I have not known personally how to
intelligently and effectively help to end Alex's
current imprisonment. I'm glad that people in the
psychiatric survivor community -- particularly
MindFreedom -- are taking Alex's case seriously,
thereby continuing their work to educate others
about problems in how this society, particularly
the psychiatric industry deals with people it
considers mentally ill.
I encourage people concerned about freedom and
human rights to consider Alex's case and to work
towards a new society in which we wouldn't
stigmatize or oppress anyone for being regarded
as rebellious, different, or even "crazy," and in
which we could support all people in becoming more
mentally healthy.
Eros and Revolution,
Ben
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "Diane" http://www.wiretapmag.org/story.html?StoryID=16151
or from the article I wrote:
http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid ... ode=thread

You may also use a quote or anything you find
useful from WBAI's radio broadcast:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=7283
-Diane
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAST ALERT ABOUT ALEX WITH BACKGROUND STORY, WRITING BY ALEX, AND HOW TO WRITE TO HIM:
PLEASE FORWARD TO AS MANY INTERESTED PEOPLE
AS POSSIBLE!

NEWS: Your Mind & Human Rights - 8 July 2003
http://www.MindFreedom.org - * please forward *

"PSYCHOLOGICAL FASCISM":
ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES FOR LOCK UP OF ALEX ASCH, 17 YEARS OLD,IN A PSYCHIATRIC FACILITY

YOUTH ACTIVIST PULLED NEARLY ONE YEAR AGO FROM
VERMONT SOCIAL CHANGE SCHOOL, 10 AUGUST 2002

NEEDED: INFO ON "TURNABOUT STILLWATER,"
WHERE ALEX IS BEING HELD IN SLC, UTAH, USA

Alex Asch is an activist. He's articulate. He's 17. He's an anarchist who focuses on animal rights.
And he has also been locked up for nearly a year in a psychiatric institution in Utah by his parents.
Alex calls what is happening "psychological fascism."
He's not alone -- youth are being locked up
in USA psychiatric facilities as never before.

NABBED AT SOCIAL CHANGE SUMMER SCHOOL
Alex was a 16-year-old attending a well-known Vermont social change activist school last year. According to reports he was going well in the summer classes. His parents sent private security officers to scoop him up, and he has remained locked up in a Utah psychiatric facility for a year, this August 10, 2003. In the USA, youth have few rights to resist psychiatric institutionalization by parents.

At the plenary of the MindFreedom counter-conference protesting the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, activist Katherine
Hodges passionately called upon psychiatric rights activists everywhere to urgently provide stronger support for the case of ALEX ASCH.

Since then, several movement activists have been looking into Alex's situation, and have connected up concerned activists.

Ben Grosscup is a friend of Alex who recently networked with MindFreedom - Support Coalition. Ben said, "It's kind of weird that this came out a year ago and we are only just making contact with the psychiatric survivors movement. I am not the only one of Alex's friends who are concerned about Alex. There are a number of us."

The psychiatric survivors movement is now 33 years old. While MindFreedom is open to the public, a survey shows a majority say they personally experienced human rights violations in the mental health system, often as youth.

Ben said that Alex has specifically asked that the public  be told about what is happening to him.

MindFreedom director David Oaks said, "I was locked up myself at about the age Alex is now. Several of our members have called for action about Alex, and we'll be bringing this to our board of directors. We've talked to Ben, and want to support Alex's friends trying to find out more information about this Utah facility in
particular, and the youth psychiatric industry in general."

Tens of thousands of youth are now locked up in
psychiatric facilities. The rate has skyrocketed the past few decades. Alex said he could stay locked up until his 18th birthday next year, June, 28, 2004.

Ben has one initial ACTION that he wants people to take:
"We need a lot more research on the facility where
Alex has been locked up -- Turnabout Stillwater in SaltLake City, Utah, USA. Please help."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACTION YOU CAN TAKE -- GATHER INFO ON FACILITY,
AND YOUTH PSYCHIATRIC INDUSTRY:
If you can help research this facility, and the youth psychiatric lock-up industry please forward
any information you find to these two e-mail addresses --mention MindFreedom sent you.

