Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > CEDU / Brown Schools and derivatives / clones
Need help from RMA staff
shanlea:
Yeah, I did post under anon and my user. Sorry for the confusion. I understand it can cause credibility problems. Sometimes I get bit by the paranoia bug after reading some posts... I am feeling vulnerable because I am a single Mom of two small children...
As far as CEDU is concerned, it took me years to figure out why I had issues with the program. I am definitely not blaming them because my life isn't perfect and I need a scapegoat. My experience was bad because I wasn't treated with integrity and honesty. I actually left because of the mental abuse and bullying, but more important, I felt that I would be badgered until I had "facilitated breakthroughs" that would require me to lie about myself and my experiences. I didn't go to CEDU because I was a liar so to have my whole story so twisted was repulsive to me and made it impossible to accept the therapy. It is complicated. I also felt there were too many kids there because their parents thought raising a kid was too tedious to them. There were other kids I felt were downright dangerous.
I believe many positive experiences are the result of achieving difficult tasks (for me it was all the physical labor, getting over my vanity, and finding I was not the fragile person I always thought. Because I never had to work hard at home, working hard and seeing I was good at it validated my work ethic.) I felt the "therapeutic" aspects were synanon based mental torture. I also question the insulation of CEDU. In addition, parents are sold a bit of a distorted version of the school. For example, parents only got glimpses of the propheets and some of their attendant exercises but not the total mental annihilation that we got.
People who went through CEDU shared intense experiences they will unlikely ever share with any other group of people again. Cedu experiences are built to do just that. For some, that strong brotherhood and unique bond is unshakable.
THe worst thing about CEDU was that they promoted bullies and delusional (if charismatic) gurus. However, some of the other staff were very caring people. (Others on this site might disagree with that.)
I will now stop wasting your time with my posts because I know you are interested in Team Eclipse stories.
mikehunt:
--- Quote ---On 2004-07-01 20:13:00, ottawa5 wrote:
"Shanlea--I've been off for the last little while putting in hours for my clinical psychology internship and have had no time to check on this site until this evening.
Imagine my surprise to find out that you have posted, more than once since I last checked, with the intention of getting people to respond to my earlier inquiries about the Eclipse/RMA experience.
All this is good information, thanks for your interest.
I know that you like to post anonymously as well as with a recognizable identifier (ie Shanlea), but I tell you, after watching this site for a while, I have pretty well determined that I cannot put much credibility in posts that are not somehow ascribable to one particular person.
It is not as if a name on the post gives me any specific information about the person providing the opinion---it is just that if I rely on "anonymous" posts how can I tell if these represent one person, posing as different people, or a legitimate collection of several people advocating a particular opinion?
I will bring what I have observed here to my son's attention, when the family is together this weekend, especially the responses that relate to Team Eclipse. I intend to ask him for his opinion about the rather derogatory view that some (often anonymous) correspondents hold of that particular experience. Again, if he chooses to involve himself in these discussions, I will support him in that, as I will support him in choosing to not respond if that is his preference.
It seems kind of strange: I am perfectly willing to consider that the emotional growth school experience was, for reasons that are yet to be defined, negative for some people. Yet, at this site, I have not seen much interest in looking at why some adolescents do well after the CEDU experience, and go on to live happy, good lives, with positive memories surrounding the years spent in these schools.
I suppose that I could accept unquestioningly the point of view that the individuals who could be called CEDU success stories are brainwashed. Yet several of these people are known to me reasonably well and I see no sign of delusion or dysfunction in the ways (which are appropiately individualized) in which they have gone on to live their lives after CEDU.
Puzzling, but then life is sometimes like that--I am confident that patience and further information will help to clarify the situation. "
--- End quote ---
here's what cedu does: program children with their standards of morality and obedience. i'd consider that brainwashing.
if you're going to start your own skool, at least advertise it properly (not pretending that it's all loving and nuturing) and don't manipulate the parents dishonestly.
mikehunt:
by the way, as you can see, i'm totally not anon... i think that cedu is completely unethical (standardized approaches effect a small percentage of people, and this particular standardized approach tends to hurt more people than it helps.) i'm all for ethical therapy.. my job is to draw the definitive line between the two.
Hell on Wheels:
[ This Message was edited by: Hell on Wheels on 2004-07-07 19:27 ]
Anonymous:
I had to respond finally: I went to RMA and graduated in Dec. 1990.
I am DEFINITLY fucked up from it. If the scientists and parents cannot understand such an off the cuff vulgarity as a description, it is because they cannot comprehend the amount of negative thinking behind it. For me, "Fucked Up" ten years later is in fact a terrific understatement.
I have looked off and on for years for a community to talk to about my post RMA life and why it is the way it is. I don't really feel like I can talk to ANYONE about it because of the true and accurate account of the "fucking fake ass motherfuckers" would be the people from RMA while people who are not intimately knowledgeable about these programs and probably cannot be becuase they did not attend them AS STUDENTS. It is really huge to talk about and perfectly understand the flustered comments and tone of some of these responses.
I have started to write about my experience and really will be active in moving on...finally. So. Check in with me...XB
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