Synanon and the Game
Synanon (1958-1991) was a Santa Monica drug-rehab group that invented 'the Game' — attack therapy sessions up to 72 hours long where participants verbally assaulted each other. It became one of America's most dangerous cults and spawned the methodology used in Elan, CEDU, and much of the troubled-teen industry.
**Synanon** was founded in 1958 in Santa Monica, California by Charles Dederich Sr., initially as an Alcoholics Anonymous-derived group for heroin addicts. It became one of the most influential and damaging new religious movements of the 20th century — both for what it invented (attack therapy) and for how it collapsed into violence. ## The Game Synanon's signature practice was **the Game** — group sessions in which participants took turns being 'indicted' while others verbally assaulted them. The stated rationale was breaking down ego defenses. In practice: - Sessions ran 1-4 hours routinely, with 'stews' or 'trips' lasting up to 72 consecutive hours - No physical violence was formally permitted during the Game itself - Humiliation, accusation, shouting, and public shaming were the tools - Critics called it institutionalized bullying; defenders called it 'emotional surgery' Synanon pioneered several derivative practices: head shavings, confiscation of outside contacts, forced confessions, round-robin denunciation, and the 'Synanon Prayer' ceremony. The encounter group movement of the 1960s absorbed watered-down versions. ## Descent By the mid-1970s Synanon had incorporated as a religion, accumulated firearms (the 'Imperial Marines'), forced vasectomies on male members, coerced abortions on female members, and ordered violent attacks on critics. In 1978, Dederich ordered an attempted murder by placing a rattlesnake in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz, who had won judgments against Synanon. Morantz survived. Dederich was convicted in 1980 and given probation. Synanon dissolved in 1991 after IRS tax-exempt status revocation. ## Descendant programs The Synanon template — attack therapy, peer enforcement, total institutional control, 'you owe us everything' debt structure — spread widely: - **CEDU** (1967-2005): founded by Mel Wasserman after his Synanon experience. Progenitor of many modern troubled-teen programs. - **Elan School** (1970-2011): founded by Joseph Ricci, a Synanon-descendant program dropout. - **Straight Inc.** (1976-1993): direct methodology transfer. - **World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS)**: reached its peak in the 2000s, multiple program closures and lawsuits. - **Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force** shares several mechanisms. - Corporate 'encounter training' programs like Lifespring and est borrowed diluted forms of the Game. ## Academic assessment The Game is now studied as a paradigm example of **coercive persuasion** under conditions of total institutional control. Robert Cialdini cited Synanon in Influence (1984). Rick Ross and Steve Hassan use Synanon as a case study in cult extraction. The Troubled Teen Industry still uses recognizable Synanon-derivative methods in 2026 despite legal reform attempts.