Maia Szalavitz explains on TheFix how AA Groups become cults - from Synanon to Straight Inc. to today’s Washington, DC, Midtown Group

JR Harris's picture
Submitted by JR Harris on Tue, 08/28/2012 - 14:35

Have you ever thought that the Alcoholics Anonymous group you are in might be a cult? If you think your AA group may be a cult, it probably is. Maia Szalavitz explains how a benevolent self-help group can easily become a very dangerous manipulative cult and the warning signs to look for.

Cult Culture and the 12 Steps

A small but significant number of 12-step groups—from AA to addiction treatment centers—turn into dangerous cults. How can working the program take a wrong turn?

By Maia Szalavitz - 08/27/12

12-step programs—with their clichéd language, frequent meetings and religious mien—are cults. So say many critics. But in fact, the traditions of AA, NA and the other As are intentionally structured to prevent their members from crossing that line. Nonetheless, there is a reliable way to use the steps to create a full-fledged destructive cult.

Cults are not simply weird or dangerous religious groups, according to those who study groups that have had disastrous outcomes, like Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, which ended in mass member suicide, and the Branch Davidians, which ended in a fiery siege by federal agents. Instead, cults are self-enclosed organizations that use a well-defined set of coercive persuasion tactics.

These typically include isolating people physically and emotionally from friends and family, breaking them down emotionally and taking total control over their environment, movement and finances. Because these procedures can also characterize rehab, residential treatment itself without proper oversight carries a risk for creating cultlike behavior.

However, since 12-step programs in the community aren’t residential, can’t physically isolate people or take their life savings—and because they are formally leaderless—they have little risk of becoming the next Jonestown, Guyana, or Waco, Texas.

But the repeated development of cults or near-cults—from Synanon to Straight Inc. to today’s Washington, DC, Midtown Group—based on the steps is not coincidental. The reason is a toxic compound created when AA’s voluntary steps are twisted so that they can be imposed by force, especially in settings where people cannot escape. Chuck Dederich, the founder of Synanon, was the first to recognize the power of this recipe for subjugating people and creating followers. Indeed, Synanon was the model for every “therapeutic community” (TC) in the US, including mainstream leaders like Phoenix House and Daytop.

Originally hailed in the 1950s as a tough, peer-pressure-based cure for heroin addiction, by the late 1970s it was stockpiling weapons, forcing couples to get sterilized and swap partners and, perhaps most notoriously, had placed a de-rattled rattlesnake in the mailbox of a lawyer who had begun winning cases against it on behalf of former members who had been abducted and abused. When Dederich was arrested for conspiracy to commit murder in the snake incident in 1980, the charismatic leader was dead drunk.....

Read it all: http://www.thefix.com/content/12-steps-rehabs-cults-abuse8851

What are your thoughts on this?

Comments

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 14:42


Brazilian Santa Cruz (Santiago island) Tenda El-Shaddai Rehab implements Alcoholics Anonymous Aug 27, 2012 http://orange-papers.org/forum/node/2347

To be revisited..........

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

disclosure

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 16:22

Read the article.
The description sounds like the Pacific Group.

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 20:03

Not even once does Maia mention the two words. And surprisingly none of the comments at this time. Wonder why? Things that make you go hmmmm ....

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 20:05

"But in fact, the traditions of AA, NA and the other As are intentionally structured to prevent their members from crossing that line."

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 20:08

"The reason is a toxic compound created when AA’s voluntary steps are twisted so that they can be imposed by force, especially in settings where people cannot escape."

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 20:08

"The 12 steps truly are for people who want them, not for those who we limited humans (who are assuredly not higher powers) believe need them ...."

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 00:55

So did God REMOVE (Not make you drink normal - whatever that is) your obsession to drink alcohol ONLY because you did (?) wilsons copied version of the oxford group doctrine and go to AA meetings?

Does God speak to you telling you what He wants you to do? Does God speak to you before, at the same time, or after AA meetings? Did God speak to you before you went to AA meetings or did He just ignore your existence? Does God ignore the existence of ALL us non 12 step practitioners and stepper cult meeting attendees?

Does God remove your shortcomings, if so for how long? Does God have to remove the same shortcomings or different ones when you have to repeat the steps? Does working the steps make you develop differing shortcomings?

How many times do you have to admit you are powerless over a dead plant, for the rest of your life? Even though you haven't touched the said dead plant in over 30 years and continued repeating the same old indoctrination over and over and over again during the course of those same 30 years.
.
Sounds like cult BS to me, you'd be better of leaving it alone and spending your time more constructive

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 05:35

That's what the Good Book says, too.