* Ben Grosscup at .
and
* MindFreedom at


[ This Message was edited by: Deborah on 2003-11-12 19:31 ]

[Deborah]

~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: "Deicide"
To: "Oaks - MindFreedom.org"

I am Darren Kramer, a friend of Alex's that has helped initiate the campaign to bring attention to his case. I am the co-founder of Ever Reviled Records Workers' Collective and one of his co-workers from the collective.

Ever Reviled Records started the campaign to bring attention to Alex's case not only to make people aware of Alex, but also to help bring into
the spectrum of debate the thousands of other children that are being coercively thrown into mental institutions. The case has made me more
intimately aware of an entire aspect of the system of domination that exists in our country that I had not thought much about: the insidious use of psychiatry to overextend parental control over children. These institutions must be examined and subject to criticism if their
application is being so loosely used as to jail against his will such an amazing spirit as Alex Asch.

EVER REVILED RECORDS
Building the counter-culture one chord at a time.

http://www.everreviledrecords.com

[Deborah]

Alex freed from Turnabout Stillwater. I don't expect him to be quiet about the ordeal.


http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/alexasch.shtml

NEWS: Your Mind & Freedom - 12 Nov. 2003
ALEX ASCH IS OUT!

Youth psychiatric inmate says "joy is overwhelming... passion pumps in my heart."

How you can e-mail Alex a congratulations.

The MindFreedom office was informed today by a key supporter of the campaign to free Alex Asch that Alex is out of the institution where he has been held for 15 months. More details are not yet available.

Ben Grosscup said, "I'll try to send more info about this tremendous news once I have it myself. I'm just learning about this now. Hooray!!!"

Alex wrote to a friend yesterday, "LIBERATION FROM THE FACE OF ENDLESS AND COMPLETE INDOCTRINATION! NOW I CAN ATTACK HEAD ON."

Alex also said, "The joy is overwhelming and the inevitable excitement and passion pumps in my heart about the fact I'm back."

ACTION: You may e-mail congratulations to Alex at his e-mail address: [email protected].

Alex Asch was 16 when security guards (escorts) under orders from his parents took him against his will from an activist training event at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont on August 10 2002, and placed in Turnabout Stillwater, a Utah psychiatric facility. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Froderik]

Jeez you think that post is long enough? Sorry to harp on something that may seem to be of trivial nature, but damn, this/that page is a big one!  :eek:

[Deborah]

Yeh, I know it was long, but a story worth telling. I couldn't find a link that contained it all. I found it very interesting the first time through and thought others might enjoy it as well. Pretty much the same with some unique twists.
Anyway, I decided that I'd edit it. It's been whittled. You might try again... or scan.... or not.

[Froderik]

It does/did look like an interesting story. Thank you for taking the time to trim it down.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Deborah.

I find it heartening that he did not come out of his experience a brainwashed drone.

I suspect his prior experience in activism helped protect him against the mind control techniques.

He didn't think the world was a friendly place in the first place, so he didn't go into shock at finding out it isn't.

He had experience with critical thinking, so he had the tools to think through what his captors were saying and doing and see through the psychobabble.

He had a healthy skepticism of authority already, instead of trusting it, but he'd also had some formal experience and training with responding to abuses of authority in a limited, controlled, carefully considered manner.

He had a very well developed sense of who he was---he wasn't still trying to find out who he was.  IOW, he'd already made the psychological transition to adulthood---and it's a lot harder to manipulate an adult than a kid.

All four of those things are terrific tools in resisting the kinds of techniques these places use.

I'm glad he's free.  I hope the people who helped free him will continue to try to help free others.

[Deborah]

Me too.

