The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult?

Recovering alcoholic Charles "Chuck" Dederich opens a storefront drug rehabilitation program in Santa Monica in 1958, offering addicts a welcoming space to work through their problems via emotional, verbal catharsis. Synanon, as he names it, soon attracts celebrities and non-addicts who donate their time and wealth to the program. The community grows into a social movement that expands across the country, with thousands of people saying Synanon saved their lives.

By 1970, Synanon has become a version of model society. The self-sustaining, member-run, communal living enclave boasts its own farm, a school, and multiple businesses. Chuck establishes "The Synanon Religion" and maintains their tax-exempt status. As Chuck becomes increasingly authoritative and dictatorial, he implements more extreme edicts, including mandatory head-shaving and living conditions in which the children are kept apart from their parents. Many members find themselves weighing the benefits and costs of the choices they're forced to make.

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.

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.