A new book documenting the successful promotion of the Synanon Cult and Synanon based Therapeutic Communities in the USA, by Claire D. Clark, assistant professor of behavioral science, University of Kentucky.
Based extensively on selective archive
literature that promoted the Synanon Cult in the 1960s, alongside interviews
with former cult members and supporters working in the field of addiction
treatment, “The Recovery Revolution” presents an overview of the history of addiction
treatment in the USA.
Some sections of the book referring to
Alcoholics Anonymous are misleading. The Synanon/Therapeutic Communities “Act
as if” principle has been incorrectly attributed to A.A. on page 25. Also misleading
are statements made on pages 183 and 188, implying that journalist Jack
Alexander was among A.A. “skeptics” and “detractors”, and that the disease
model of addiction was originally proposed in the book “Alcoholics Anonymous.” These
highlight the challenge A.A. Public Information now face in correcting negative misconceptions about A.A. that appear in academic literature, which when taught
in universities, filter down to professionals and the general public.
The book has been criticised for failing to
adequately document the Synanon Cult’s fraudulent and violent activities and
the unethical marketing and abuse that has occurred in Synanon based
Therapeutic Community treatment facilities – See the following reviews of the
book by journalist Maia Szalavitz and lawyer Paul Morantz:
“Claire Clark “The Recovery Revolution”
Columbia Press 2017 Fake History – Synanon – A Book Review” by Paul Morantz: http://www.paulmorantz.com/cult/claire-clark-columbia-press-fake-history-synanon-a-book-review-once-on-amazon-but-somehow-removed/
Readers of the book are unlikely to gain much of an insight into the nature of Synanon's successful promotion, or the “battle over addiction treatment in the United States” without reading the history of the Synanon cult and Therapeutic Communities and how cults of the 1960s and 70s have since evolved in the following publications: “The Light on Synanon: How a Country Weekly Exposed a Corporate Cult and Won the Pulitzer Prize” by Dave & Cathy Mitchell and Professor Richard Ofshe, Seaview Books, 1980; “From Miracle to Madness: The true story of Charles Dederich and Synanon” by Paul Morantz, 2nd Edition, Cresta Publications, 2015; “Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids” by Maia Szalavitz, Riverhead Books, 2006; “Cults in our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace” by Professor Margaret Thaler Singer, 2nd Revised Edition, Jossey-Bass, 2003.
Despite its shortcomings the “Recovery
Revolution” does document in detail the extent to which the Synanon Cult and
its Therapeutic Community successors expanded and the extent of their political
influence in shaping government policies
on addiction treatment in the United States, from Synanon’s beginning in 1958
to the present rise of the Recovery Movement and Recovery Oriented Systems of Care.
Readers of the book are unlikely to gain much of an insight into the nature of Synanon's successful promotion, or the “battle over addiction treatment in the United States” without reading the history of the Synanon cult and Therapeutic Communities and how cults of the 1960s and 70s have since evolved in the following publications: “The Light on Synanon: How a Country Weekly Exposed a Corporate Cult and Won the Pulitzer Prize” by Dave & Cathy Mitchell and Professor Richard Ofshe, Seaview Books, 1980; “From Miracle to Madness: The true story of Charles Dederich and Synanon” by Paul Morantz, 2nd Edition, Cresta Publications, 2015; “Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids” by Maia Szalavitz, Riverhead Books, 2006; “Cults in our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace” by Professor Margaret Thaler Singer, 2nd Revised Edition, Jossey-Bass, 2003.
Unfortunately for A.A., the misuse of the book
“Alcoholics Anonymous” as an addiction treatment for decades by various
institutions, including Synanon Cult based Therapeutic Community institutions, has
meant that the battle over addiction treatment in the United States is one that
is also being fought within A.A.
Maybe one day, sociologists, psychiatrists,
and addiction treatment policy makers might work out that it wasn’t such a
bright idea to base an addiction treatment model on the ideas of a megalomaniac
alcoholic who thought A.A. meetings were “limited and really of no value”, who founded a destructive cult, who failed
to achieve permanent sobriety himself, and who was eventually convicted of
conspiracy to commit murder. That it
wasn’t such a bright idea also, to base addiction treatment models on a book called
“Alcoholics Anonymous” that was not intended to be an addiction treatment,
the title of which is also a registered trademark of Alcoholics Anonymous that
cannot legally be used by other organisations - including large corporations such as the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation for the purpose of selling their Minnesota Model and wares.
For a brief history of the Synanon Cult’s influence
on addiction treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous in the USA and Great Britain see
AA Minority Report 2017: “Synanon Cult influence on Alcoholics Anonymous, Addiction Treatment and the Criminal Justice System 1968-2017”
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