That original LONG message came to me as several messages via an email list. The whole story, for those who are interested is now up on a webpage (perhaps I'll whittle more when time allows):
 http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/alexasch.shtml

What struck me was the questions Alex and his friends posed about the industry in general, particularly their wondering if other teen activists were at risk of being incarcerated.

[Anonymous]

On 2003-11-12 21:07:00, Deborah wrote:

"

Me too.



That original LONG message came to me as several messages via an email list. The whole story, for those who are interested is now up on a webpage (perhaps I'll whittle more when time allows):

 http://www.mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/alexasch.shtml



What struck me was the questions Alex and his friends posed about the industry in general, particularly their wondering if other teen activists were at risk of being incarcerated.

"

If the parents object to the activism, the teen certainly is at risk.  As are teens with a different religion from the parents, as are teens with different politics from the parents, as are teens who are anything but moral, philosophical, and behavioral clones of the parents.

And even if the teen is a near-perfect carbon copy of the parent, the teen is at risk of being incarcerated is the parent is just plain loopy and doesn't see that the teen is just like Mom and Dad.

On the upside, the word is out there some places.  Over ten years ago I knew a woman whose teenage son had become unmanageable in a destructive way---destructive of her property and home.

She considered a boot camp, but didn't send him to one.  She had heard of the abuse in the programs and chose not to subject him to it.  She DID kick him out of the house, but at least he was old enough to get a job and support himself and become an emancipated minor, and better off than he'd have been in a program.

[Anonymous]

Stillwater Turnabout is very clearly a direct Straight or KIDS descendant program-- uses beltlooping, host homes, five point restraint by other kids, etc.

Does anyone have any info linking it to the former KIDS program that was in Salt Lake?  Wes posted that KIDS of Salt Lake became Lifeline there-- does anyone have a way of showing descent via staff names
or other material...

Any help greatly appreciated.

Please email [email protected] or post here; this is for my book on teen behavior mod.

[Antigen]

Sorry, I don't have that info myself. Wes might. If you do turn up interested contacts, please let them know about these forums. If there's an interest, I'll set up a Turnabout forum here.

May your days be joyously challenging and your words artfully true.
--Ginger Warbis

[Deborah]

Stillwater - Turnabout Program (Co-ed)
Lee Chadwick
801-484-9911
2738 South 2000 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84109
http://www.natsap.org/programs_list.asp

Woah Boy!!
Caldwell: I can train a horse to do what I want it to do, but I cannot force it to want to be close to me. You can force your children to do what you want them to, but you absolutely cannot force them to want to be close to you. When a horse (or child) starts to cooperate, I let up the pressure. If he/she stops, I increase the pressure. I make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy.
It is an awesome thing to see a horse perform because I ask him to.  As you know, I cannot make him. The horse responds because we have laid the right foundation.  As we use these principles in our homes and in our treatment programs, kids change their behavior because they choose to, not because they have to.  They see the horse going through the same things they have to in order to change. In treatment, the kids have to make the same decisions.  Do I trust people?  Should I trust them?  Do I want to change?  It?s a wonderful thing. When kids and parents can see a horse change right before their eyes, they start to change too.
http://www.turnaboutteens.org/clementine_farm.html

2000
Turnabout is a Day Treatment Program for teenagers and their families that helps youth identify and resolve the underlying issues that are driving the destructive acting out behaviors being witnessed.
Day treatment takes place in an out-patient setting after which time clients return either to their own, or a host family?s home every evening. Turnabout also provides services to families who live outside the Salt Lake City area. Such students are placed in the Turnabout host home network, and if appropriate, a permanent host home is arranged for them. Parents of out-of-town students are encouraged to visit Turnabout on a regular basis to participate in weekly parents group and family counseling sessions.
?Parents are required to come to a Weekly Parent Group that is tailored to help families work on issues. We ask that parents become an active part of the treatment team?parental involvement in Turnabout is our key and secret to success.?
Turnabout also has a partnership with Rising Sun Ranch, in Lehi, Utah which ?enables troubled youth to have an opportunity to experience the day to day operations of a working horse ranch.
http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... /np03.html

