Four months later Born in Synanon debuted on Paramount+, Synanon will receive the HBO documentary treatment with The Synanon Solution. The four-part documentary series covers much of the same topic, but all of the interviews are with former members of Synanon, including the daughter of founder Charles “Chuck” Dederich.
THE SYNANON FIX: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: A black and white video of a Synanon game, where people sit in a room and tell each other the brutal truth about themselves, often at maximum volume.
The essence: The Synanon Solution is a four-part docuseries, produced by Rory Kennedy and Mark Bailey, that looks at the Synanon movement, started by Charles “Chuck” Dederich in 1958 as a way to bring people addicted to heroin into an environment where they are responsible. . each other to be and stay clean. During the 1960s, the Santa Monica-based program grew exponentially as word spread about how effective it was at rehabilitating “drug addicts” who entered the program. But as the show gained more fame and raised more money, Dederich became more erratic, and when he was arrested on conspiracy to murder and other charges in 1978, Synanon was close to becoming a cult.
Kennedy and Bailey speak with several former members of Synanon, many from the early days of the program, when they were purely “junkies” helping other addicts, welcoming them into a community that was more open and perse than any community most of them I would have seen. . Through the sessions that became known as the Synanon Game, brutal honesty caused these people to look inward and make changes. At least that was the ideal of Dederich, who achieved sobriety through AA but thought a more interactive, discourse-oriented program would work for heroin addicts.
Among those interviewed is Jady Dederich Montgomery, daughter of Chuck Dederich and eventual leader of Synanon, who speaks for the first time about her experiences.
Through these interviews and extensive film footage, archival photographs, and audio from various Synanon meetings, we learn about the organization’s growth from humble beginnings to becoming a pop culture phenomenon in the late 1960s. with “squares” and “lifestyles.” ”, none of whom had drug problems, joining the organization for the community it fostered. It was these people, and not drug addicts, who saw Dederich as some kind of god, making him the erratic, power-hungry figure he became in the 1970s.
What shows will it remind you of? The Synanon Solution covers much of the same ground, albeit with different perspectives, as the Paramount+ documentary series Born in Synanon.
Our opinion: If you looked Born in Synanonmuch of what you will see in The Synanon Solution It will look familiar to you. But if you didn’t, you’ll find that Kennedy and Bailey take a fairly straightforward path through Synanon’s history, from its inception to its effective dissolution in the 1990s.
There doesn’t need to be a lot of bells and whistles when telling Synanon’s story, thanks to all the video, audio, and photographic evidence the organization left behind. Instead of filling the time with reenactments or fancy graphics, we get photos and videos of people talking to the filmmakers half a century or more since they joined, documentary interviews with Dederich, and enough Synanon gameplay footage to make the viewer’s head spin. . .
What makes this docuseries different from Born in Synanon is that, rather than launching from the perspective of someone born into the organization/cult, we get many perspectives from people who were actually there, especially those who managed to cleanse themselves and change their lives during the early days of the organization, when it focused on rehabilitate addicts.
The only perspective we were interested in seeing was how “drug addicts” felt when Synanon became less of a treatment method and more of a community and lifestyle. As “squares” and “lifestyles” became a larger and larger part of the community, we wanted to know if addicts felt abandoned, and interviews with some of the addicts who were in the program found out. they confirmed. There definitely seemed to be a turn within Synanon at some point in the late ’60s, and that turn is probably what fostered its transformation from a “cure” to a cult.
Another thing that was mentioned but not really explored was that many of the addicts who stayed clean while being part of the Synanon community relapsed after leaving. Dederich was quoted as telling members that they would probably die if they left, but no one seemed to question the effectiveness of the program because of that; Because addiction was considered a moral failing rather than a disease back then, any program that got people clean was looked upon with reverence, even if its principles were never translated outside of the program.
But, like all shows about cult-like organizations, we’re looking for that moment when greed and power go to Dederich’s head. However, unlike other cult-oriented series, we don’t look at Synanon and scratch our heads at how people can be so in awe of the organization. Yes, the Synanon game seemed more harmful than helpful, especially when used with the children of members who moved into the organization’s community housing. But in the context of the time, the Game was notable for its austerity and honesty, and for how people in a session of the Game respected the rule of no coming to blows, despite some of the vicious, expletive-filled stuff. what people said. and each other. Then, after that kind of cathartic session, there would often be a “hoopla,” or dance party, with live music from some of the musicians who were part of the community. Every time we see that, we are fascinated.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting Shot: One former member observes that the “lifers” began to view Dederich as a god, and the “veterans,” the addicts who were in the program from the beginning and did not view Dederich the same way, were being pushed out.
Sleeping star: Jady Dederich Montgomery’s firsthand accounts of growing up in Synanon and eventually becoming its leader are invaluable.
Most pilot line: Much of the Synanon game footage is cringeworthy, but as we said, you have to think about it in the context of the time. However, subjecting children to the Synanon game was just as wrong then as it is now. Most of them simply couldn’t stand the insults, curses and attacks.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. Although we didn’t see much in The Synanon Solution that we didn’t see in previous Synanon-focused docuseries, the whole Synanon phenomenon is so fascinating to watch that we didn’t mind exploring it again, with some new voices to describe their experiences.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
