Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry
Vice article on The Troubled Teen Industry
none-ya:
--- Quote ---Whooter wrotre;
Maia never had the visibility nor experienced the inside of any program and merely interviewed and reported on only the negative aspects of the industry. Her book was accepted here largely because of its negative spin towards the industry, in my opinion.
--- End quote ---
One does not have to ingest arsenic,to put a negative spin on poison.
Muppeteer:
Ms. Szalavits' book was accepted here, and elsewhere, largely based on it's reception by professionals as well as survivors spanning a broad spectrum of experience.
From her page, just a sampling of some of the reviews....
"In this riveting and deeply troubling book, Maia Szalavitz shows that we don't have to go to Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo to find examples of harsh violations of human rights: frighteningly similar abuses are inflicted on American teenagers today, in programs ostensibly established to help them. Help At Any Cost vividly illuminates the human costs of these 'treatment' programs, and the urgency of challenging their misleading claims before more of our children are irreparably harmed" -- Elliott Currie, Ph.D., Professor Criminology, Law and Society, University of California-Irvine.
"A piercing, incisive look at an out of control industry that puts profits ahead of children and wreaks havoc on families. The violence of the Tough Love credo that has dominated youth rehabilitation for decades will shock you to rage and tears. A must read for anyone concerned with the welfare of our children today." -- Stephen Elliott, former ward of the state and author of Happy Baby and A Life Without Consequences.
"How much of the industry that provides residential drug treatment for teenagers consists of institutionalized child abuse? I don't know, but Maia Szalavitz makes a strong case that the answer is 'too much of it,' and that no system is now in place to detect and remedy those abuses." -- Mark Kleiman, Director, Drug Policy Analysis Program, University of California-Los Angeles
"In this long awaited study of the booming 'teen help' industry, Szalavitz bravely takes on an important issue impacting teens more today than ever before. In this thorough and riveting example, she calls for parents, educators and mentors of teens to take a closer look at the "help" their teens are receiving. In fact, the lives of many teens depend on it!"-- Lynn Ponton, MD, author ofThe Romance of Risk: Why Teens do the Things They Do,Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco.
"Help at Any Cost is the fascinating, disturbing story of an AmericanAbu Ghraib that preys on troubled teens and their unwitting parents.Maia Szalavitz's meticulously researched account lays bare one of themost under-reported injustices occurring in America today. It is achilling portrait of the dehumanizing effects of the war on drugs andof lives wasted by a teen help industry run amuck." -- Evan Wright, best-selling author of Generation Kill and PEN award recipient.
"Maia Szalavitz has written a brave and independent book. In an era when we believe children are regularly dying due to drugs, sex, suicide, and crime, parents are ready to try any solution to "save" their children. Szalavitz has discovered that the tough-love programs many parents resort to do more harm than good, and she writes with facility about research while presenting on-the- ground reportage that puts flesh on the often-horrifying stories of children caught in the maws of tough love therapy. Finally, she presents parents with tools with which to evaluate these programs and to otherwise make sound decisions to help their troubled children." -- Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D., author of 7 Tools to Beat Addiction.
"This powerful book describes with sensitivity and clarity how fear, ignorance, greed and inhumanity converge to create a 'therapy' industry that humiliates, degrades, deprives and tortures our own children sometimes to death. This amazing, sad, hopeful book is a clarion call to all who value children: every parent and every professional working with adolescents should read this book. And then give it to any policy maker, legislator, clinician, educator or caregiver you know." -- Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Fellow, The ChildTrauma Academy, former chief of psychiatry, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine.
"As a survivor of a teen boot camp, I was stunned by Szalavitz's brilliant expose of the "teen help" industry. A book-length investigation into the dark side of this booming business was long overdue, and Szalavitz nailed it on the head. It's a landmark study of a business that frequently hurts -- and sometimes kills --teenagers. This book deserves a wide audience." -- Julia Scheeres, author, Jesusland, attended Escuela Caribe, located in the Dominican Republic.
Che Gookin:
http://www.heal-online.org/swiftriver.htm
While not the best writing, I did find it interesting reading. The cultic influences at work within ASR definitely need to be investigated quite carefully. The anxiety felt by the young lady in the article would be consistent with the same type of anxiety felt by those recovering from a cult.
