RAPS, the down and dirty.

[Anonymous]

i think in raps we should be able to beat the kids because its gets the point across other than that raps realy suck

[blownawaytheidahoway]

ask

[vortexwx]

The only rap I really remember was directed at me, courtesy of Caroline. I got caught with a boy that I liked and spent the next rap being accused of being a slut, whore, etc. People were leaning forward on the edges of their chairs screaming at me. I just wanted to die.

[Son Of Serbia]

On 2005-04-11 07:29:00, vortexwx wrote:

"The only rap I really remember was directed at me, courtesy of Caroline. I got caught with a boy that I liked and spent the next rap being accused of being a slut, whore, etc. People were leaning forward on the edges of their chairs screaming at me. I just wanted to die."

Believe me, if it only happened to you once, you got off lucky!  Yeah, I remember getting screamed at in raps, just about every one I was in! I hated cedu, and I knew the program was bullshit from day 1.  I vocalized these sentiments often, and this made me an easy target for the look goods.  I can honestly say that during my stay at Cedu-Rs, I had to have been the most requested student in raps.  Every ass-licker at RS knew to come after me when they wanted to deflect the heat off of their own asses.  

This is what disgusted me the most about raps: how easily kids sold their friends out,or how viciously older students attacked new kids they didn't even know, to save their own asses.  I never understood how the older student ass-lickers could live with themselves. How they were so content with abusing other kids and making their lives lives miserable, instead of standing up for themselves and telling cedu staff where to shove it!

I'm proud to say that during my whole time at cedu I never attacked anyone in a rap, I only responded (quite harshly at times), and I never told the staff criminals anything of real substance about myself.  I was not going to give those creeps anything they could later use against me, like I saw them do to so many other kids.  

Raps were utterly pointles...nothing more than an excuse for jealous, bitter, adult-failures (cedu staff)to vent their frustration at unsuspecting teenagers.  Think about it. Kids who opened up, had that information used against them, and they were riddiculed with it until they broke down and were reduced to a screaming, sobbing, mucus dripping mess.  Kids who didn't talk in raps were likewise riddiculed, and were punished for it later.  There was no choice involved.  You either talked and accepted the verbal abuse, or you were still abused and then punished later for not talking.

There is nothing theraputic about raps.  In order for therapy to truly work, 2 elements are required. The 1st element is voluntary participation, therapy will never work unless you want it too, and are willing to make the effort. And 2nd, there has to be a level of trust between the client and therapist.  The client needs to feel safe to talk about their problems.  Again this information needs to be surrendered voluntarily, it can't be coerced.

Cedu Raps meet neither criteria.  Cedu raps were mandatory. Participation in raps was mandatory.  The climate of raps was built on fear, not trust.  People talked in raps because they were afraid of what would happen if they didn't, and many facilitators even warned the students of the consequences for not participating in advance!  

Raps are sick, and I for one am overjoyed that Cedu won't be having any more of them!

[Anonymous]

From what I hear there are a few deals in the works to buy the CEDU properties to operate other "troubled teen" programs that are pretty similar---google "emotional growth" and boarding school or teenager or whatever and there are a whole lot of other CEDU clones still alive and well.

[Anonymous]

The worst thing about raps was not knowing what you were getting into. And I don't mean a bunch of staff and look-goods yelling at you. I'm talking about those raps where you could hear all the other raps putting their chairs away and walking out of the building. You didn't know if this rap, even though no one's talking to you or about anything that concerns you, would go right through dorm time, and then you would go sit in the dining hall for 15 minutes together on bans from everyone else, and then you were on your way back to the house to keep it going for the night floor.

Then of course at the end - after some girl is sitting there from a tear jerking two hour discussion of the kid that put his finger in her butt in seventh grade and her father and everyone else's ass is completely numb - they give you a workie for not having something to say about it.

Good times.

[Anonymous]

One could speculate that some staff may have been victimized by this approach and may be suffering from PTSD, too.  Good luck in your recovery and in reclaiming YOUR truth.

