# Odd family lore you just discovered **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 26, 2023, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141 "2023-12-26T00:14:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/41 "2023-12-27T07:36:05Z")
About 4 years ago, my father happened to mention that he had been in a cult in college. I mean, he claimed that it wasn’t a cult, at least not when he was working with them. According to him, they were a charity that helped addicts and troubled youth through talk therapy. He said that they would sit around and talk about each others’ life choices and personalities, and that it was a enlightening and fulfilling experience. He conceded that the organization later became kind of weird and violent, but by them he had moved on with his life. I looked the organization up when I got home: > **[Synanon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon)** > > Synanon, originally known as Tender Loving Care, was a new religious movement founded in 1958 by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich Sr. in Santa Monica, California, United States. Originally established as a drug rehabilitation program, Synanon developed into an alternative community centered on group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game," a form of attack therapy. The group ultimately became a cult called the Church of Synanon in the 1970s. > Described as one of the "most da... … and boy, did that explain a lot about my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/42 "2023-12-28T00:53:09Z")
I knew what organization you were talking about when I got to the second sentence of your second paragraph. Synanon was pretty notorious when I was a kid. And for years after the organization pretty much crashed and burned there was a gas station I wouldn’t go to, because it was the “Synanon gas station.” ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/43 "2023-12-28T02:52:40Z")
> [@teelabrown](#): > > But Mr. brown still feels German and in addition hates on the Russians for invading Ukraine. I’m keeping my mouth shut. I feel honored to be part of your secret support group. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/44 "2023-12-28T03:37:04Z")
Have you ever seen the “Synanon” movie? TCH has aired it. It’s OK. > **[Synanon (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon_(film))** > > Synanon is a 1965 American drama film directed by Richard Quine and starring Chuck Connors, Stella Stevens, Alex Cord, Richard Conte, Eartha Kitt and Edmond O'Brien. It featured a screenplay by Ian Bernard and was filmed at Synanon in Santa Monica, California. > Hooked on heroin, Zankie Albo is admitted to Synanon House, a rehabilitation center. Chuck Dederich, a recovering alcoholic, is in charge. > Zankie is placed in the care of Joaney during his early, painful stages of drug withdrawal. She, to... Factoid: A rural California weekly newspaper with a peak circulation of about 1,500 won a Pulitzer Prize for their exposure of Synanon, after the cult relocated to their area. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/45 "2023-12-28T11:34:37Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Have you ever seen the “Synanon” movie? TCH has aired it. It’s OK. > > [Synanon (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon_(film)) No, but it came out just a year or two before my dad started working with them, so I assume that’s when the organization was at the height of its respectability. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/46 "2023-12-28T11:42:31Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > … and boy, did that explain a lot about my childhood. Details? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/47 "2023-12-28T12:04:03Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Details? Well, for one, those looooooong conversations we would have, which mostly consisted of him talking for what seemed like hours, where he would analyze and criticize every aspect of my life, past, present and future. Don’t get me wrong: Dad was a good man, an attentive and affectionate parent who was as generous with the praise as he was with the criticism (and who was as tough on himself as he was on me), but man did I grow to hate those talks. He was also an inherently argumentative person (he was a lawyer, of course), who would challenge any opinion I had just for the sake of a good debate. I think he saw it as a compliment, as a sign of respect for my intelligence. It’s one of those things I’ve been realizing about our relationship now that he’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/48 "2023-12-28T17:35:00Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > A rural California weekly newspaper with a peak circulation of about 1,500 won a Pulitzer Prize for their exposure of Synanon, after the cult relocated to their area. Which makes it all the worse that small independent newspapers are either being gobbled up by chains or losing the fight to stay in business. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141/49 "2023-12-28T19:27:34Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > I find that strange since they were devout Catholics, but that’s what happened. Possibly the baby was a bastard which would not have been allowed burial in the churchyard? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-family-lore-you-just-discovered/995141.md?page=2)