2001
Changed the name of their program to Stillwater Academy to lessen the confusion with Turn About Ranch, also in Utah. http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... een03.html

The equine therapy is an important part of Stillwater?s Academy?s program, but there is much more. This program was formed based on the philosophy of parents helping parents, and it still retains this as a key aspect of its program. In the eighties, a group of parents whose teens had problems participated in a local ?Tough Love? group to gain mutual support and guidance. By 1988, the parents decided they needed more than just weekly meetings, moral support and advice, so they started what was formerly called the TurnAbout program. It was an expansion of the Tough Love groups into a system where the parents took other parents? children into their homes on a temporary basis when it seemed that would help the situation.

This of course evolved, but is still the basic concept behind the current living arrangements. Currently, students enrolled in the program live with participating parents on a rotating basis, which allows for about one-third of the 50-55 students in the program to be from elsewhere in the country. Two-thirds of the students are from the Salt Lake City area. As anticipated, living arrangements with participating parents allows tuition to be considerably lower than that of other programs who work with comparable children. Of course the parents have full staff support and training while participating, and contact with their own child is increased as it is earned. Caldwell reports this family-based system works quite smoothly and has many advantages, not the least of which are parents who are truly committed and involved in the program.

This unique model where parents help other parents, far exceeds the assistance offered by the usual parent support group and appears to be quite successful. Once a parent enrolls a child, the parent is automatically involved with an extensive parent network along with the staff at Stillwater Academy. If there are any parent support groups around the country looking for ways to increase the help they offer each other, they might learn a lot from talking to Stillwater Academy.
http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... sit02.html

Turnabout?s housing program offers benefits to both the students and the parents involved.  Turnabout students are able to live with surrogate families who care about them and hold the students accountable for their actions. Host parents are able to practice the parenting skills they are learning at Turnabout on other adolescents.  

Turnabout is also able to keep costs of treatment to a minimum based on the families? participation, because the program does not require the typical 24-hour hospital staff.
Is the housing system safe?

Absolutely!  Host homes will always have two students who act as supports to the parents and who are in charge of the other youth. Turnabout students are expected to participate in the upkeep of the family home where they are housed. They help by clearing the table, washing dishes, sweeping floors and doing chores for the family as needed.  Parents are asked to provide supervision, safety and food for the following day.
http://www.turnaboutteens.org/faq.html#7

[Deborah]

http://utah.indymedia.org/news/2003/06/5217.php

To the dismay of his parents, Alex's life was going down a path that was different from their old and obsolete values. Alex would often have arguments with them about his values, the state of the world, and how it related to what he was doing. Alex's parents would use whatever means they had at their disposal to try to coerce him into adopting their values. They sent him to school psychiatrists, prescribed him sedative drugs, and put him in special programs...all against his will. The school psychiatrists said Alex had Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD), a loosely defined behavioral diagnsis that labels "actively defying", "refusing to comply with rules", and "academic impairment" as "disorders".

http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid ... ode=thread
As of now, Turnabout Stillwater intends to end Alex Asch's "treatment program" on June 28, 2004, when he is legally an adult. His only way of communicating to his friends in New Jersey is through censored letters. He was not allowed outside for over 70 days, and is currently being forced to take unknown pharmaceutical drugs.

"Alex is just one subject of a uniquely contemporary phenomenon," said Deicide. "It is quite possible that America's children are being drugged into a state of complacency by corporations that are aware that without such apathy and indifference, the public, especially the youth, would be more difficult to control." Asch essentially feels the same way as Deicide about the interrelation of psychiatric treatment and pharmaceuticals in youth to the bigger picture.