On 2004-11-29 15:10:00, iknowcedulies wrote:

"staff are coerced into abusing by being fined if they do not do what the leader says    students buy into because they are easily conned and are desperate to show others that they are "serious" about the place and that the place "works" and that they have "friends" and that they are "loyal" .  it is all designed for them to get their way and you to be under their control so they can shake you and the state down for however long it suits them. they use the excuse of their "familys".   under cedu logic  the nazi's were okay as long as they were loyal to each other.  that means the kids are being used and if anyone deprogams them they are to be stopped by any means necessary and that means calling all the parents and turning them against those who have discovered that it is a racket run by those who do not know what they are doing and followed by kids who only want acceptance by their "friends". "

[Anonymous]

On 2004-11-29 14:18:00, blownawaytheidahoway wrote:

"I am trying to kick up more shit. For me, mostly. But I also want to keep the dialogue happening becuase I need the input. It keeps me inspired to try to capture the totalitarianism of the thing. When it seems a bit overwhelming I've taken to reading through the archive pages here. It would be cool to continue conversations that seemed to have died weeks/months ago. It's the coolest thing about a site like this and finding people like me and you. I go through and see how timid I was at first. Not sure if being angry was ok....."

Interpersonal learning, therapy, and group experiences can be positive and wonderful when facilitated by competent leaders.  Dr. Irvin Yalom is top in the field.  Anybody who has had any REAL training is familiar with his list of curative factors.  These factors can be used to assess the helpfulness of various group methods and experiences. How does this compare with your experience of CEDU Raps and Synanon techniques?

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... i_19214464

?Curative factors in the camp experience by John K. Durall

When young people attend camp, they automatically experience beneficial psychological curative factors that help them move toward healthy developmental growth. These curative factors naturally exist at camp. By focusing on these factors, camp staff can intervene in and initiate situations that actualize curative factors.
Dr. Irvin Yalom's book, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, presents a list of curative factors that exist in group psychotherapy. Most, if not all, of these factors can be found at camp..........
[creating cohesion]
* Work toward having a consistent and positive relationship with each camper. Appropriately show concern, acceptance, genuineness, empathy, and generosity. Modeling this behavior encourages others to do the same.
* Recognize and deter events that may threaten cohesion. The scapegoating of one camper by other campers destroys cohesion. Another detriment is excessive and constant subgrouping.
·   Accept and admit your own fallibility.?
http://www.mental-health-matters.com/ar ... ?artID=251
Group Therapy for Adolescents: Clinical Paper
By Derek Wood, RN, BC, MS
Clinical Content Director

?....At this age, the members need to realize that difficulties and differences are normal, and that rather than ostracizing a member, they should be concerned for each other. This non-defensive posture needs to be modeled by the therapist by discussing their own behavior, teaching that they do not need to insist that they are always right, and being willing to admit if they make mistakes. If a mistake is made, examining the rationale behind the decision that was made with the members can encourage them to examine their own thinking when they make decisions. And viewing the therapist as a human capable of making mistakes will make it easier for them to face making their own.?
*********************************************
http://fox.klte.hu/~keresofi/psyth/a-to ... ctors.html
Molnos, A. (1998): A psychotherapist's harvest
CURATIVE FACTORS
Curative factors also could be called healing factors or factors responsible for therapeutic change. Yalom (1975) discussed eleven categories of curative factors in therapy groups: instillation of hope, universality, imparting of information, altruism, the corrective recapitulation of the primary family group, development of socialising techniques, imitative behaviour, interpersonal learning, group cohesiveness, catharsis, and existential factors. We could add closeness or intimacy and some others. These factors are interdependent. They represent "different parts of the change process, some refer to actual mechanisms of change, whereas others may be more accurately described as conditions for change" (ibid. p. 4)
Curative factors are implicit in the work of every author who writes about psychotherapy and technique designed to bring about therapeutic. Although a great number of similar or identical factors operate in different therapies, it is often one single factor that is emphasised by each particular author and becomes the hallmark of his or her approach. Perhaps the best-known are Freud's insight achieved through the therapist's interpretations and the corrective emotional experience formulated by Alexander and French (1946).
See also index: CORRECTIVE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE, INSIGHT, INTERPRETATION

[You can also check this index to see how other practices measures up in your experience.]

