Behavior modification history in the United States
The beginning - AA
The behavior modification industry has its roots in the AA-movement. Where participation in AA is voluntary, groups inside the organization were approached by parents who were worried about their children, who had chosen to drink alcohol. Modern massive research ordered by the parliament in Denmark has revealed that alcohol intake among teenagers is of no concern as long as the alcohol percentage is below 16.5, but this fact was not known in the period shortly after World War 2. In fact the Danish research conducted from 2008 to 2010 revealed that much of the existing researches in this area are manipulated research based on religious viewpoints.
Why? We have to remember that the 1950’s were a time of great concern in the United States. The aggression done by the Soviet Union forced the politicians to focus on enemies within the U.S. society. Parents were forced to view any alternative lifestyle by their children as a possible threat to their way of life. Even the normal rite of passage regarding alcohol and new drugs invented during World War 2 became a focus of worry.
The earliest recorded behavior modification program called Synanon had its roots in the AA-movement. They set up a campus in a former hotel where teenagers were confined to listen and work with the contents of the 12 step programs.
But the 12 step program did proof not to be enough. They had to find more efficient tools when dealing with people who have not accepted that they had the problem their parents had taken them to the program for.
The teaching from Asia
The answer came from Asia. When China took over the areas once ruled by the Japanese forces they had to reeducate the citizens so they could avoid executing the entire population. Their goal was to avoid opposition at all costs so they did only have those options: To make people realize that communism was the only answer or to kill them. They invented methods where people were lured into various games and tricked to believe that a certain lifestyle and a certain political viewpoint was the only answer.
When the United States became involved in the Korea war, some POW became victim of these methods and they took the knowledge of such methods back to the United States. Instead of teaching communism the same methods could be used to teach soberness. In 1974 the U.S. Congress acknowledged the use of North Korean methods in a program called SEED and shut the funding down. However they did not set up a GAO hearing after year 2000 and other programs continued to use the same methods.
The price of such methods is often PTSD. Even today when looking at the survival rate among teenagers who have been sent to a residential program it seems based on the number of suicides and mysterious traffic accidents that having been confined to residential program is just as dangerous as continuing to live an addicted lifestyle.
From Synanon to an industry
For many years Synanon were alone and considered extreme. But late in the 1960’s some of the people supporting Synanon redrew from the organization and developed a more commercial approach to deal with teenagers. It was during the years where Woodstock and the Sharon Tate murders shocked the U.S. public and gave the parents a message that even young teenagers could turn into cruel murderers within months if they were subjected to drugs.
Soon businessmen saw a potential market and early programs like Provo Canyon School in Orem (Still in existence as of 2010) and the CEDU schools became a tool if parents saw the task of parenting as too hard. Boarding schools has always been an option for the lazy parent, but the problems with the existing boarding schools were that it was a question of a timeout. Now parents were sold the idea that they could get Stepford children at a price – expensive but it was a message parents could use.
At the same time some developers took the teaching of Kurt Hahn and developed it into the modern wilderness therapy concept. The first recorded death in the wilderness therapy business did happen in 1971 in Oregon. However for many year wilderness therapy was very alike adventure therapy.
The golden years
In the 1980’s and 1990’s the citizens demanded an answer to the increasing crime wave among teenagers and the answer came with the 3 strike laws under Clinton. It seemed that a modern society with huge gaps between poor and rich with all the tension as result of these differences need to look up at least 1 percent of the entire population to enable the society to maintain a acceptable level of crime. The 3 strike laws did remove the most violent criminals from the streets.
For parents the 3 strike laws was terrible news. When the laws were new even small crimes counted as a strike. Small mistakes conducted by many kids were suddenly a threat to their future. It became too dangerous to have teenagers minding their own business. They need to be confined. School shootings did not help the situation either.
In the 1990’s programs were started every day. None seem to question the choice of methods, the education of the staff members. Even in Europe people can start a group home with no demands to their qualifications.
The wilderness therapy business was also reformed. People like Steven Cartisano transformed the industry into the modern commercial industry which did include elements used at boot camps.
The boom had a side effect. A lot of teenagers started to die when they were restrained by untrained staff or forced to walk in the wilderness without properly supervision of their medication and supply of water.
Countries outside the United States became concerned with boarding schools set up in their countries by firms from the United States and several were closed down.
Awareness
When reports of various closures abroad and the number of teenagers who died in such programs reached the media in larger numbers, the public demanded investigation and oversight.
At the same time the teenagers who had been confined in programs in the 1990’s did become adults and they were able to tell how they had been treated.
High profile cases like the confinement of teenagers in dog cages in Mexico at High Impact and the use of a boxing ring at Elan School in connection with the trial against Skakel (Member of the Kennedy clan) did raise a demand of a GAO hearing.
The GAO hearing revealed that there was a need for regulation of the industry if the number of teenagers dying in programs should be reduced.
Today there is no federal oversight of the industry. HR 911 is stuck in the congress. The teenagers are continuing to die in programs. Two teenagers died this summer. Because 80 to 90 percents of the deaths are settle outside the court system, it is difficult to say how many casualties of the behavior industry we are talking about for real.
