An admirer of Synanon is Dr Lewis Yablonsky, a sociologist at Valley State College, who worked on the problem of drug addiction for 15 years. Then he heard of Synanon and that 50 addicts there had stopped using drugs. ‘This was startling to me as I never knew any addicts that quit using drugs.’
He recalls meeting a woman resident and asking her on his first night in the club: ‘Where would you be now without Synanon?’ ‘Dead,’ she replied. She is now his wife. Dr Yablonsky says: ‘At the heart of the matter is the “we-they” situation which exists in most institutions. Most criminals, and addicts, who wind up in jail are fighting authority – they. They did this to me and so forth. He’s denuded of that rationalisation in Synanon because they are him‘.
There are two basic rules – no chemicals of any kind, including alcohol, and no physical violence. Anybody who gets out of hand is dealt with by verbal attack, during which a group will attack the culprit with words – scathing, sarcastic, rude, anything to jolt him out of his ways.
This verbal attack is developed into what is known as the Synanon Game. Here eight or 10 people gather in one room to form the ‘game’ . . . there may be other ‘games’ going on in 20 other rooms at the same time. The group singles out one person at a time, attacks that person and shatters his or her defences. Then the game switches to the next person. There is no professional direction. No word is prohibited. They of the outside world are them.