For example,
?Molnos, A. (1998): A psychotherapist's harvest
FEEDBACK
Often a patient has the impression that the therapist has discovered and knows far more about him than she is telling him. In many instances the impression is quite correct and can be detrimental to the therapeutic alliance. One of the cogent reasons why the therapist has to feed back at least some of her insights to the patient is precisely to make him feel accepted as an equal participant in the process. He will have the satisfaction of seeing the therapist seriously interested in him and of being understood by her. The feedback also acts as a reassurance that the therapist does not hide important information from him. Another reason for feedback is to check the patient's reaction to the therapist's observations and conclusions and his thoughts about it. The patient might offer additional information in the light of which the therapist might have to modify her hypothesis. Or the patient might react vigorously against the therapist's insight not because it is wrong, but because he is not yet ready to receive it. Therefore, the therapist will have to communicate to the patient only as much as he can tolerate at any particular time. Good and deep communication can be maintained without unnecessarily alarming or hurting the patient.
The issue of feedback is especially relevant at the start in the assessment interview and in the first session. Later the therapist will increasingly try to help the patient to gain insights about himself by himself.
See also index: COMMUNICATION, INSIGHT, INTERPRETATION
Molnos, A. (1998): A psychotherapist's harvest
FACILITATING ENVIRONMENT
According to Winnicott the "environment, when good-enough, facilitates the maturational process" (1976, pp. 223, 239) of the infant. In itself it does not make the infant grow nor does it determine the direction of its growth. The "facilitating" or " "holding" or "good-enough" environment adapts itself to the changing needs of the maturing infant. It follows the infant, thus becoming progressively less important and in due course it makes itself redundant. A similar process takes place in a "good- enough" therapy.
See also index: DEPENDENCE, GOOD-ENOUGH
Molnos, A. (1998): A psychotherapist's harvest
RIGIDITY
This concept is taken from physiology where it means strong muscular contraction. Psychologically, rigidity might be a defence against engulfing emotions, the fear of tenderness, the fear of chaos. In personality theory it refers to cognitive, perceptual inflexibility. For instance, patients often come to therapy with a very rigid self-image and it is always a sign of therapeutic progress when this image becomes more flexible. The so-called "authoritarian personality" described by Adorno (et al., 1959) of the Frankfurt school of sociology is a clear example of psychic rigidity. It is a personality type who has stereotyped, prejudiced views of people, cultures, ethnic and other groups, nations, desires and approves of strong leadership, repression of pleasure, wants harsh laws and severe punishments for those who transgress the law.
See also index: DEFENCES, SELF-IMAGE, VALUES
Molnos, A. (1998): A psychotherapist's harvest
UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE
The patient must get the feeling that he, his true feelings, his true self are accepted absolutely without any reservation. This acceptance is conveyed to him through the therapist's overall behaviour, her genuine interest in his person and her non-judgemental attitude. Unconditional acceptance of the real person, of course, does not include the acceptance of everything he does. Hopefully, he will be able to internalise this attitude and accept himself fully while trying to get rid of the maladaptive bits left over from the past.
See also index: ATTITUDE OF THE THERAPIST, "LOVE", RESPECT, STRENGTH, TRUST
from Angela Molnos? A PSYCHOTHERAPIST?S HARVEST
http://fox.klte.hu/~keresofi/psyth/psyhthr.html

And then, for comparison, see  [SYNANON is referenced]
http://www.heart7.net/thought-reforming-techniques.html
Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self
and the Impact of Thought Reforming Techniques
(c) The Cultic Studies Journal, Vol 3, N°1, 1986
(c) by Richard Ofshe, Ph.D. and Margaret T. Singer, Pb.D.


