Word: synanon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Synonon, a word derived from a junkie's mispronunciation of seminar, is the name given to a self-help haven for drug addicts, founded seven years ago in California and now offering shelter and hope to 550 ex-addicts on both coasts. Filmed at Synanon House in Santa Monica, this tawdry little melodrama explains the method only sketchily, but exploits it at length...
...have an expression at Synanon: it is "gut level," which means rock-bottom honesty. My gut-level feeling is that your story [March 1] was the most wonderful thing that has happened to me since coming to Synanon. As project director for the Nevada State Prison group, I would like you to know that it meant as much to the inmate members as it did to me personally...
...effect that the article had on the prisoners was evidenced when we read it aloud to a Synanon meeting in the cave at the prison. Recognition for doing the right thing was a new experience for most of these men, whose only recognition formerly was based on the outrageousness of their crimes. CANDY LATSON Reno...
Americans are quite willing to join an organization provided they get a membership card, pay dues that are taxdeductible, and get away from home at least one night a week. But alcoholics, gamblers and dope addicts who join such organizations as A.A., G.A., and Synanon have a special purpose. To get off the sauce, the dice or the pot, they need will power. And obviously will power languishes in loneliness but thrives in company...
...Candy Latson, 26, a Houston-born Negro who started using dope when he was 15. He has twice done time in Los Angeles County jail. "I got to the honor camp once there. I went in clean, but I came out hooked again," he says. Through Synanon, Candy learned insight: "I kept telling myself I had four strikes against me: I had only a seventh-grade education, I was black. I was a dope addict, and I had a record. I was using my misfortunes for an excuse to keep using dope." Last week Candy Latson was in Nevada State...