The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult?
The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult?
The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult?
Documentary
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Overview
Explore the rise and fall of the Synanon organization — through the eyes of the members who lived it — from its early days as a groundbreaking drug rehabilitation program to its later descent into what many consider a cult.
Status: Ended
First Air Date: 2024-04-01
Runtime: 1h 0m
Director: Rory Kennedy
Writer: Unknown
Official Videos
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Episodes - Season 1
Here Come the Dopefiends
Here Come the Dopefiends
Episode 1
Recovering alcoholic Chuck Dederich opens a storefront drug rehabilitation program that gains a following through its confrontational talk-therapy approach. As the program attracts non-addicts and celebrity followers, Synanon grows into a social movement that rapidly expands across the country.
A War on Convention
A War on Convention
Episode 2
By the 1970s, Synanon boasts its own farm, a school, and multiple businesses, but Chuck’s utopian vision begins to crack. As members face more extreme edicts, including mandates to quit smoking, separate from their children, and shave their heads – many find themselves weighing the benefits and costs of the choices they’re forced to make.
What in the Hell is Happening?
What in the Hell is Happening?
Episode 3
Chuck’s behavior becomes more belligerent and abusive. He forms a military-like boot camp for delinquent children where corporal punishment abounds. He mandates vasectomies and abortions and, when his wife dies, he quickly remarries and decrees that all current relationships must end so that everyone can find new partners. Many members divorce and remarry, which some of them later regret. TIME Magazine publishes “Swinging at Synanon” and Chuck sues for $76 million as his paranoia grows.
Strap Yourself to the Mast
Strap Yourself to the Mast
Episode 4
In 1977, the Los Angeles Times reports on the nine-day abduction of Frances Winn by Synanon. Lawyer Paul Morantz wins a settlement case in her favor. With media focus heating up, Chuck spends $62,000 on guns and ammunition, at the time the largest single firearms purchase in California history. Soon thereafter, he allegedly orchestrates an attempt on Morantz’s life. He is sentenced to five years probation. Drinking again and diagnosed with mental illness, Chuck loses everything and dies in a nursing home, leaving a troubled legacy as a creative, but unchecked genius. Many adherents are left to piece together their lives in the aftermath without Synanon.
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