NoAAUK whines: "Sounds like cult BS to me, you'd be better of leaving it alone and spending your time more constructive" Sounds like spilt milk to me, you'd better clean it up and buy some more to drink.

"At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ...." Matthew 24:10

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 00:38

"What Good book? The one Constantine ordered printed 400 or so years after the death of Christ? Or the one discovered much much later and refered to as the 'Dead sea scrolls?’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bVCIyxVSAHQ&list=...

Where does it say in the accepted American version of the Bible (I assume you are referring to) anything about practicing the 12 Steps or going to AA meetings anytime, let alone for life?

Why are you people obsessed with drinking, what does drinking milk do? I know smoking cigarettes can kill, wilson springs immediately to mind

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

becket's picture

becket

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 10:06

NoAAUK: your post to alkieanon is nothing but bullying. If you are genuinely interested in the answers to your questions, maybe you could frame them so they're not such a Gatling gun-styled interrogation.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

Bucket123

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:09

Becket talks about bullying in her post. Wow.

becket's picture

becket

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:12

Why should I not address bullying? There is a difference between deliberately singling out someone for taunting and the act of counterbalance.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 00:50

"Why should I not address bullying? There is a difference between deliberately singling out someone for taunting and the act of counterbalance"

Again do you consider FORCED attendance at stepper cult indoctrination sessions as BULLYING?

Yes or No?

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 00:46

What do you call FORCED attendance at stepper cult meetings? Whether by the US Court system, Employers Military or proposed by UK Government and what not. Do you refer to that as BULLIYING as well?

You, same as all stepper cult members/promoters, seem to have your own version of the English dictionary

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 20:56

The 918 people killed at the Peoples Temple of Jonestown Guyana were there "VOLUNTARILY" (except for the children placed there by the State of California as "therapy" from drug addiction). Many people call the deaths a mass suicide, but the fact is they were forced to drink cyanide and if they didn't they were killed with an M-16......

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 21:10

And now a word from our sponsor (direct from The Fix website):

Darn these Google Ads. LOL!

becket's picture

becket

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 21:24

So you are equating people who voluntarily go to AA with those who were members of the Jonestown cult? No truly voluntary member of AA is threatening any other AA member with an M-16. The events at Jonestown were actually considered to be a mass murder. Over time, because of the ego drive of Jim Jones himself, the voluntary status of each individual changed and they were not permitted to leave. This is not true of AA. Doors are always open, they swing both ways, no voluntary attendee is a captive. The coercees don't even figure into the scenario, as they are not attending AA according to their own wishes.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 21:29

44% of AA members are coerced, but how would you know, you haven't been to a meeting in 20 years, remember......http://orange-papers.org/forum/node/2351

Stick to a subject you know about....

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

becket's picture

becket

Tue, 08/28/2012 - 21:57

Even so, that does not change the point I made here. And I have made further points on various threads about the toxicity of coercees and the unrecognizability of the original AA program today. Where do I get these ideas? FROM YOU. From you and all the others here who tell preposterous stories about the behaviors of today's AA "members". I don't have to go to a meeting to know that the program has been utterly contaminated and eviscerated by treatment centers and those who want to be "AA royalty". Please don't mistake me for somebody who is stupid, Mr. Harris.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 01:10

What’s this original AA program you keep harping on about? The one that has been 'toxicity' changed by coercees (so at least you admit to them, if you don't class them as BULLYING).

Looks the same as it always has to me. First you admit you are powerless over a dead plant, then you come to believe that a power greater than yourself (which can be a rock, provided you believe THAT is greater than you, or whatever) can restore (?) you to sanity blah! blah ! blah! Same old stepper cult BS that has remained unchanged from the 1930's.....when bill wilson pinched it from the oxford group cult

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 05:30

Guess they broke the taboo as rehashed by disclosure (courtesy of the smart set at ST):
http://www.orange-papers.org/forum/node/2328
Just Say No (To A Geo). LOL!

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 01:04

You haven't got a leg to stand on None of you stepper cult recruiters have.

At the end of the day your beloved cult is just the copied version of the oxford group doctrine.

Copied by a lying, thieving, acid popping, chain smoking, sexual predator, necromancer, conman. Copied by this conman so that he could have more sex and money.

PS. Did wilson have any good points?.........I was just wonderng

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

Ted (not verified)

Tue, 09/04/2012 - 03:51

One can spend too much of one's life locked in stuffy rooms seeking out obscure truths, searching, researching, until one is too old to enjoy life.

