“The Synanon Fix” just finished its 4-part run on HBO.
Poster from a 1960s film.
The film by Rory Kennedy (the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, born 6 months after he was assassinated) told the story of the drug rehabilitation program-turned-cult that imploded in 1991, after members were convicted of financial misdeeds, evidence tampering, terrorism and attempted murder.
Synanon was founded in 1958 after Charles Dederich, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, took LSD.
Wikipedia says:
Control over members occurred through the “Game.” The “Game” was presented as a therapeutic tool, and likened to a form of group therapy, but it has been criticized as a form of a “social control,” in which members humiliated one another and encouraged the exposure of one another’s innermost weaknesses.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, women in Synanon were required to shave their heads, and married couples were made to break up and take new partners. Men were given forced vasectomies, and a few pregnant women were forced to have abortions.
By that time, Synanon had already come — and gone — from Westport.
It opened a 24-bed drug rehab facility here in February 1963. The site was an 18-room Victorian mansion at 249 Greens Farms Road. The 4-acre property had once been part of the Bedford family estate.
249 Greens Farms Road (center of aerial photo) today. The entrance is near Beachside Avenue.
Senator Thomas Dodd backed the effort. He called Synanon “one of the most dynamic and vital programs that I have experienced.” The Westport center was envisioned as important to California-based Synanon’s expansion into the Northeast.
“The Sponsors of Synanon” — a Westport organization — provided funding, food and supplies.
But less than 3 years after opening, the town forced Synanon to close. The case reached the Connecticut Supreme Court, which declared that while the non-profit’s program “may be meritorious,” Westport’s single-family zoning ordinance for the neighborhood was clear.
Synanon had claimed that the residents were “family,” all united in a single pursuit.
That was one of the first court cases against what later was called the “most dangerous and violent cults America had ever seen.”
It was hardly the last.
(Hat tip: The Westport Museum of History & Culture’s “Virtual History” page.)
I remember years ago when this house was on the Holiday House Tour. I still dream about all the leopard wood – a really stunning property.
Nice article but I remember this being a big deal in Westport for fear of the spread of drug use among us teens. I have not followed the HBO special but that said, LSD is being used today to curb alcoholism with some success.
I passed it every summer day on my way to work at FT Bedfords estate on Beachside Ave. For five summers.
I lived very close to this place and we rode our bikes past there frequently. My mom was a nurse and had some information about Synanon through her work- she advised me and my brothers to find a different route and not ride past there again