Fornits

Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Joe's Apartment => Topic started by: Antigen on September 11, 2003, 09:31:00 PM

Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Antigen on September 11, 2003, 09:31:00 PM
I'm curious about something. How much of the vocabulary from the various programs overlaps vocabulary from others? Anyone care to join me in exploring this issue?

Here's an example of the words and phrases redefined by Straight.

Justify: as in "You're justifying yourself" or "quit trying to justify ______."
Definition: Thinking critically about whether or not you are at fault in a particular action or circumstance.
Example: "I hit the SOB because I found out he'd been fucking my 14yo sister."

[myriad youths flap their arms in a wild manner, like seagulls on acid, trying to garner favor with the staffer who will call on the first angry mob member to confront the errant newcomer]  

"Quit trying to justify yourself! Ya' know? You put your step dad through total hell with your shit! And he still cares enough to put you into a place like this to save your life. You're selfish, you know that. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of seeing you sponge off the group and feel sorry for yourself. You did the necessary things to get yourself put in here, ya know! Don't try justifying yourself by blaming your dad cause this group has awareness and we're not gonna buy it! You don't know how to handle problems without acting like the druggie animal you are. But this group loves you and we'll be here for you, busting your ass, till you decide to get Honest(tm*) and start getting Straight!

Staff: Love ya Joe!
Group, in unison: Love ya, Joe!
Staff: Who's next?

How does your cult define the word "justify"? Or is there another word they bind to the above definition?

* Tune in for the next exciting episode of Fornits Vocabulary Bee, where I may attempt to inform those of you without Awareness(tm) on the true definition of the word Honesty(tm)!

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
--Albert Einstein



_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
American drug war P.O.W.
   10/80 - 10/82
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
Anonymity Anonymous

[ This Message was edited by: Ginger on 2003-11-18 14:51 ]
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Nobody on September 11, 2003, 09:57:00 PM
:lol:

Two reasons for starting this thread. One, as stated, I've just been real curious about lingo lately. I saw the progression, firsthand, from The Seed to Straight and, years later, have recognized a lot of the old lingo various people who come around here through different variants of the Program. I know that The Seed and CEDU were both based on Synanon and that's where a lot of the lingo comes from. A lot of that, as it is, derives from AA. So I'm just curious as to how the language has progressed.

Then I had to try and pick a forum in which this topic sould best fit. Only the politics fans ever post to Open Free For All. And here's this cleverly named forum filled with tumbleweed and moldy old archives, I though it was as good a place as any to start something and send out an invitation.

Which brings me to my second point: I just changed this forum to disallow anon posting after repeated and passionate requests from people who want it. If there's that much demand for it, I figure, then it must be a good idea. So here it is.

Locate the blind spot in the culture--the place where the culture isn't looking, because it dare not--because if it were to look there, its previous values would dissolve.
Terence McKenna

Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Paul St. John on September 12, 2003, 07:44:00 PM
In Daytop, 'justify' had the same meaning, and not only that, but that whole thing that you wrote there basically was right out of a meeting in Daytop.

My memory was not actually as clear on all that shit..

OMG, what a F***ing flashback!  :wink:



Paul St. John
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Antigen on September 13, 2003, 12:51:00 AM
Yeah, I knew Daytop was a direct (or possibly once removed) Synanon spin off. And some of us have wondered if Seed founder, Art Barker, wasn't a Daytop alumni.

What were the Daytop definitions of Honesty and Awareness? And were you ever in a bag? I bet you were never gamey.

What I really wonder about, though, is the WWASP lexicon. Some years ago, when I first heard about WWASP from a segment on 48 hours, I found out that, half a continent and some decades away from my warped little slice of utopia, kids were no longer destined to be dead, insane or in jail without the saving grace of the Program. Instead, they would be dead, insane or in the gutter. I've always wondered about the progression. Did Art change it (before or after he got a few cops and judges kids in Group) or did WWASP change it afterward?



We must create an atmosphere where the crooked cop fears the honest cop, and not the other way around.
Frank Serpico

Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Carmel on September 16, 2003, 03:28:00 PM
I always hated "Taking Responsibility".  It was some sort of level of enlightenment that you were suppposed to obtain during some time on your phases....most likely whenever staff decided to let you.  Taking Responsibility was supposed to mean owning up to your actions (see "clearing things up")and being honest about what you had done and how doing it had made you feel.  Of course, feeling GOOD about what you did was never an option. So even if you were honest about feeling good, you ceased to be taking responsibility because you werent supposed to feel good about anything, ever.  So it was this sort of ugly black hole that I peered down into every time I was stood up to be confronted.  YOU BETTER TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! Okay, here goes nothin....

It was the one thing that I found to be truly insane at the time....cause no matter how hard I tried, I could never take responsibility the way I was supposed to in order to keep the staff member from ripping me even more.  I saw it done once or twice, but never while I was standing up.  

Some others were "take a good look at yourself", "apply it to yourself"....

There was also the one act of so-called "clicking" we were allowed to perform sometimes that involved the patting of the back of your hand when you didnt think someone was crying hard enough, yelling loud enough, or...Taking Responsibility, to name a few.  It meant that the person responding was being "pat" or weak.
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: ehm on September 18, 2003, 03:28:00 PM
Powerlessness
Let Go and Let your Higher Power (or God)
Hold accountable
Humbling yourself
Make Amends
Work your program
One day at a time...


Words in general sound 'program' to me now.
like the words, issues & confront.

It's not the words themselves as much as the context that makes them so.

The words 'confrontation' and 'responsabilities' have been jaded for me, along with some others.

I started trying to stop talking like that as soon as I left Straight.

PS - "You don't try to do something, you just do it!"
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Froderik on September 19, 2003, 11:06:00 PM
In VA straight, the phrase "settin' in yer crap" was used a lot by parents during open meetings when addressing kids that weren't "progressing", which is a word that is jaded for me...

How about, "I have alot of 'feeluns' about that"

"Get real!"...

"Looking at things through rose-colored glasses" meant romanticizing your druggie past...

BTW - There are a lot of terms that were used at straight listed (with their usage) on the Yahoo Alumni site in the Database section under "straight lingo"
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Carmel on September 22, 2003, 05:17:00 PM
"Pushing feelings"

This one was great, cause you were expected to cry when you talked about your past.  And if you didnt cry with the right level of sincerity, then you were pushing feelings.  This of course gave the group and staff 50 millions justifications for ripping you a new asshole.

Speaking of justifications, "Justifying something off" was another one....finding a reason to make it okay that you rocked out or looked at a guys ass or put one extra spoonful of peanut butter on your bread for lunch.

There was a time when all the fifth phasers used the same structure for a confrontation, like a mad lib or something....

"____ stand up! Im so sick and tired of people coming in here and messing around with this group (brilliant)!!!!  You need to get honest and take responsibility for whatever it is that you have been holding back (usually, unless they actually HAD dirt on you).  It really PISSES ME OFF (acentuated by spitting or screaming so loud their voice cracked) that you are messing around with this group (more brilliance!).....(insert normal talking voice here as if they were perfectly calm)....And you know _____, I really love and care about you and hope that you can get honest and take care of yourself, (blah blah meanigless loving admonitions.....) LOVE YA ______!!

That was the textbook confrontation...word for word. And it usually came from at least 3 different 5th pahsers before you got to talk.  

Yeah, let me tell you...I woke ever morning with all the intentions of going in there and messing around with the group. I mean, what the fuck is that?  Like I thought I could get away with it?  And let me tell you something else...it meant everything to me to get that extra spoonful of peanut butter past the attention of the 5th phasers!

Please.
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Paul St. John on September 23, 2003, 01:02:00 AM
What were the Daytop definitions of Honesty and Awareness?

*Hmmm.. Let me see if I can remember.  Honesty meant sinking into the lowest level of yourself, if I remember correctly.

Awareness, meant nothing.  The word used all of the time, by the members and the staff, but none of them even knew what teh fuck it meant.

"Where's your awareness?"
" You betta get some awareness."

It should have menat being aware, which is a personal thing, but in there in meant, how well, you thought and acted like them.


And were you ever in a bag?

*  I totally remember that term, but I can t remember what it meant... mighta meant hiding your feelings or something.. can t remember.

I bet you were never gamey.

*  They didn t have that term, but if you fucked around the other sex, either physically, or I think even if you were just flirting, it was referred to as " playing games"


Ginger, I cannot tell ya how much that term pissed me off. How fucking demeaning!!



Paul St. John
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Antigen on September 23, 2003, 08:09:00 AM
Yup, same thing. "Awareness" meant having fully and completely accepted the doctrine so that it became first, not second nature. Also, it meant doing a thorough job of intimidating your newcomers and fellow oldcomers by watching their every move for just one false one to report up the chain of command.

"In a bag" meant in a bad mood; can't have been a healthy response to what was going on, had to be a flaw or failing in you.

My brother said he remembered the day when the term "gamey" was coined at The Seed. That would have been sometime in the early `70's in Ft. Lauderdale.

It's obnoxious to ask law enforcement to follow the law. That's insulting to every cop.

--John Lovell, lobbyist for the California police chief's association

Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Paul St. John on September 25, 2003, 12:32:00 AM
Quote
On 2003-09-23 05:09:00, Antigen wrote:

"Yup, same thing. "Awareness" meant having fully and completely accepted the doctrine so that it became first, not second nature.


Yep.. First .. not second.. e very important distinction.


 Also, it meant doing a thorough job of intimidating your newcomers and fellow oldcomers by watching their every move for just one false one to report up the chain of command.



"In a bag" meant in a bad mood; can't have been a healthy response to what was going on, had to be a flaw or failing in you.



LOL!  Remember that now.


My brother said he remembered the day when the term "gamey" was coined at The Seed. That would have been sometime in the early `70's in Ft. Lauderdale.

Meant the same thing?  flirting, etc.?




It's obnoxious to ask law enforcement to follow the law. That's insulting to every cop.

--John Lovell, lobbyist for the California police chief's association


"
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Tampa survivor on October 01, 2003, 11:30:00 PM
GET IN TOUCH WITH YOURSELF!!!!!
 ok
So, I went home and flogged the dolphin...
not ok.  
 You are pushing your feelings down about this.
well, no, I was pushing AND pulling my feelings...
 now your being GAMEY Bill!!!!
Oh, my girlfreind is gamey after she GETS IN TOUCH WITH HERSELF but not me....
Well, you NEED TO WORK YOUR PROGRAM, BIll!!!
 But windows hasn't been invented yet and DOS is too confusing on an 8088 platform...
Bill
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Therion on February 02, 2004, 06:00:00 AM
I was always "Hiding in the woodwork"

I never was a misbehavor ..but had a 6 month 1st just due to the fact 1) I was shy 2) I was an 13 year old horn dog that started at girls constantly..

They used to stand me up and go through the girls side and have them all confront me and tell me how theyd never have anything to do with me.  ::argue::  ::argue::  ::argue::

Funny I could have slept with 3 of them in the immediate 5 years after straight.
 ::kiss::  ::kiss::  ::kiss::
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: xres8182 on April 07, 2004, 11:31:00 AM
Rationalize was a key term in elan philosophy,much like your use of justify
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Antigen on April 07, 2004, 11:44:00 AM
Yup, we used "rationalize" the same way. Also, it was a cardinal rule that we not "intellectualize" anything. For all intents and purposes (NOT "intensive purposes"!), thinking was against the rules.

Step 1. We came to understand that the government is powerless over people's private use of drugs and that the War on Drugs was making the government's life unmanageable.

--Scott Tillinghast

Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Carmel on April 19, 2004, 12:02:00 PM
Sponging off the group.

I always got a great visiual of this one.   It meant you werent contributing anything, or shining out.  it also went for misbehaving, which I never could understand...because the misbehavers werent sponging anything off of anything.  They werent benefitting from sitting around in group all day.  Neither were the working people either, but thats beside the point.

Question on awareness....