-Jimmy Sangster

becket's picture

becket

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 10:32

AA is not my "beloved cult". It was a group of like-minded people who supported me as I was stopping detrimental intake of alcohol (and also drugs). I am not a proponent of every single facet of AA but I can honestly say it was helpful to me when I was looking for help. As you know, I am not an active member of AA and I do not participate in any AA proceedings.

I don't care where AA's doctrine comes from. Its source and be traced to an earlier source, which in turn can be traced to an earlier source, because nothing is new and fresh and original today. I don't care that Bill Wilson was a human being, and not a particularly reputable one. I've done my share of lying, thieving, acid-popping, chain-smoking, and conning, and as with all human beings, including you NoAAUK, I have had my sexual dalliances. As a young teenager I went to a fortune teller in D.C. As a child I had a ouija board. So what? So what??

So what is this about not having a leg to stand on? I tell the truth. I am inspired by think tanks and religious philosophers, musicians and artists, poets, color, form, function. I draw from multiple sources for inspiration and perspective. AA is but a sliver of that collection. You can rear back all you want in the face of someone else's truth, but it changes nothing. Your offense at someone's bringing what s/he could use from AA into the conversation is overblown to the point where it is YOU who has no leg to stand on. If you were confident in your position then civilized discourse would not rattle you.

Did Wilson have any good points? He brought alcoholism out from under the floorboards. You may deny that his approach was worthy of positive regard, but at least he had the chutzpah to shine a light on it. In his day that was formidable.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:06

Including the 1936 "Book of Shadows" commonly called the "Big Book" devised by the adulterous con man named Bill Wilson who used it to fund his extravagant lifestyle, pay for his cigarettes, and the Stepping Stones Compound he conned out of the Widow Helen Griffith with help from another AA cult member who was a real estate agent called Joan C.

Stepping Stones - How Bill Wilson and his "Group of Drunks" conned Helen Griffith out of it with Joan C http://orange-papers.org/forum/node/895

The sacred first 164 pages of Bill Wilson's manifesto have not been changed for over 77 years with the exception of a few punctuational marks. There is nothing new in the new testament that Bill Wilson brought forth to world as a con man trying to pretend he was a stock broker.

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 02:06

"It was a group of like-minded people who supported me as I was stopping detrimental intake of alcohol (and also drugs)."

It was the stepper cult which YOU found helpful in attending when YOU decided to stop taking alcohol and drugs because they where making YOUR life awkward

"I am not a proponent of every single facet of AA but I can honestly say it was helpful to me when I was looking for help."

But it is NOT helpful to over 95% who either try or are forced to attend stepper cult indoctrination sessions

http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html

for many it is fatal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4E1nsmj7cY

"I don't care that Bill Wilson was a human being, and not a particularly reputable one. I've done my share of lying, thieving, acid-popping, chain-smoking, and conning, and as with all human beings, including you NoAAUK, I have had my sexual dalliances. As a young teenager I went to a fortune teller in D.C. As a child I had a ouija board. So what? So what??"

I personally DO care that wilson and others that formed his cult were NOT reputable human beings nor cared to be whilst at the same time prophesising in Gods name. What a bunch of hypocrites, much much more akin to satan than God by any normal standards don't you think? What you or I did or do in our private lives is nothing to do with the aims and functions of the stepper cults.

"I am not an active member of AA and I do not participate in any AA proceedings."

That may be true or may not, steppers are notorious lyers, but you are an active promoter of the stepper cult on this forum

"I tell the truth. I am inspired by think tanks and religious philosophers, musicians and artists, poets, color, form, function. I draw from multiple sources for inspiration and perspective. AA is but a sliver of that collection."

I don't know what other organisations or people you take your inspiration from, but steppism is nothing but a predatory mind screwing cult that preys on desperate vulnerable individuals in satisfaction of the individual truebelivers (or otherwise) self serving motives.

If steppism had individual peoples interests at heart, there would be NO Coercion, no scaremongering, no misinformation, no lying and certainly NO wilson as cofounder

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

SandyB's picture

SandyB

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:10

Bill stole a lot of it from the Washingtonian movement too

He didn't discriminate

becket's picture

becket

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:13

He "stole" it or he was influenced by it? Did anyone in the Washingtonian movement sue him for plagiarism?

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

SandyB's picture

SandyB

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:37

It was close to 100 years prior

becket's picture

becket

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 20:48

Jeez, I guess the copyright expired and it was all public domain. That would mean he didn't steal it.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 03:02

Just used it same as he used oxford group dogma when he was thrown out of Buchmans cult

(Holy bill I mean LOL)

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

alkieanon's picture

alkieanon

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 20:20

Wasn't it Dick?

