SYNANON
If we have learned anything in this field of criminology, it is
that any one of us is capable of doing most anything. Given the
right system of social controls and rewards, social expectations,
personal circumstances, peer pressures, contingencies of the
moment, and personal threats, we will do amazing things.
Richard Ofshe headed a research team that did a study of the
Synanon Foundation for which he and his colleagues won a Pulitzer
Prize in 1979 (see Dave Mitchell, Cathy Mitchell and Richard
Ofshe, The Light on Synanon. New York: Seaview Books, 1980;
Scott Heeler, "Research on Coerced Behavior Controversial
Lawsuits," Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 1987,
pp. 13-14). They traced the organizations' history from its
beginnings as an organization that sought to rehabilitate drug
addicts and alcoholics to a multi-million dollar church whose
leaders have been accused of all manners of violence,
intimidation and general obstruction of justice.
The Synanon leadership manipulated its members and was able to
get many of them to engage in activities that, under normal
circumstances, they would have found morally and ethically
reprehensible. As Ofshe points out, "you can be perfectly
healthy and perfectly normal and yet get involved in a group that
makes you do things you never thought you could do." Amazing
changes in behavior are possible in all of us. Ironically,
Synanon promoted Utopian values, yet ultimately convinced its
members to commit acts of violence. How did the organization do
this?
1. Hammer away at people's sense of self. Constantly make
them feel as if they are not living up to the proper
standard. Continue to inform them that they need to do
better.
2. Place so many demands on their time and resources that
it inhibits resistance. Too tired to resist, not
enough time to organize thoughts on how to resist.
3. Classify any questioning of established organizational
patterns as morally wrong.
4. Tap into their idealism, into their desire for a better
world, a better self. If you can achieve, this, you
have found a powerful motivating force.
5. Subject the individual to organizational needs. Stress
that individuals are part of the team, not individuals.
6. Encourage members to actively solicit new members for
the organization.
7. Get members to constantly praise and support the
organization and its leaders in public and denounce the
opposition.
If an organization can achieve these, their members will do
remarkable things for the organization, things that individually
they would never do. They will even do wrong things if they are
convinced it is for the betterment of the organization and it
will ultimately achieve a higher standing. A law will be broken
in the name of a perceived higher law. And once individuals join
the organization and become indoctrinated, it is very hard for
them to leave without:
1. A powerful sense of guilt for abandoning the "team."
2. Embarrassment of telling friends that they are not
longer involved in the organization after having been a
powerful, vocal supporter for so long.
3. Fear of social incrimination and censure.
4. Fear of facing the world without this organization for
it consumed so much of their time and their life.
5. A fear of having to adjust to a new lifestyle.
6. A fear of having to make new friends outside the
organization and a fear of having to deal with old
friends who are still a part of the organization.
7. A fear of having to assess prior behavior in light of
new values and admitting mistakes.
8. An almost overwhelming, overbearing sense of eternal
condemnation.
Consider the case of Jimmy Jones. He adopted this model, and
rather than leave the organization, the members fled California
and went to Guyana. There, on his orders, members of his church
killed several representatives of the United States government.
They then killed their own children and committed suicide by
drinking a kool-aid/cyanide mixture. We could also look at other
episodes of mass killings; the Nazi extermination of the Jews,
Mao's Cultural Revolution, Stalin's almost continual purges - all
involved people, individuals who masked their collective
consciences and "pulled the trigger" because they had been
conditioned/socialized to do so. Given the right system of
social controls and rewards, social expectations, personal
circumstances, peer pressures, contingencies of the moment, and
personal threats, we will do amazing things. Remarkable changes
in well-established behavior are possible in any one of us. Who
are the deviants? Potentially, anyone of us.