Dead, Insane, or in Jail: A CEDU Memoir by Zack BonnieMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
CEDU Educational Services, Inc., known simply as CEDU, was founded in 1967 by Mel Wasserman and his wife Brigitta. The company owned and operated several therapeutic boarding schools and behavior modification programs in California and Idaho. CEDU origins go back to Synanon, a cult founded in Santa Monica, California in 1958 by Charles Dederich. The Troubled Teen Industry[1] today largely consists of Synanon and/or CEDU offshoots. I thank this author for making me aware of CEDU and prompting me to go to the Web to learn about this. The author himself todl me that of "CEDU and its roots in Synanon and the Troubled Teen Industry,... there's more and more information and articles out there." Now I am also intrigued about "Erhard seminar training or Landmark Forum." However, this book suffers I think from a lack of such historical context.
Well, that is judging is as a historical memoir.
As a thrilling tale that works well, as we are just as much at sea as the author when dropped off by his parents under false pretext and has no such context himself when demeaned in confrontational group therapy and other brainwashing-like, cultish settings even unto dining on raccoon and mouse in challenging "Wilderness Therapy".
As an attack on questionable "therapy" techniques I recall Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark for his well-reasoned arguments for the damage such untutored approaches can wreak on the mind and soul. And that is one thing for adults voluntarily consenting to such activity, but hurling "troubled" teens into such a morass and severing ties to family, well, .... This should serve as a warning for any parent thinking of turning over their offspring to the Troubled Teen Industry.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment