Synanon:The Game

Moriah Ponder

April 15^th, 2016

Professor Delaporte

Blog #1

                                                              Synanon: The Game

            Synanon was founded in Santa Monica, California in 1958 by Charles Dederich. Dederich was an alcoholic and was inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous and their methods. He decided to create Synanon as a place for addicts and individuals with character disorders to recover and get their lives established to re-enter society. Synanon was founded in California as a non-profit corporation. Eventually in 1968, Synanon opened their membership up to non-addicts. During this time, Synanon slowly changed their beliefs from a religious organization to a cult.

Within Synanon, Dederich did not use any medication to rehabilitate anyone. Instead he used a method of group therapy that he created called “The Game”. This method of recovery offered addicts time to talk and express themselves.  Even though it was intended to be group therapy and help addicts, to a certain degree it was mentally and verbally abusive to the individual that it focused on. “The Game” was basically an attack on one person by a large group of people. This was the most influential “medication” that Charles Dederich offered in Synanon.

“The Game” was the core of Synanon; it was the center of everyone’s life while in rehabilitation. According to Charles Dederich, “The Game” was the seed of Synanon:

“First was the Game. Everything came from the Game. There was no thought of a foundation or giving any kind of a name to the community or group when we started to have meetings back in 1958. The Game produced the beginnings of the community. On the date of the first Game there was nothing that looked like it would someday be the ancestor of the community. I was occupying a little apartment in the Ocean Park, there was nobody who lived there that I knew and very shortly after I began to moderate these Games people began to move down and a community formed. No one formed the community. The community formed itself. The community formed because of the game.” (Simon, pg.5)

All residents of Synanon participated in “The Game” on regular bases- at least once a week. “The Game” wasn’t a choice; it was a condition of residence. Even children played “The Game” beginning at the age of four. As Synanon developed, so did “The Game”. While playing “The Game”, everyone was seen as equal.  “The Game” was designed to break down communications barriers between addicts. It was used to produce the maximum communication and flow of information. Employees, officers, other leader personnel would play along with the residents. It didn’t matter if you were young or old; every game consisted of various ages and ethnic backgrounds.   “The Game” began as concentrated attack and defends sessions, lasting an hour each. Synanon grew into the central procedure of management, education, recreation, religion, socialization, art and so forth.

            Synanon consisted of two different sets of norms. One was used outside of “The Game”, while the other set was used in “The Game”. The two norms were very contradictory to each other. The out of the game norms consisted of members being friendly, polite, supportive and helpful. While the other tended to be undisciplined, irreverent, attacking and impolite. All residents must agree to abide by all norms in Synanon.

            “The Game” was supposed to be an educational tool. When everyone participated fully, it helped accomplish unification and healing of the personality. It also helped residents be more appreciative and accepting of new and more constructive forms of behavior and the embracement of new values. When played correctly, “The Game” could become a very intimate session between members. During “The Game”, one’s deepest thoughts and feelings of all kinds of concerning his action, the action of others, and the relationships of people to each other, are exposed to the process of group examination. “The Game” is a ritual in Synanon resident’s lives and is key to forming their beliefs. Those participating in “The Game” are trying to live by what Jesus Christ meant by “to confess ye to one another”. Instead of the traditional relationship of penitent and confessor, Synanon uses an “Omni-confessional” in “The Game”. By participating fully and being trustworthy with others, residents are trying to move towards realizing their true potential as a human being.

            During a “Game”, people do not speak rationally or truthfully. Everyone speaks in anger or rage. They play with a person’s emotions and twist them every way possible. In “The Game”, people do not speak truthfully; the words are not spoken for the truth of their content. While in a “Game” those participating are supposed to exaggerate and distort everything they are saying. Lying occurs consciously and unconsciously during a “Game”, lying is acceptable. Those who participate are not required to speak rationally; in fact it is okay to be irrational. During every Game, those involved have freedom of speech and expression. It’s normal for Synanon Game participants to use language in the Game which they would consider shocking or obscene in other contexts.

            “The Game” was a cruel way to help rehabilitate addicts. Many residents believed it saved their lives. While others feel like “The Game” had a major negative effect on their lives and it didn’t help them at all. I believe this form of group therapy could be helpful if it was only a positive atmosphere, with very few negative aspects. Sitting and yelling cruel things at someone or lying about who they are isn’t going to help them. I feel like this would just tear them down further.  

Dederich. Charles E. "The Synanon Game From Synanon vs. The Hearst Corporations. Synanon Foundation Inc.

Simon. Steven I. "Synanon: Towards Building A Humanistic Organization. Synanon Press. San Francisco CA. 1974 

Simon. Steven I. "The Synanon Game: A Lecture. Synanon Press. San Francisco, CA 1974