Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

Looks very much like GGI represents, at the very least, a cornerstone of many troubled teen programs.  Certain early experimental troubled teen program models who’s methodology is documented, such as Provo Experiment in Delinqency Rehabilitation, and The Silverlake Experiment, refer to GGI as being the adopted model. The Highfields experimenal treatment project for youthful offenders was the first of this kind, by Lloyd McCorkle, using Guided Group Interaction, which was first used to treat delinquent soldiers.


I don’t know exactly how many worms are in this can, but so far this is what I see in there.


For starters I’ll give my impression of  Lloyd McCorkle’s book, “The Highfields Story: An Experimental Treatment Project for Youthful Offenders. 1958”  Generally, I am struck by the familiar feel it has with descriptions of thought reform and human relations training, it really walks and quacks just like those things. So far I’ve not seen evidence that GGI was developed as a merger of those things other than within the evolution of program history itself.


For a prospective troubled teen program owner this book would be rewarding I think, however as a research piece into programs the bouquet leaves something to be desired. The scope of the work done emphasizes it’s own limitations when it says

“There are two kinds of rules at Highfields: general or formal rules, of which there are only two; and informal rules, which are innumerable…..  It may be that one of the employees decides to put a rule into effect in order to make his own work more efficient. If he feels it is of sufficient importance to require the approval of  the director, he will discuss it with him. Ordinarilly, however, this is not necessary.” P.60


In reference, the only two “general, formal” rules at Highfields were not being able to leave he property without adult accompaniment, and not permitted to engage in conversation with female patients at the state hospital where they work, a regiment of Highfields.


So the scope of this work is limited to the general model of the program, and describes little of the creative possibilities  in the “informal” category, in which the Provo Experiment may show more diversity.


Like just about any program, Highfields centers around regular group therapy sessions, 3-7 days a week and 2-4 hours at a time, these are the Guided Group Interaction sessions. Unfortunately, this is the area which is lacking in detail, understandably so, though, those are left to the professors of psychology and sociology.  And so the book describes the basic, uncreative, process of reform in GGI.


“Guided Group Interaction is based on psychological and sociological conceptions. But psychological and sociological terms are not used in the sessions.

Only two concepts are voiced by the boys. The first is that of “problem”. What is my problem? How did I become a problem to myself and others? How can I go about to solve my problem?

The second concept is that of progress. Have I made progress in solving my problem?  Am I making progress in solving my problem?” P.vii


And it is obvious in cases that GGI at Highfields makes use of rules that pit one another in a therapeutic game. A competition to progress and graduate from Highfields. The limited transcripts of the sessions were quite indicative of that, and there are quite a few other notable points in this book.

But like I said, can o worms, general impression.

Can you describe the work you had to do, Gandolflundgren?

I think someone who deserves an honorable mention here is none other than cult exterminator extraordinaire, vanquisher of Synanon, Paul Morantz. Paul Morantz is a lawyer who has handled some high profile cult cases, notably successfully suing Synanon.


Although on Paul’s website he helpfully suggest reading through the material in a certain chronological order,  http://www.paulmorantz.com/cult/suggest ... t-section/    I am skipping ahead to his great story about the Center for Feeling Therapy, “what the L.A. Times called “the longest, costliest, and most complex psychotherapy malpractice case in California history.” Great read, as relevant as his work on Synanon. Here it is


ESCAPE FROM THE CENTER FOR FEELING THERAPY (THE CULT OF CRUELTY) - http://www.paulmorantz.com/cult/escape- ... f-cruelty/

.

Lets connect the dots. In 1953 Cia director Allen Dulles authorizes Mk ultra. He contacts Harold Wolff to conduct studies on brainwashing, which he does with Lawrence Hinkle. It wasn’t until 1955 until Wolff heads up the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, the cia front, operating until 1965, and with which many notable figures were affiliated with.

This is a paper from 1957 by Hinkle and Wolff called, “The Methods of Interrogation and Indoctrination Used by the Communist State Police” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1806200/

It begins, “Scientific interest in the methods used by communist state police was stimulated by the experiences of the United Nations prisoners of war during the Korean campaign. Since then a considerable body of information has been assembled through the efforts of many investigators. Our knowledge of these methods was obtained during an investigation carried out from 1954 to 1956 with the collaboration of the United States Department of Defense.”

So anyways, Hinkle and Wolff’s paper speaks for itself I think, and it is clear then that Mk ultra was very interested in thought reform, and I think this matters when evaluating Carl Rogers’ work and influence.

I Found a link to the article, “Carl Rogers and the CIA”,  originally from the journal of humanistic psychiatry.  This is not only telling as it concerns Rogers, but also the others working with The Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology (later called The Human Ecology Fund) which was one of the main CIA front groups along with the Josiah Macy Foundation used to funnel money through for mk-ultra research.  This is pretty interesting perspective on this history considering the source.


CARL ROGERS AND THE CIA   http://pcayorks.blogspot.com/2010/03/ca ... s-cia.html

Summary

Carl Rogers was a pioneer and leader in the humanistic psychol- ogy movement. Although his many professional activities and accomplishments are well known, the story of his association with the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology—a front orga- nization for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)—is barely known and has never been explored in any depth. This article attempts to tell that story in the context of America during the 1950s, Rogers’s academic career, and the mission of the CIA.

got2bme, I relate very much to your story, and like you had a disturbing experience when I finally stumbled upon some information that triggered my memory of what happened.  My program, Cedu, had quite a bit in common with Daytop, one such thing was the marathon group.   They pressured you in different ways, and used trickery even, to get you to reveal early traumas, shameful acts or feelings of inadequacy.  It’s hard to explain because generally in the program confession was such a constant demand that you always had to be armed with something to say, but somehow in the marathons (we called them propheets) they very strategically got me to say some things I really didn’t want to, and there were lots of things I did not want to hear about others.  It was traumatic to me for different reasons, but it mostly left me with a lot of anxiety and destroyed my faith in myself and others.  There was no real ‘help’, the promise was a sham. But I had already handed them my soul, submitted my defective nature before theirs.  The argument would always be more right that …” it is not the program that doesn't work, it is that you are not working hard enough on confronting your issues.” And I actually believed that too.