When being aware of newcomers, were you guys all required to literally have your eyes on them at all times?  Like actually in full view every single second?  We did.  There was not even any peripheral vision awareness allowed.  You had to have your eyes on them no matter what, even if there were six of them.  I created all sorts of neat contortionist tricks in order to do this.  

I was just curious if it was different in the different programs.  I know that when the LA people came to Dallas, they had a way more lax definition of being aware....and we all spent weeks agonizing over how to treat this breaking of the comandments!  You could get put on a refresher for turning your back on a newcomer for any reason.  The first time I saw a 5th phaser from LA do it, I almost shit myself.
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Cayo Hueso on April 19, 2004, 12:24:00 PM
"PAT"...what the hell is that??  When someone would stand up in group and say something that didn't satisfy either staff or the group...if they said what others considered to be generic it was called "being pat".  I never got that.

Shining...that's another one.  Newcomers had to "shine" before they could go home.  With all the sweat and greasy teenage faces, we were ALL shining ALL the time. :scared: Oh NO :roll:


and all those stupid sign language signals when someone was talking....i.e wrap it up (swirl your index finger in the air), can't hear you (waving your arm back and forth), apply it to yourself (pointing your finger at your head with great emphasis), wake up (fourth phasers to front row...stare at the offender and flick all fingers outward, as in open your eyes), pay attention (looking at the offender and pointing to the person speaking).

Necessity never made a good bargain
--Benjamin Franklin Apr. 1734

Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Hell on Wheels on May 19, 2004, 08:33:00 AM
wow, all these schools must have went to cult-speak 101. CEDU was a lot the same, we called them CEDUisms. I loved the new kids first raps, the confused look on their face was priceless, as I'm sure my face was when I was a new kid
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: shanlea on June 20, 2004, 01:47:00 AM
What about "running your thinking"  Running your fear"  etc.  

I always hated the "what are you doing to your little girl?".  They meant the little girl inside me.  Well, the little girl was miserable and just wanted to grow up.  Besides, after my first rap, that little girl innocence was gone, gone, gone.

Holy crap, that first rap!! I felt like I was hit by a grenade and I didn't even participate. I mean DEEP SHOCK!!!  THe abuse, the drama, the tales of screwing animals and covering yourself w/shit. It's not like I fell off the turnip truck.. I was an experimental teen--just not w/animals and feces. I'm not judging I'm just saying it was shock city. All the puking and snotty noses and bullying into submission. WHOA!
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Nihilanthic on June 21, 2004, 08:05:00 AM
Sorry to threadjack here...

...but would it be possible to do some sort of a writeup about how the raps and other forms of pysch abuse... the "break them down" part of these places work?

When I try to explain waht the raps are and how this works by degrading/destroying the people stuck inside, I often have trouble doing so. It might help me explain this to the average person, and to my local authorities (I know they'll ask a ton of questions) and I could also give it to askquestions.org.

And by the way...  :eek: jesus christ this shit just gets worse the more I read about it.

Anyway, I'm off to court, later everyone. (I just LOVE the system!)[ This Message was edited by: Nihilanthic on 2004-06-21 05:07 ]
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Sid Vicious on July 15, 2004, 10:23:00 AM
Quote
On 2004-04-07 08:44:00, Antigen wrote:

"Yup, we used "rationalize" the same way. Also, it was a cardinal rule that we not "intellectualize" anything. For all intents and purposes (NOT "intensive purposes"!), thinking was against the rules.

Step 1. We came to understand that the government is powerless over people's private use of drugs and that the War on Drugs was making the government's life unmanageable.

--Scott Tillinghast


"


Or you could say "the war on drugs and terrorism is giving the government the perfect excuse to ignore everyone's rights and become the fourth order (Hitler being the third)"
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Rachael on March 02, 2005, 02:00:00 AM
I survived AARC (Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre), the (as far as I know) farthest down the chain of the ubiquitous Straight, Kids, Seed line.

Pretty much every term I saw posted was used in AARC. Especially "pushing feelings", "rationalizing" , "in my past".