"At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ...." Matthew 24:10

becket's picture

becket

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:09

Your comment does not address your opener, "'nothing is new and fresh and original today' becket?" Do you want to try again? The fact that the original text of the Big Book has not changed in 77 years is not germane to the discussion. What are you trying to convey here? That Bill Wilson published a book that made money with which he bought a home? That's original? You're bullshitting, right?

My point was that if it appears today it appeared somewhere yesterday in some other form. Everything today is built on yesterday. If the Big Book was built on the Oxford papers, I don't care. No one, including you, JR Harris, is coming up with anything revolutionary or unique today.

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian

JR Harris's picture

JR Harris

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:16

"No one, including you, JR Harris, is coming up with anything revolutionary or unique today."

Actually you are almost right. The freedom of the press and free speech is pulling back the curtain on the cult of Alcoholics Anonymous with ever increasing frequency as can be seen by the daily reports of the multitude of rogue AA members recruited from jails and prisons using the cult of AA to fuel their sociopath, psychopath and narcissistic patterns. No longer can they hide behind the concept of "anonymity" and I am just reporting what other people have observed...... which I have seen first hand in the cult called Alcoholics Anonymous....... When was the last time you were at an AA ritual or ceremony?

"Tradition 10 - Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Please follow orders from the Interchurch Center if you are an AA member and don't comment.

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 03:11

"No one, including you, JR Harris, is coming up with anything revolutionary or unique today."

The cult of AA is becoming more and more know every month, thanks to the Orange Papers and similar websites. Thanks to the web your cult will have no more vulnerable victims one day. Even though steppers constantly try and con further victims, even on this forum.

Powerless over a dead plant Ha! Ha! Ha! You really need a new punch line if you are to survive this centuary LOL

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

Bucket123

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 11:40

There must be some good things Bill W did, I can't believe he was all bad. There is good and bad in every human being. His wife stuck by him through it all.

Morgan's picture

Morgan

Wed, 08/29/2012 - 18:12

I'm sure it would have lost its support. I agree with the author's contention that groups like Midtown are cults or "near-cults." Reading comments from supporters of Midtown in response to newspaper accounts of Mike Q illustrated that for me. It's bizarre to read parents of teenage Midtown attendees (if their claims to be parents are even authentic) to continue to defend Mike Q and the others long after the allegations became public. It certainly sounds like brainwashing to me.

This issue is different from that of AA in general. Is the Big Book "benevolent"? What about the 12x12? The 12 Steps? When people say they found any of these helpful to them, I don't feel inclined to argue; whatever floats your boat. But I've heard people argue that society at large (even at the political level) would benefit from AA principles. That boggles my mind, though it isn't a popular argument. One thing I'm certain of is that AA/NA and its offshoots should not be part of the treatment industry.

I don't know what to think when people talk about getting rid or destroying AA. I'm not sure what that would entail. I've heard the suggestion that it be "shut down" through legal means, for which I don't see a legal basis (unless it's a group that engages in illegal activities; I suppose the RICO Act could be applied in rare cases--only applicable in the US. I know little about AA in the UK or how the legal system might somehow become involved.) It seems that public awareness, increased access to alternatives, and changes in the treatment industry (away from 12 step models) will push the pendulum away (in most respects) from AA/NA etc in future decades.

NoAAUK's picture

NoAAUK

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 03:29

Yes I agree if a few lunatics want to chant bill wilsons cult indoctrination at a few churchs, let them.....what ever turns them on.

But its the forced participation, whether direct (and it does happen in the UK though not on the scale of the US) or indirect scaremongering (Jails, Institutions and Death) that more frequently occurs across the globe which we object to.

Its just oxford group cult BS at the end of the day, and people have the right to know what they are getting involved with. If the Orange Papers or similar had existed 30 odd years ago, no way would I have fallen into their trap.

Powerless over a dead plant Ha! Ha! Ha! I ask you..........how can you possibly talk of being powerless over a dead plant, and God in the same breath? Only in the oxford group cult and stepper cults LOL

......and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Matthew 24:11

Morgan's picture

Morgan

Thu, 08/30/2012 - 13:20

and that should end. It should be completely voluntary. I'd say that a lot of people go who aren't lunatics; they're confused, or don't know of alternatives, or they know people there--many are regular people with good intentions. Some go and reject most of what they read or hear (and I admire people who flatly state this at meetings--it's easier just to go along to get along). There are plenty of drones and fanatics, too.

It isn't for me, certainly. For me it's like trying to fit the square peg into the round hole. Wilson and Dr Bob's name came up at meetings frequently, and I don't want to hear that, nor read from the BB with its deceptions (Bill's "To the Wives" is esp. galling to me.) At Lifering, on the other hand, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Their approach is much more open and flexible.