The Synanon was a community founded by Charles E. “Chuck” Dederich in 1958. After being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, a rehabilitation group for people suffering from alcohol abuse, Charles decided to start a community of his own for people…[Continue Reading...]
A California rehabilitation foundation for people addicted to heroin transformed into a "communal living experiment" with cult-like tendencies in the 1950s, according to a new documentary series. Charles Diedrich, a former alcoholic, initially founded his storefront rehabilitation center in Santa…[Continue Reading...]
Synanon was the brainchild of Charles “Chuck” Dederich. The infamous cult leader died in 1997, but the story of his reformative-turned-destructive drug rehabilitation organization is now the center of a four-part docuseries on HBO. Titled The Synanon Fix: Did The…[Continue Reading...]
What happens when a rehab program that is supposed to cure addictions becomes addictive itself? That’s the story of Synanon, an organization that went from providing revolutionary therapy to becoming “a kooky cult,” as TIME put it in 1977. The…[Continue Reading...]
Before there were organizations in place to help people with drug addiction, the landscape for people with these problems was harsh and unforgiving. In the late 1950s, Charles "Chuck" Dederich wanted to change that. Dederich — who was open about…[Continue Reading...]
Forget murders, Netflix‘s latest hot doc is about schools. Only they’re not really schools, they are prisons, they make millions of dollars and destroy thousands of lives, and the bigwigs at the top of these horrific establishments keep getting away…[Continue Reading...]
Netflix’s The Program explores the troubled teen industry from the perspective of someone who went through it. Filmmaker Katherine Kubler spent 15 months at The Academy at Ivy Ridge, and uses the new docuseries to connect with fellow former students…[Continue Reading...]
From books and docuseries to podcasts and big-screen thrillers, true-crime tales are everywhere. Much of it is thinly researched retreads of well-worn cases and subjects that feel exploitative in the end. “Born in Synanon” is none of those things. The…[Continue Reading...]
Sandra Rogers-Hare and Cassidy Arkin are the mother-daughter duo behind Paramount+’s new docuseries, Born in Synanon. Rather than sensationalize the story of the cult known as Synanon, the series challenges viewers to reflect on what really went wrong in hopes…[Continue Reading...]
The phrase “not an obvious cult” doesn’t really get thrown around too much. Something either is a cult, or isn’t. And yet .. .there always seems to be some sort of grey area, especially when it comes to the self-help…[Continue Reading...]
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