?....In all settings, participation, conformity, and demonstrations of apparently genuine change or zeal were rewarded. In the harshest settings, rewards would include some seemingly minor but contextually significant material advantages (Segal, 1957). In all settings (with the possible exception of P.O.W. camps) peer or jailer social support, acceptance, and friendship also followed incremental changes in the prescribed direction.
The role of peer interaction in the creation and manipulation of guilt and associated emotional states is acknowledged as crucial in understanding how a target's behavior was shaped (Lifton, 1961; Schein, 1961). The target's peers did the principal work in this shaping. They had two tools with which to mold the individual.
Targets could be subjected to various forms of punishment by peer groups. Although punishment might be physical, most often it took the form of group criticism of the individual's past or present social beliefs and behaviors. The target's peers could withdraw support, isolate him or her, and subject the target to seemingly endless negative feedback regarding deviations from proper ideological positions and prescribed behavior. In these criticism sessions, the target faced precisely those individuals on whom, due to circumstances, he or she was totally dependent for external validation of social identity. Peers acted in concert and aggressively criticized the target from a fixed standard of evaluation. Their focus was on any degree of deviation from absolute conformity to theoretical ideals of ideological understanding and behavior.
It was required that individuals make public to others within the group their life stories. This included prior social experience, family history, and family position. They were also obliged to reveal acts which, by the new moral code of the nearly new society, were deemed transgressions. The group's access to the target's social and political history provided a basis for inducing guilt in the individual for acts which, by the old society's standards, were proper or tolerable........?  


So, were Raps positive, growth facilitating experiences or brainwashing??  Or did this fluctuate?

[Son Of Serbia]

On 2005-04-11 19:27:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Then of course at the end - after some girl is sitting there from a tear jerking two hour discussion of the kid that put his finger in her butt in seventh grade and her father and everyone else's ass is completely numb - they give you a workie for not having something to say about it."

You want to hear something really nasty?  I actually heard a GUY tell almost the exact same story in a rap. Except instead of a finger,he shoved a carrot halfway up his ass, and held it there in front of an audience of his friends!
And yeah,after the kid talked, the staff went around the room asking everyone what they had to say about it.

When they asked me, I busted out laughing! I couldn't help it.  Honestly, I felt sorry for the kid, but then I got this mental picture of this fat, dopey, motherfucker bent over with a carrot sticking out his ass, and I couldn't help it.  I laughed my ass off!

Anyways, the rap facilitator: Patrick Stambusky, was outraged, as was the kid, and all the look goods in the room.  In fact everyone spent the entire remaining 2 hours of the rap either bitching at me, or crying & snotting on the floor about me.

As soon as the rap was done, Pat put me on couch restriction and indefinates (work assignments & dishes). Personally, I would never call moments like these "good times", but I will say that they do make for some interesting stories, as I'm sure you all agree.


.[ This Message was edited by: SON OF SERBIA on 2005-04-12 07:12 ]

[Anonymous]

if you want to understand this history - the "raps" (called "forums" at Cascade) were based on the Synanon Game. you can read about it here:

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia. ... nanon.html

cedu = charles e. dederich university. don't buy that see - do crap."

From the article:

"Encounter Groups:
Encounter Groups have less stigma than orthodox psychotherapy because they emphasize the idea of perfecting oneself rather than solving problems. Synanon therapeutic ideology focuses on behavior not the fundamental cognitive structure 23.



The Game
The Game was group psychotherapy for the whole community and served as a way to discuss organizational change 24. Members were grouped by a Synamaster, usually an older member tried to achieve a balance of female-male participants and a varying range of Synanon membership seniority. A basic game consisted of ten to fifteen members and a Synanist to facilitate the activity 25. The Synanist was someone who had shown the ablility to either control the symptoms of his addiction for a considerable time or seemed to be progressing at a faster rate than his peers 26.

The Game was an emotional and aggressive group meeting in which members attacked each other verbally. It was an open arena for voicing and airing problems with one another en route to finding a solution. Members were free and encouraged to be honest with their feelings and frustrations. The "attack" was seen as an expression of love 27. It presumably helped people to see themselves as others do and compelled them to examine their own thoughts and actions. The Synanist acted as moderator and tried to help the participants find themselves and would use such tactics as ridicule, cross-examination and hostile attack to further the session 28. It was estimated that the typical resident participated in three to four three-hour games per week 29.


