A California rehabilitation foundation for heroin addicts turned into a “communal living experiment” with cult-like tendencies in the 1950s, according to a new documentary series.
Charles Diedrich, a former alcoholic, originally founded an over-the-counter rehab center in Santa Monica that became known as the Synanon Foundation in 1958.
By 1978, the center had amassed thousands of members and tens of millions of dollars in assets. Its headquarters are in a historic private beach club hotel called Club Casa del Mar, which still operates under its original name.
According to a 1999 article in the Mercury News, Diedrich is credited with coining the popular phrase, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
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By 1978, the Synanon Foundation had 1,300 members and more than $30 million in assets. (HBO, “The Synanon Fix”)
“The Synanon Fix,” directed and produced by Rory Kennedy and co-produced by her husband Mark Bailey, follows former members of the Cooperative Living Experiment, including Diedrich’s daughter, who helped lead the cult program. Features an interview.
As the center grew thanks to Diedrich’s success with a type of speech therapy called “The Game,” in which people could say anything to discourage drug use, non-addicts also became interested in joining recovery groups. I started. It is supposed to be a two-year residential program.
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The Synanon Foundation grew because of Diedrich’s success with a type of speech therapy called “The Game,” in which people can say anything to discourage drug use. (HBO, “The Synanon Fix”)
These members became known as “lifestylers,” who wanted community beyond just help managing their addictions, says a press release for HBO’s new series “The Synanon Fix.” has been done.
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Chuck Diederich founded the Synanon Foundation in 1958 out of a Santa Monica storefront. (HBO, “The Synanon Fix”)
Diedrich opened several schools in California and the East Coast, including one in Westport, Conn., and a boarding school in Poland, Maine.
By the 1970s, Synanon had its own farms, schools, and various businesses, and had developed a reputation as a utopia and a model society. According to the documentary, the foundation was temporarily exempt from taxation until 1977 due to its philanthropic and religious nature.
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After Diedrich’s death in 1997, the New York Times reported that Diedrich once said, “Crime is stupid, delinquency is stupid, drug use is stupid.” What we’re dealing with is an addiction to stupidity.”
“Crime is stupid, delinquency is stupid, drug use is stupid.”
However, as its popularity grew and more power passed into Diedrich’s hands, he began to assume the role of a more autocratic figure, forcing members to shave their heads and separate them from their children. Problems began to arise from autonomous cults. -like community.
As Synanon’s popularity grew and more power passed into Diedrich’s hands, he became a more autocratic figure. (Roy Williams/Media News Group/Oakland Tribune)
In 1972, approximately 75 couples participating in Synanon were encouraged to renew their marriage vows in a joint ceremony.
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“But as the years passed, the radical treatments became more and more extreme, degenerating into paranoid behavior and cult-like orders from Chuck, leading to charges of child abuse, assault, and even attempted murder. ” said the press release.
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By 1977, Diedrich lost a settlement lawsuit brought by Frances Wynn, who claimed that Synanon had kidnapped her for nine days.
Diedrich was sentenced to five years’ probation, relapsed into alcoholism, and was diagnosed with mental illness. He died at the age of 83 in a nursing home.