Thanks for offering your story on here got2bme, it is tragic. to me it is sort of classic reason for why forcing therapy on someone, making them confront a trauma before they are ready, is dangerous and wrong, especially using such methods as marathons.  I think a lot of kids were harmed in a similar way.

OMG! all the program CEO's disappeared!

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE- WHEN PROPHECY FAILS   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails


Cognitive dissonance

Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance can account for the psychological consequences of disconfirmed expectations. One of the first published cases of dissonance was reported in the book, When Prophecy Fails (Festinger et al. 1956). Festinger and his associates read an interesting item in their local newspaper headlined "Prophecy from planet Clarion call to city: flee that flood." A housewife from Chicago (changed to "Michigan" in the book), given the name "Marian Keech" (real name: Dorothy Martin, later known as Sister Thedra[1]), had mysteriously been given messages in her house in the form of "automatic writing" from alien beings on the planet Clarion. These messages revealed that the world would end in a great flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. Mrs. Keech had previously been involved with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics movement, and her cult incorporated ideas from what was to become Scientology.[2] The group of believers, headed by Keech, had taken strong behavioral steps to indicate their degree of commitment to the belief. They had left jobs, college, and spouses, and had given away money and possessions to prepare for their departure on the flying saucer, which was to rescue the group of true believers.

Premise of study

Festinger and his colleagues saw this as a case that would lead to the arousal of dissonance when the prophecy failed. Altering the belief would be difficult, as Keech and her group were committed at considerable expense to maintain it. Another option would be to enlist social support for their belief. As Festinger wrote, "If more and more people can be persuaded that the system of belief is correct, then clearly it must after all be correct." In this case, if Keech could add consonant elements by converting others to the basic premise, then the magnitude of her dissonance following disconfirmation would be reduced. Festinger and his colleagues predicted that the inevitable disconfirmation would be followed by an enthusiastic effort at proselytizing to seek social support and lessen the pain of disconfirmation.


... present day

YAHOO NEWS-
Apocalypse believers await end, skeptics carry on


 New York's Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when the six o'clock hour simply came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.

"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here."
Many followers said the delay was a further test from God to persevere in their faith.

"It's still May 21 and God's going to bring it," said Family Radio's special projects coordinator Michael Garcia, who spent Saturday morning praying and drinking two last cups of coffee with his wife at home in Alameda. "When you say something and it doesn't happen, your pride is what's hurt. But who needs pride? God said he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble."  -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110522/ap_ ... FseXBzZWJl

I recognize a lot of what is said in the last few posts. The anxiety related to confrontation, the acts of self preservation taken in the face of those threats that are self destructive or destructive to others, the social distortion from ‘working’ or ‘gaming’ the program in a way that insinuates you are ‘fake’ or ‘out of touch with yourself’ and challenge you to continually express a more ‘genuine’ belief in the program philosophy, which becomes the interpersonal game.


I remember that much of the time people were more willing to attack themselves than defend themselves against others if you were anticipating being ‘blown away’ in raps.  Alot of direct attacks took place under the presupposition that someone’s behaviors, attitudes, and emotions made it an ‘unsafe’ environment for the rest of the group to ‘open up’ and ‘work’ on themselves. If their was nothing to confront each other about, we would have to talk about our issues, I don’t know, I still can’t tell how much of any of that was really genuine or if the game of acting ‘genuine’ just got so out of control no one could guage interpersonal reality anymore.


I seem to remember it all beginning with arriving in the clutches of other students who were enforcing the (mostly trivial) rules with that attitude of ‘just do it, this is how you get by here, trust me just play along and you’ll be better off.’ And so I did, and I learned how to stay ‘under the radar’ by learning to ‘genuinely’ be in line with the program. Next thing I knew it was me guiding the new student through in the same way ‘trust me just play along, I’ll help you get by’.  Somewhere around here I think I lost my bearings on reality and started gaming myself, and distrusting my instincts.



…I had already heard several relatable stories before this thread, I just haven’t heard it equated with dissociation. One aspect of this that I don’t want to ignore is that evidence suggests many programs intended to create a dissociative effect.  Eruptions of ptsd symptoms are commonly associated with stimuli that were present during the dissociated event called triggers. Confrontation can be one of those triggers. Though I know little else about Gatekeeper other than he attended Cedu, I am sure the mere mention of a particular song or two (correct me if I am wrong) will have him recalling some very particular, maybe very private memories of the cedu experience.  It could possibly even re- cathect a personality that was adopted as a defensive response to the situation. And is it possible that that was the point? (What’s your little kid’s name Gatekeeper? Don’t answer that.) During the propheets they would play the same songs over and over for hours.  These songs were pretty much the only music we were allowed to hear the whole time at cedu. And it is pretty much impossible to hear any of that music without recollecting that place. I think it is quite purposely to install reactive triggers that work just like ptsd.  




…. One last thing I would note about Cedu ‘brainwashing’ so to speak, is that it began by infecting you with the notion that you had already been brainwashed. You were a fake or a ‘lie’ and you didn’t even know it, and if you didn’t believe it you would at least act like it. You were literally considered to be ‘in your shit’ if you imbibed any of your previous interests and attitudes.  There was another thread on fornits something like ‘why you can’t fake it’. That is true, you couldn’t fake it.