Role-joining was a very important aspect of the Game and was used to progress the session. Role-joining was an agreement between two or more game members to combine their efforts to place an individual on the "hot seat." Once the plan was evident to the other members, they supported and aided in the scheme. Role-joining was essentially like joining a bandwagon and would result in all the session members joining forces against one of their own 30.


The Game is also the cornerstone around which the Synanon community was formed 31. It was key to Synanon government and created an in and out of game dichotomy. When "in the game," one was expected to criticize others and reveal any personal conflicts one might have with whoever was in the "hot seat." On the other hand, when "out of the game," one was supposed to portray a happy, pleasant, and helpful manner 32.


Members were also expected to follow the rules and standards established during Game sessions. Compliance to the norms expressed was rewared by material and social goods such as personal prestige or occupational mobility. Wealth and status symbols were regulated by the small group 33."

[Anonymous]

Believe me, if it only happened to you once, you got off lucky!  Yeah, I remember getting screamed at in raps, just about every one I was in! I hated cedu, and I knew the program was bullshit from day 1.  I vocalized these sentiments often, and this made me an easy target for the look goods.  I can honestly say that during my stay at Cedu-Rs, I had to have been the most requested student in raps.  Every ass-licker at RS knew to come after me when they wanted to deflect the heat off of their own asses.  



I'm proud to say that during my whole time at cedu I never attacked anyone in a rap, I only responded (quite harshly at times), and I never told the staff criminals anything of real substance about myself.  I was not going to give those creeps anything they could later use against me, like I saw them do to so many other kids.  



Raps were utterly pointles...nothing more than an excuse for jealous, bitter, adult-failures (cedu staff)to vent their frustration at unsuspecting teenagers.  Think about it. Kids who opened up, had that information used against them, and they were riddiculed with it until they broke down and were reduced to a screaming, sobbing, mucus dripping mess.  Kids who didn't talk in raps were likewise riddiculed, and were punished for it later.  There was no choice involved.  You either talked and accepted the verbal abuse, or you were still abused and then punished later for not talking.



There is nothing theraputic about raps.  In order for therapy to truly work, 2 elements are required. The 1st element is voluntary participation, therapy will never work unless you want it too, and are willing to make the effort. And 2nd, there has to be a level of trust between the client and therapist.  The client needs to feel safe to talk about their problems.  Again this information needs to be surrendered voluntarily, it can't be coerced.



Cedu Raps meet neither criteria.  Cedu raps were mandatory. Participation in raps was mandatory.  The climate of raps was built on fear, not trust.  People talked in raps because they were afraid of what would happen if they didn't, and many facilitators even warned the students of the consequences for not participating in advance!  



Raps are sick, and I for one am overjoyed that Cedu won't be having any more of them!"
[/quote]

Sounds like you functioned for the group as a scapegoat and it sounds like you kept your core self & humanity intact.  Good for you.

[Anonymous]

Did anyone make up stories about themselves just to get by or for relief from boredom?

[vortexwx]

I only remember that one rap I think because I blocked a lot of my time there out. Plus it was almost 20 years ago. I remember only a very small part of one propheet...where you walked around and everyone had to call each other the names we were called in school. I forget the rest of what happened.

Perhaps long-term memory loss isn't such a bad thing.

[Son Of Serbia]

On 2005-04-12 08:31:00, vortexwx wrote:

"I only remember that one rap I think because I blocked a lot of my time there out. Plus it was almost 20 years ago. I remember only a very small part of one propheet...where you walked around and everyone had to call each other the names we were called in school. I forget the rest of what happened.



Perhaps long-term memory loss isn't such a bad thing.

"

No disagreement here!

[Anonymous]

Yeah...sometimes I wouldn't have a fucking thing to say in a rap but I was well aware that the facilitator would just love to slap some pots and pans on whoever didn't have shit to say. So speaking of anal penetrations...I decided to share the story of how a kid on my JV hockey team at normal high school got called up to varsity, and they hazed the shit out of him by bending him over, lubing up the shaft of a hockey stick with icey hot, and you know how the rest goes. I talked about it like it deeply affected me...in the end I ended up on indefinite pots and pans.