I don't know about all that. The only contact I had w/ LIFE was going to school with a couple of girls from there and a 2 hour intake interview, which I walked away from.
In school, we weren't allowed to talk to them but they were allowed to talk to us. They were also allowed to wear makeup.
The intake was pretty much the same as a Straight intake, except that I was 18 and HRS and the local DA were hot on abusive practices in these programs at the time. I didn't know all that. I knew I was 18, though, and that I wasn't having any more of this shit.
I did get the feeling that they were a lot less brutal. More love bombing, less physical pain. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't a total mindfuck for those who did sign in. I have a hard time believing that Helen Peterman and George Ross somehow learned to treat substance abuse, quit accepting non addicted kids and quit being the berzerkers they were so prone to be when they worked at The Seed and/or Straight. They certainly took it on faith that I was an addict.
Never let your sense of
morals get in the way of
doing what's right
--Isaac Asimov