Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Facility Question and Answers

Into the Belly of the Beast, the Comparison

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psy:

--- Quote from: "lifeboat" ---Caroline the Wolf  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga0nQpXa61w was my Voyageur family head and I will not be reading The Discarded Ones.
--- End quote ---
Too close to home, or you feel the book was too kind?

lifeboat:
I haven't bought The Discarded Ones by James Tipper.  AFAIK he went to CEDU in CA from 79 - 81 and I would probably buy the book if  the author was sent to RMA or was sent to CEDU during my time ( When I was sent to RMA) .

Muppeteer:
If there was an Elan corollary to Catherine Wolf, during my time that person's name would be Anne Flynn, no doubt. Catherine sounds like a *lovely* person.  ::puke::

lifeboat:
Caroline Wolf was a former CEDU student and knew all the tricks of the trade.  She had a unique way of Indicting children in raps.  Caroline would scream at girls for "selling their ass" and / or "running the streets of LA."  She was married to Randy Eide (former CEDU student) when I was at RMA.  Randy had an inappropriate relationship  with a female student and Randy & Caroline divorced shortly thereafter.

Muppeteer:
*Caroline Wolf, yes. Fingers really wanted to type Catherine in my post above, apparently.

I mentioned I would get back here and offer my insight and speculation as to the why's and how's Elan evolved...so, very briefly, here goes...

Joe Ricci was the self-proclaimed "God of Therapy," but by the early and into the mid 1980's, I can easily speculate Elan was falling behind CEDU in terms of enrollment and reputation. CEDU had multiple campuses, Elan only one (Poland Springs) by 1985. The Elan population had declining numbers from state placements, there were no adults in treatment (or very few who remained after reaching 18 years of age), and high staff turnover rate was damaging the consitency of the so-called theraputic process. By the time I was foisted off there, Elan was hiring new staff from the college ranks, namely Lynda Roy and Anne Flynn, among others. These "next generation" staff members were bringing fresh ideas and concepts that had never been present in Elan. For example, the Propheets. Ricci must have seen the financial success Mel Wasserman, et. al., were enjoying out west, and wanted a piece of that pie. He even was talking about opening a west coast campus to compete more directly with CEDU. And, of course, it was also around this time he decided he would run for Governor.

Another competitor, Straight. Inc, had even been endorsed by Nancy Reagan, had multiple campuses in multiple states, and was another source of siphoning off Ricci's lucrative client base. So I really do believe that Ricci was feeling the heat from his competitors, and being so competitive himself, was willing to try a few new ideas to return Elan to it's "glory days" of the 1970's, when it really was on the cutting edge of TC's.

So again, by the time I was there, "primal scream" was not a regular activity. Yes, there was still plenty of screaming in encounter groups, GM's, V/R's etc, but the primal scream sessions, and presumably some of the other 1970's techniques, were being abandoned in favor of experimentation with some of the new age humanistic approaches. I can even recall a few "oxygen therapy" sessions complete with nasal cannula and guided imagrey occuring in the dorms in E8. Turning off (unplugging) electronic devices was one of the things that *had* to be done prior to these sessions, as E8 was a proven tinderbox. (see attic fire accusations discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, that's not really my story to tell)

So, Elan changed alot, became more in-line with CEDU with the advent of new staff with no personal program experience, but the folks they brought in, specifically Roy and Flynn, proved to quite adept at "getting it," so much so that I really felt for a long time they must have been enrolled at some point, but no, they were not.

Finally, as an aside, I want to mention Ms. Curley's book again. "Alice Quinn" in that book is *not* a real name, nor is it meant to portray Alice Dunn (another former Elan staff/director). No, Alice Quinn in Ms. Curley's book is clearly Anne Flynn. No doubt about it. And if Ms. Curley's book is an accurate portrayal (which I believe it is, to a "T"), then it would appear Anne Flynn's notorious and legendary mood swings were the direct result of the cocaine she and Ricci were reportedly abusing frequently in the mid-1908's.

See you next time.... :soapbox:

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