Also, I had exactly the same experience my first night w/ respect to the term "relate". I said to another "client": I empathize with .... Not only should I have said "I relate", but I was also "intellectualizing". Never before in my life as the daughter of an English prof had I been chastized for having used a three-syllable word. I never could force myself to speak AARCish, although I tried.

Also, before AARC, I never used swear-words to express myself. I found that I was "intellectualizing" if I didn't though.
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: Goodtobefree on February 15, 2006, 05:34:00 AM
Let's see what I can rememember.  Rules were always referred to as agreements.  The 3 main ones were the drug sex and violence agreements.  To be "out of agreement" meant you had broken an agreement and had not yet confessed or been caught.
Punishments for infractions were called consequences.  If these punishments involved exercise they were called P.T. or physical training.
The wilderness/soulcrushing portion of the program was called Base Camp, or Passages.  You progressed through a complex system of ranks named after animals by completing a variety of tasks such as memorizing the values the animal symbolized, and what this meant in the program, reading short stories and discussing their meaning with counselors, completing camping tasks like making a fire with 2 sticks and cooking meals, writing assignments on why you were at ASR and how you intended to stop being a nasty little fucker, etc.  Depending on your rank you could have certain spices in your food, or sugar on your oatmeal.
The main therapy terms tossed around were "patterns", kinda self explanatory, your typical responses to given situations.  To be "going into your patterns" meant to be acting in a way believed to be characteristic of your unhealthy lifestyle and/or your counterproductive attitude.
"Image" meant the stereotypical image of the social group people believed you were a part of pre-ASR.  Hippie, punk, prep, jock, thug, etc. Unfortunately counselors were sometimes woefully uneducated and judgmental about youth cultures.  If a kid listened to Marylin Manson, he'd spend the next 14 months being hassled for being in denial about being a satanist.  It was also used as an adjective.  "You're being imagey."
To speak about your past in a manner that didn't conform to ASR ideals was called "Warstorying, or telling war stories".
"Bans" a ban on communication.  You're not allowed to talk to...  It could be 1 person, half the school, etc.  depending on circumstances.  "Stop talking to each other, you're on bans."
Restrictions came in 3 flavors, Reflections, Challenges, and Self-Studies.  Reflections were usually just a series of writing assignments and talks with a counselor and/or students who'd committed the same infraction.  Challenges had all of the above, plus a few more.  No recreational activity.  Bans with all other restricted students at a bare minimum.  Work detail, such as shoveling snow or unpleasant cleaning duties such as the kitchen in summer.  Self-Studies had all of the above plus bans with either all or almost all students.  A self study meant you were an infraction away from being recommended for a more intensive facility.
On campus there were a lot more vocabulary terms.  Once you got to campus you were assigned a "Peer Group".  Between 10 and 18 kids and 2 counselors.  Enrollment was rotational, so peer groups were formed as kids got to campus.  Peer groups went through the psychological curriculum together, though you might not necessarily have any academic classes with peer group members, since ages ranged from 14 to 19.
The curriculum involved four LGAT seminars called "lifesteps", with "educational seminars" on topics such as STD's, Drugs, Learning Disabilities, and Goal Setting.  Depending on your progress you were either in upper or lower school.  The dividing line was whether you'd been through the 2nd lifestep.  Upper school kids were expected to accept program doctrine unquestioningly, and enforce it on the lower school kids.
Some of the therapy terms were "games", i.e. manipulative techniques we employ on others.  If you try to get what you want through intimidation that's the "intimidation game".  If you did anything out of the ordinary, you were probably playing the "attention game".
"Intellectualizing" meant applying logic and reason to something.  Pointing out inconsistencies in rules or practices meant you were "intellectualizing"
"Rationalizing" or "Justifying" meant trying to explain yourself or your belief system.
"Truth lists" were written confessions of any and all infractions you hadn't confessed to or been caught for, as well as any you knew about.  They were the first thing you did on every restriction, before every lifestep, and anytime a counselor thought you were lying.
That's about all I remember at the moment.
Title: Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Post by: flygirl on February 28, 2006, 01:28:00 PM
[ This Message was edited by: flygirl on 2006-04-26 06:26 ]