The behavior modification industry has its roots in the AA-movement. Where participation in AA is voluntary, groups inside the organization were approached by parents who were worried about their children, who had chosen to drink alcohol. Modern massive research ordered by the parliament in Denmark has revealed that alcohol intake among teenagers is of no concern as long as the alcohol percentage is below 16.5, but this fact was not known in the period shortly after World War 2. In fact the Danish research conducted from 2008 to 2010 revealed that much of the existing researches in this area are manipulated research based on religious viewpoints.
Why? We have to remember that the 1950’s were a time of great concern in the United States. The aggression done by the Soviet Union forced the politicians to focus on enemies within the U.S. society. Parents were forced to view any alternative lifestyle by their children as a possible threat to their way of life. Even the normal rite of passage regarding alcohol and new drugs invented during World War 2 became a focus of worry.
The earliest recorded behavior modification program called Synanon had its roots in the AA-movement. They set up a campus in a former hotel where teenagers were confined to listen and work with the contents of the 12 step programs.
But the 12 step program did proof not to be enough. They had to find more efficient tools when dealing with people who have not accepted that they had the problem their parents had taken them to the program for.
The teaching from Asia
The answer came from Asia. When China took over the areas once ruled by the Japanese forces they had to reeducate the citizens so they could avoid executing the entire population. Their goal was to avoid opposition at all costs so they did only have those options: To make people realize that communism was the only answer or to kill them. They invented methods where people were lured into various games and tricked to believe that a certain lifestyle and a certain political viewpoint was the only answer.
When the United States became involved in the Korea war, some POW became victim of these methods and they took the knowledge of such methods back to the United States. Instead of teaching communism the same methods could be used to teach soberness. In 1974 the U.S. Congress acknowledged the use of North Korean methods in a program called SEED and shut the funding down. However they did not set up a GAO hearing after year 2000 and other programs continued to use the same methods.
The price of such methods is often PTSD. Even today when looking at the survival rate among teenagers who have been sent to a residential program it seems based on the number of suicides and mysterious traffic accidents that having been confined to residential program is just as dangerous as continuing to live an addicted lifestyle.
From Synanon to an industry
For many years Synanon were alone and considered extreme. But late in the 1960’s some of the people supporting Synanon redrew from the organization and developed a more commercial approach to deal with teenagers. It was during the years where Woodstock and the Sharon Tate murders shocked the U.S. public and gave the parents a message that even young teenagers could turn into cruel murderers within months if they were subjected to drugs.
Soon businessmen saw a potential market and early programs like Provo Canyon School in Orem (Still in existence as of 2010) and the CEDU schools became a tool if parents saw the task of parenting as too hard. Boarding schools has always been an option for the lazy parent, but the problems with the existing boarding schools were that it was a question of a timeout. Now parents were sold the idea that they could get Stepford children at a price – expensive but it was a message parents could use.
At the same time some developers took the teaching of Kurt Hahn and developed it into the modern wilderness therapy concept. The first recorded death in the wilderness therapy business did happen in 1971 in Oregon. However for many year wilderness therapy was very alike adventure therapy.
The golden years
In the 1980’s and 1990’s the citizens demanded an answer to the increasing crime wave among teenagers and the answer came with the 3 strike laws under Clinton. It seemed that a modern society with huge gaps between poor and rich with all the tension as result of these differences need to look up at least 1 percent of the entire population to enable the society to maintain a acceptable level of crime. The 3 strike laws did remove the most violent criminals from the streets.
For parents the 3 strike laws was terrible news. When the laws were new even small crimes counted as a strike. Small mistakes conducted by many kids were suddenly a threat to their future. It became too dangerous to have teenagers minding their own business. They need to be confined. School shootings did not help the situation either.
In the 1990’s programs were started every day. None seem to question the choice of methods, the education of the staff members. Even in Europe people can start a group home with no demands to their qualifications.
The wilderness therapy business was also reformed. People like Steven Cartisano transformed the industry into the modern commercial industry which did include elements used at boot camps.
The boom had a side effect. A lot of teenagers started to die when they were restrained by untrained staff or forced to walk in the wilderness without properly supervision of their medication and supply of water.
Countries outside the United States became concerned with boarding schools set up in their countries by firms from the United States and several were closed down.
Awareness
When reports of various closures abroad and the number of teenagers who died in such programs reached the media in larger numbers, the public demanded investigation and oversight.
At the same time the teenagers who had been confined in programs in the 1990’s did become adults and they were able to tell how they had been treated.
High profile cases like the confinement of teenagers in dog cages in Mexico at High Impact and the use of a boxing ring at Elan School in connection with the trial against Skakel (Member of the Kennedy clan) did raise a demand of a GAO hearing.
The GAO hearing revealed that there was a need for regulation of the industry if the number of teenagers dying in programs should be reduced.
Today there is no federal oversight of the industry. HR 911 is stuck in the congress. The teenagers are continuing to die in programs. Two teenagers died this summer. Because 80 to 90 percents of the deaths are settle outside the court system, it is difficult to say how many casualties of the behavior industry we are talking about for real.
