Synanon

Synanon ( neologism of the words " seminar" and "Symposium ") is the name of a self-help organization. It was founded as a " Synanon Incorporated " in 1958 by Americans Charles E. Dederich in Santa Monica, California and employed as one of the first with the withdrawal and the weaning of drug dependent people in self-help. " Synanon Incorporated " declared in 1975 to the " Synanon Church ," has called totalitarian rules of conduct and put 1991 all activities.

History

Establishing a first self-help organization in the U.S. for drug weaning

Charles Dederich 1956 at Alcoholics Anonymous ( AA) in California sober and an active member in their groups. Dederich earned a special reputation for his direct style of conversation in their meetings. In addition to the alcoholics were found in him by and by drug addicts and began to live drug-free with the program. Dederichs realized that he had stumbled upon something special and new, for drug addicts hitherto considered untreatable. There were tensions between alcohol-dependent members and drug addicts. Some alcoholics had reservations against the " criminal addicts "; some drug addicts rejected the " bourgeois alcoholic" from. So Dederichs founded in 1958 in California to pursue Synanon Inc. as a non-profit organization to this new phenomenon. From Alcoholics Anonymous it bordered the new Organisataion clear from "While I will be forever grateful to them because they have helped me personally, Synanon has nothing to do with Anonymous Alkohoikern, - as little as a rowing boat with an airplane. What we have is a residential community situation with family character. What we value, is self-confidence, not a function of a higher being. "

In an old army building on the beach in Santa Monica soon there were over a hundred drug addicts voluntarily drug free. Professionals at Dederichs project became aware through newspaper reports. The psychiatrist Daniel Casriel lived for several months with the people in Synanon. He knew addicts from his New York practice and had previously repeatedly publicly expressed the view that we should give them all the drugs they wanted and leave them to their fate, because they were untreatable. After thorough study of the Synanon community, he published in 1963 his book So fair a house: The Story of Synanon. He was so excited and convinced of what he had seen, that he began to build up a similar program for drug addicts in New York. It was Day Top Village. Around the same time lived criminologist and Psychotherapeuth Lewis Yablonsky in Synanon and studied the community. His book The Tunnel Back - Synanon was published in 1965.

Synanons spread world-wide

The successful project took place in the following years more and more imitators in other countries. Since the 1970s, there is also in Germany Synanon Foundation. Here the individual lives in a house together, manage themselves, offer delivery and removal services, manage property and thus contribute to a more normal life. They even speak during the withdrawal period substituted. In Berlin builds the Synanon organization just the listed manor Malchow to a larger and more comfortable place to live from. Receives support organization by the Joint Welfare Association, the German donation and countless sponsors and individuals.

The name " Synanon "

A short time only sober member of Dederichs therapy group brought him new words "Seminar" and " symposium" by each other and said " Synanon ". From then on the Synanon community and group discussions Synanons said. Dederich told how he tried on the way to registering his organization, how could " Synanon " write - " Cinanon " for example, is pronounced the same in English - and how the fancy to the "S " (which extends upwards) and "Y" ( which stretches down) found.