Word: synanon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Indeed, the people at Synanon are treated much as if they were interchangeable automobile parts, and Dederich is certainly in the driver's seat. He makes the rules as he goes along, and the members never know what is coming next. "Chuck is marvelous," says Terri Haberman, 30, who has lived at Synanon for nine years. "He has this amazing quality of being able to articulate what we want to do before we even know what it is we want...
...worried, but admits he is toying with the idea of giving up the rehabilitation business and moving to Washington to start an operation that will distribute distressed merchandise, such as mislabeled canned food and slightly flawed clothing, to the needy. "It's a bigger notion than Synanon is now," Dederich says. "I have the normal desire to get my name in the newspapers and history books...
...Dederich decided that because he was giving up smoking, everybody else would too. In 1975 the women at Synanon began shaving their heads. Any that refused were ostracized. When Dederich's wife Betty went on a diet in 1976, all the other members had to cut down on the vittles. That same year Dederich concluded that Synanon had too many kids. So all the men were pressured into having vasectomies, except Dederich. "I am not bound by the rules," he says. "I make them...
...course, for everybody. While Synanon has moved in new, provocative directions, its membership has dropped from a peak of 1,800 in 1972 to 1,183 today. Among those to leave was Dederich's brother William, who did not want to break up his marriage of 37 years. Those who stay at Synanon seem to be as hooked on the place as any junkie on his drugs. "They want somebody to tell them what to do," says Sydney Fischer, who left the commune in 1976 after living there for four years. "It's like having a big daddy...
Former residents as well as outsiders have begun to question whether the new, swinging Synanon should be spared paying taxes since it currently devotes much less time to rehabilitation. The California department of health is showing interest in Synanon, and the Marin County grand jury is investigating reports of child abuse. Some 132 children, who have been sent to Synanon by courts, probation officers and distraught parents across the country, are housed in a separate compound and designated the "punk squad...