INSTITUTIONALIZED PERSUASION AND THE TECHNOLOGY OF TOTALISTIC TREATMENT

Presentation for

VID Specialized University

Oslo, Norway

A Critical Look at Drug Treatment –

A National Conference

10 October, 2017

Marcus Chatfield

COME TO BELIEVE THAT A POWER GREATER THAN MYSELF CAN RESTORE ME TO SANITY

❖ “Positive Peer Pressure”

❖ In a large room without windows.

❖ A web of forces

❖ Any one element taken by itself may be unremarkable.

“KIDS HELPING KIDS”WE WERE CHANGED BY CHANGING EACH OTHER

1st Phase = Newcomer

2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Phase = Oldcomers

❖ No communication with the outside world

❖ Deprivations of sunlight, food, water, sleep,

information, privacy, free movement, hygiene, &

medicine

❖ Sensory deprivation & Sensory overload

❖ Dread, violence, intense affiliation

❖ Special language (new meanings & new words)

THE ONLY WAY TO EARN “PRIVILEGES” IS TO MAKE PROGRESS

THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE PROGRESS IS TO TALK IN GROUP

❖ Focus on your past

❖ Get in touch with your feelings

❖ Don’t avoid yourself

❖ Honesty = Sharing correctly

❖ Always “working your program”

THE ONLY WAY TO TALK IN GROUP (NOT PUNISHED) IS TO GET CALLED ON. THE ONLY WAY TO GET CALLED ON IS TO MOTIVATE.

RESISTANCE TO TREATMENT IS A SYMPTOM OF THE DISEASE

IF YOU DIDN’T NEED OUR HELP, YOU WOULDN’T BE HERE

❖ Monday and Friday Night Review

❖ Bringing the bottom up to you

❖ We’re here to make your disease uncomfortable

❖ Consequences

❖ “Sleep therapy”

❖ The bomb squad

CONFIDENTIALITY

❖ What is said in group, and what happens in

group, stays in group.

❖ A secret society

❖ Strange rituals

❖ Nursery rhymes, Straight songs

❖ No boundaries

DISILLUSIONMENT

❖ What is chemical dependency?

❖ What is brainwashing?

❖ Discovering my lack of integrity.

❖ Shutting down, alone and without words.

I HAD BEEN PLACED IN STRAIGHTONE WEEK AFTER “THE VISIT”

They endorsed a program they didn’t understand

and could not imagine.

I had been in a program I could not describe.

“INDOCTRINATION AS INSTITUTIONALIZED PERSUASION: ITS LIMITED VARIABILITY AND CROSS-CULTURAL EVOLUTION”(SALTER, 1998, P.444)

❖Similarities between “brainwashing” and traditional initiation ❖Physical coercion and restraint

❖Milieu Control

❖Isolation from information

❖Severance of interpersonal bonds

❖Intense peer pressure

❖Threat

❖Sleep deprivation

❖Physical debilitation

❖Repetition of message

❖Rehearse petty compliance

❖Argumentation/Statement of doctrine

❖Prestige testimonials

❖Compassion at point of collapse

❖Unique features of “brainwashing” not found in pubescent initiation ❖Routine obedience

❖Interrogation

❖Ritual attack on outgroup

❖Accusation Mild degradation – self-revelation

❖Intense degradation – confession/apology

❖Punishment and reward

KEY FEATURES OF TOTALISTIC PROGRAMS(CHATFIELD, 2014 ; DE LEON, 2000 ; GOFFMAN, 1961 ; L IFTON, 1963 )

❖Controlled communication

❖Police each other

❖Change whole self

❖Hierarchy of levels

❖Group confession and confrontation

❖Strict rules and punishments

❖All aspects of life take place under a central authority.

Institutionalized Persuasion: The systematic inculcation of information, attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors, by agents formally charged with the responsibility of bringing about a transformation of social and self-identity, cognition, and behaviors. This process involves efforts to weaken, convert, and reform fundamental psychological aspects of the initiate through multiple, simultaneous, and prolonged stresses that may, in some instances, result in impaired social, cognitive, emotional, or physical development (Chatfield, 2014, p 17).

QUESTIONS FOR TREATMENT PROVIDERS AND CURIOUS ANSWERS

1. What is the boundary between safe and unsafe degrees of persuasion?

2. What are the harmful side effects of group encounter methods?

3. For whom do the benefits outweigh the risks?

4. What is the acceptable casualty rate?

5. When is resocialization as “treatment” comparable to “brainwashing?”

1. (A) Not known. Or (B) It doesn’t matter because they will die without it.

2. Psychiatric casualties. (After ten 3-hour encounter sessions, measured after 8 months, 16 out of 170 healthy young adult research volunteers experienced a range of negative side-effects.) (Yalom & Lieberman, 1971)

3. Not known. (U.S. Surgeon General, 1999)

4. Not known.

5. (A) TC treatment cannot be “brainwashing” because the intent is benevolent. (B) They need to be brainwashed. Or (C) What else do we have?

MCHATFIELD@UFL.EDU

References

Chatfield, M. (2014) Institutionalized persuasion: The technology of reformation in straight incorporated and the residential teen treatment industry. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; North Charleston, SC.

De Leon, G. (2000). Therapeutic community : Theory, model, and method. New York: Springer Publishing Company.

Goffman, E. (1961). Asylums. New York, NY: Anchor Books.

Lifton, R. J. (1963). Thought reform and the psychology of totalism: A study of "brainwashing in china. New York: Norton.

Salter, F. K. (1998). Indoctrination and institutionalized persuasion: Its limited variability and cross-cultural evolution. In Eibl-Eibsfeldt, I. & Salter, F.K. (Ed.), Ethnic conflict and indoctrination: Altruism and identity in evolutionary perspective (pp. 421-452). New York: Berghahn Books.

Yalom, I. D., & Lieberman, M. A. (1971). A study of encounter group casualties.Archives of General Psychiatry, 25(1), 16-30. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1971.01750130018002