quote="Ursus"
You can expend a great deal of energy bickering about whether physical conditions can be deemed abusive or not. The physical conditions are, when all is said and done, merely symptoms and crude barometers of where the true, diabolical abuse often lies: deep in the psyche of the kids that go to these places.
I can think of camping experiences I've had where the physical conditions might meet the criteria of conditions that some might deem "abusive," but I did not consider them abusive. Why? I wasn't being brainwashed. It was summer camp, not reprogramming.
On the other hand, there are places like ASR where some of the kids experience conditions that can be deemed physically abusive, but some do not. Depends on the kid and the particular dynamic with personnel that are there at that given point in time, etc. etc. Something might be said about what kind of number gets done on a kid's head seeing that shit go on around you, whether you, yourself, have to jump through those hoops or not. 'Cuz real point of places like ASR is reprogramming, and the way that it gets done is psychologically abusive, whether you can put your finger on specific "evidence" or not. Much of the damage done does not surface right away, might even take years to surface for some kids.
There is also something else I should say about places like this. There is such a power trip mentality going on amongst many of the staff (they get psyched into this by the program), and such a degradation of respect for other people's autonomy (inherent to the reprogramming), that these conditions often end up translating into sexual abuse of the minors who get sent here to get "fixed" and "straightened out." Again, it can take years before those truths see the light of day. Those kids are informed that they are "special," that other people "wouldn't understand," blah blah blah... Just a heads up for you, for what it's worth...
