Editing Synanon (section)

== Beginnings ==
Synanon was founded in 1958 by Charles Dederich Sr., a member of [[Alcoholics Anonymous]] (AA) from [[Santa Monica, California|Santa Monica]], [[California]].<ref name=":2">{{cite web | title=The Story of This Drug Rehab-Turned-Violent Cult Is Wild, Wild Country-Caliber Bizarre | website=Los Angeles Magazine | date=2018-04-23 | url=https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/synanon-cult/ | access-date=2020-09-30}}</ref> At the time of Synanon's founding, those suffering from [[drug addiction]] were not always welcomed into AA because their issues were considered significantly different from those of [[alcoholism|alcoholics]]. Dederich, after taking [[LSD]],<ref name="longform.org">{{cite web |url=http://longform.org/posts/the-man-who-fought-the-synanon-cult-and-won |title=The Man Who Fought the Synanon Cult and Won |author= Matt Novak |work=Longform |date=29 September 2014 |access-date=2015-01-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128132506/http://longform.org/posts/the-man-who-fought-the-synanon-cult-and-won |archive-date=2015-01-28 |url-status=live }}</ref> decided to create his own program to respond to their needs. He was said to have coined the phrase "today is the first day of the rest of your life."<ref>Her life with "One Big Brother", ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'', March 19, 1999, Michael D. Clark</ref><ref name="morgan1999">{{Cite web |author=Morgan, Fiona | work = Salon | url=https://www.salon.com/1999/03/29/feature_398/ |title=One big dysfunctional family | date = 30 March 1999 |access-date=September 9, 2023 }}</ref> After his small group, called "Tender Loving Care", gained a significant following, Dederich [[incorporation (business)|incorporated]] the organization into the Synanon Foundation in 1958.<ref name="ofshe">Ofshe, Richard. "The Social Development of the Synanon Cult". ''Sociological Analysis'' 41.2 (1980): 109–127. Web.</ref>

The origins of the name "Synanon" are not entirely clear, with some claiming it to be the result of a group member slurring the words "symposium" and "seminar"<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Kobler |first=John |date=February 8, 1969 |title=The second coming of Synanon |url=https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/flipbooks/issues/19690208/ |work=The Saturday Evening Post |pages=32–35, 62–63}}</ref> and others simply describing it as a portmanteau of "symposium" and "anonymous". The word syndicate also means "an association of people or firms formed to promote a common interest or carry out a business enterprise".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The History of Synanon and Charles Dederich |url=http://www.paulmorantz.com/cult/the-history-of-synanon-and-charles-dederich/ |access-date=2023-04-18 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

Synanon began as a two-year residential program, but Dederich soon concluded that its members could never graduate, because a full recovery was impossible.<ref name=":3" /> The program was based on testimony of fellow group members about their tribulations and urges of relapsing, and their journeys to recovery.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The Synanon organization also developed a business that sold promotional items. This became a successful enterprise that for a time generated roughly $10 million per year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magill |first=Jenny |date=2022-04-04 |title=Playing the Game: The Origins and Impact of Synanon |url=https://www.breakingcodesilence.org/playing-the-game/ |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=BREAKING CODE SILENCE |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Synanon (Flowers of Darkness) 1.jpg|thumb|The Synanon facility during the 1960s]]
In 1959, Synanon moved from their small storefront to an abandoned [[arsenal|armory]] on the beach. In 1967, Synanon purchased the ''Club Casa del Mar'', a large beachside hotel in [[Santa Monica, CA|Santa Monica]], as its headquarters and a dormitory for those undergoing treatment for drug addiction. Later on, Synanon acquired a large building that had been the home of the Athens Athletic Club, in [[Oakland, California]], and then transformed it into a residential facility for Synanon's members.<ref name="janzen">Janzen, Rod A. ''The Rise and Fall of Synanon: A California Utopia''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2001. Print. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-4810-7}}</ref>

Professionals, even those without drug addictions, were invited to join Synanon. The New York psychiatrist [[Daniel Harold Casriel|Daniel Casriel M.D.]] visited in 1962, lived there in 1963, and wrote a book about his experiences. He later founded AREBA, the oldest surviving private addiction treatment center in the United States, as well as [[Daytop| Daytop Village]], one of the world's largest therapeutic communities.<ref>''So Fair A House: The story of Synanon'', New York: Prentice-Hall. 1963.{{ISBN?}}</ref>

Control over members occurred through the "Game". The "Game" was presented as a therapeutic tool, and likened to a form of [[group therapy]]; but it has been criticized as a form of a "[[social control]]", in which members humiliated one another and encouraged the exposure of one another's innermost weaknesses.<ref>[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20100701135057/http://www.thestraights.com/theprogram/synanon-story2.htm "Where did it come from?"], ''Synanon Church and the medical basis for the $traights, or Hoopla in Lake Havasu'', by Wes Fager, 2000.</ref>
Beginning in the mid-1970s, women in Synanon were required to shave their heads, and married couples were made to break up and take new partners. Men were given forced [[Vasectomy|vasectomies]], and a few pregnant women were forced to have [[abortion]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~skent/Linkedfiles/Cults%20and%20Families.pdf |title=Stephen A. Kent |work=ualberta.ca}}</ref><ref>
[http://www.kidsofelpaso.com/about/kidstimeline.html Kids of El Paso]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080210165004/http://www.kidsofelpaso.com/about/kidstimeline.html |date=2008-02-10 }}.  Timeline 1958–2003 and present-day litigation information.
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[[Leonard Nimoy]] taught drama classes to members of Synanon partly as a result of the role he played in the production of ''[[Deathwatch (1965 film)|Deathwatch]]'', a 1965 English-language film version of [[Jean Genet]]'s play [[Deathwatch (play)|''Haute Surveillance'']] (the story deals with three prison inmates). Nimoy is quoted as saying "Give a little here and it always comes back".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://arcadiapublishing.com/products/9780738585451|isbn=978-0-738-58545-1|last=Branham|first=Stacy L.|title=Nevada State Prison|publisher=Arcadia Publishing |publication-date=2012|page=50}}</ref>

The film director [[George Lucas]] needed a large group of people with shaved heads for the filming of his movie ''[[THX 1138]]'' and hired some of his extras from Synanon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pollock |first=Dale |title=Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas |page=100|year=1999 |publisher=Da Capo |isbn=0-306-80904-4 }}</ref> [[Robert Altman]] hired members of Synanon to be extras for the gambling scenes in his movie ''[[California Split]]''.<ref name=reid>
{{cite news 
  | last = Reid
  | first = Max
  | title = The Making of ''California Split'': An Interview with Robert Altman
  | pages = 26
  | publisher = Filmmakers Newsletter
  | date = October 1974
}}
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