Excellent Article:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16151
Here's a quote for you Ginger:
"What is most disturbing to me about ODD and other 'disorders' is that there is no real attempt to ascertain the environmental picture ? the social, political, and economic factors that drive a person's behavior," said Leah Harris, a progressive psychiatrist from Washington DC. "We're asking the wrong questions ? we shouldn't be asking, 'does this kid have a disease called ODD?' but 'why is this kid so at odds with his or her society?'"

In one of the letters he was able to send out he indicated that he had not seen the world outside of the camp for more than fifty days. He wrote that he has tremendous difficulty being able to even think under the circumstances and that he concentrates on his memories, friendships, and beliefs to ward off the "frightening miserable emotional state being brought upon me within my present situation." He often writes about the psychological fascism employed to "correct" his behavior and beliefs, and he says he is determined to resist being converted.

[Antigen]

Hey Folks,
  Do we need a new forum on Turnabout?

Always try to do things in chronological order; it's less confusing that way.
--Unknown

[FaceKhan]

Nice to see someone come out of a program not messed up.

I guess its hard to be any more angry and anti-social than your typical anarchist is anyways. :razz:



On another note, anyone ever read "Bartleby" by Melville.

Its a short story. I just keep thinking about how a person would best resist incarceration and brainwashing.

What ways work, what ways don't.

I guess there are a lot of choices:

1. Fake it, conform on the outside to get out as soon as possible. The benefit is you avoid the physical pain, get your priveliges fast so you don't starve to death or get sick or go crazy and you may get out faster although not always the case. The drawback being you may start to believe what you are regurgitating and its hard to suppress the constant rage that screams kill those fucks.

2. Fight. Let loose, go psycho. Attack guards, other inmates, escape any chance you get. Benefits. You keep you mind intact, you don't give them any respect or an inch of help. You get to give those assholes what they deserve. And you may very well get kicked out if you are particulalry dangerous. The drawback being you are going to get a lot of beatings and spend most of your time there restrained or in isolation and assuming they keep you there you may be there a long time.

3. Fake it in order to escape when you get a chance. Benefits basically all the benefits of 1 except graduating early and few of the drawbacks of 2. It also gives you the benefit of well planned and thought out escapes so you won't be recaptured. Not so useful for foriegn locations though.

If I were in that situation I would probably fake it just long enough to get a chance to escape. Of course I have a low regard for the lives of my captors so I would probably find something to be used as a deadly weapon and walk out with a shiv against a senior staff member's throat. I would make them give me the keys to one of their trucks and if they came near, that staff guy is dead. Either way I am out of that place.

That goes especially if I were in a foriegn country because quite frankly, fuck those Jamaican fucks. I'd take my number two pencil and shove it through the teachers ear. Thats right I would kill to escape. The most committed wins.

In addition, cleaning chemicals make good poisons and bombs.

4. Passive resistance. Another way to make them think you are psycho and let you out. Simply shut down. Refuse to speak, refuse to listen, refuse everything. Passive resistance (for a good example read "Bartleby") is probably the most frusrating thing in the world for a person to deal with. If you really want to scare them, refuse to eat.




As for when they come to kidnap you in the first place. Simply refuse to go. Cry, fire, cry rape, cry bomb, call the cops. There is not really much need to fight them if you are not armed you will just end up in handcuffs.

There is no way you can get on a plane screaming bomb. You can make it so long and costly to get you anywhere that it won't be worth it. Every airport, every plane, every bus, every train make a scene and get the authorities involved. It will take an hour or longer to clear up each incident. It could take days to get you back on a plane. If you scream bomb, I guarantee you are never riding on a plane again.  

If they are trying to take you out of the country simply refuse. Tell the border security they are smuggling drugs, kidnapping you, terrorists.

Another good tactic is to make them carry you. They will get tired of that real quick.

Lastly fight. Tell them that you are not going with them and you will defend yourself with any force deemed necesary. Then if they insist. Make like you are gonna go and then say "I left my shoes in the kitchen." You go to the kitchen grab a knife and tell them to get the fuck out of your house or they are dead.