Be interesting to know more about what she has to say.
We all have to remember the stench of ASR goes right back to CEDU and that very much is one of the aborted spawn of the anti-christ itself. I guess that makes ASR the bowel movement of the aborted spawn of the etc?
Whooter:
Her book did get good reviews, I think we all agreed to that several years ago. But she never had the opportunity to witness and experience the day to day operations of a program which was unfortunate. She was limited to just second hand information. I am not saying it was all inaccurate it just wasn't the complete story. Many refer to it as drive-by journalism now a days and is why today many reports are entrenched with the troops in Afghanistan , for example, so that they can report information which they know is accurate.
...
psy:
--- Quote from: "Whooter" ---Hi PODK, its good to see you back again. I remember the discussion a few years ago also. There were many posters here on fornits who did not like the report/book because Dave Marcus found The Academy at Swift river to be helpful to most children. He lived and taught there and followed a peer group for 14 months. He reported on the good as well as the bad aspects of the industry.
--- End quote ---
He lived and taught what he was permitted to see and teach. I remember clearly how the program I was in would clean up and outright lie to visitors. They presented a false front when it was convenient. Even if Dave Marcus did witness an sanitized version of the program, after being there 14 months i'm not at all convinced he wouldn't have "gone native". The bizarre starts to seem normal after a while. Let me quote an amazon review of the book:
--- Quote ---What would have been a less harsh and equally effectvie solution for jerome, the boy who had never touched an illicit drug and who only needed greater attention academically to thrive? Why was his mother not encouraged to look at the alternative school that he ended up at first? Is there a potential danger in putting a naive and socially struggling kid from the suburbs in a place with world weary drug taking sophisticates? Would it be culturally appropriate for a hispanic girl with devout catholic beliefs to have to confess her sexual sins publically?
This book also presents the kids relapses as an unfortunate accident without extensively delving into why. It strikes me that Trevor, the witty and easygoing Englishman never really learnt how to survive outside of the highly artificial world of ASR. Perhaps this was because it did not give him the self worth to refuse to engage in behaviours extreme enough to be lifethreatening or the practical tools to say no to a very real and strong temptation.
And what of the staff? Only one line was devoted to the fact that the enthusiastic English teacher left claiming the only thing she loved about the place was the kids. Why was this so?
And whhat is the effect of such a high turnover of staff on vulnerable troubled young people? DJ the ADD adoptee began a down hill slide when his favourite PE teacher Big Mike abruptly left.
Finally it does not question at all the morality of the programme. Actively punishing harrdworking kids such as Jerome for not turning in their friends when they confide in each other does not teach loyalty or strengthen friendship. It comes across as meanspirited and unjust. Does any school have the moral right to tell a mother what she should or should not put in a letter to her child?
--- End quote ---
Apparently, none of these things seemed to shock Dave Marcus in the least -- certainly not in retrospect. Anyway, wasn't he And even if what he saw and reported was completely accurate, it's still anecdote. There is no proof whatsoever that a single kid was ever saved by a program. There are plenty who think they were, but then again, there are plenty who swear by homeopathy, or Scientology, or foul smelling exotic fruits.
Speaking of exotic fruits, the Noni fruit, which Whooter is so fond of is not allowed to be sold in Europe as a health product. It's permitted to be sold as a food, but it's not permissible to sell it with any claims about health benefits. Why? Because there is no real evidence there are any. Why then is it OK to send kids to a programs that makes claims about "saving" kids when there is no evidence that has ever happened and there is considerable evidence the methods often employed are harmful? Should parents be able to subject their kids, as their property, to any untested treatment whatsoever?
That's really the core issue here. Desperate parents are willing to try anything when they feel like their kids are spiraling out of control and programs are more than willing to sell them a solution. The viability or efficacy of the solution doesn't matter. What matters is that it makes the parents feel good and as far as i'm concerned, that's the number one goal of many of these programs -- not helping the kids. Whooter would argue that by helping the kids, the parents are pleased. I would counter that programs need not actually help the kids. All they have to do is get the kids to believe, and openly profess, that they were helped. If they explode later -- well. It's anybody's fault but the program.
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