TTI history part One

The Troubled Teen Industry grew and changed through the years in ways that reflected the popular attitudes and concerns of our society. 

The early development of the TTI was strongly influenced, just like the rest of the United States, by the first and second World Wars. 

In 1919, a group of conservative protestants formed the World Christian Fundamentals Association. They were concerned that war, rumors of war, and other current events were signs of the coming Armageddon. They believed that everyone could be saved by following strict rules based on a completely literal interpretation of the King James Version Bible.

In 1922, a Lutheran priest named Frank Buchman founded the First Century Christian Fellowship (FCCF) based on those fundamentalist principles. He wanted to help alcoholics and other people who had what he considered “moral issues”. His version of help involved hosting house parties where participants would sit together, confess their sins, ask for advice, give advice, and pray together. After a trip to South Africa in 1928, Buchman renamed FCCF to The Oxford Group.

In 1934, a friend told Bill Wilson that The Oxford Group had helped him get sober and they attended a meeting together. About a week later, Wilson was hospitalized for alcoholism. During his treatment, he was given hallucinogenic medications for four days while members of The Oxford Group prayed around him. At the end of his treatment, Wilson said that his alcoholism had been cured and that he had come up with the idea for Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which was heavily inspired by The Oxford Group. AA’s program was based on Wilson’s belief that alcoholism is a moral, medical, and spiritual disease. The first AA group began meeting in 1935 in New York City. Successful members of AA were told that they could maintain their sobriety by sponsoring new members of the program.

Throughout the 1930s, the Christian Fundamentalist movement grew across the American South. Fundamentalists created their own schools, newspapers, radio stations, and churches. They believed that it was important to isolate themselves from non-religious influences.

During the same time period, psychologists around the world were conducting experiments in the developing field of behaviorism. Behaviorists were developing ways to change the behaviors of humans and animals using environment, punishment, and rewards.

Beginning in 1942, sociologists and psychologists at US Army garrisons were assigned to create ways to retrain American WWII soldiers who weren’t following orders. In 1946 at Fort Knox, a sociologist named Lloyd McCorkle invented the “total psychotherapeutic push method,” which he renamed Guided Group Interaction (GGI) to use outside of the military. The GGI model required participants to enforce rules and provide therapy to each other.

In 1949, McCorkle received grants from the New York Foundation and the Vincent Astor Fund to create an experimental GGI program for 15 to 17 year-old boys who were in trouble with the law. The program was called the Highfields center. 

That same year, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility that the Soviet Union was using mind control as a weapon. President Harry Truman gave the CIA permission to test LSD on human subjects to find out if it could be used as a mind control drug.

In 1950, CIA director Roscoe Hillenkoetter created Project Bluebird, later renamed Project Artichoke, to conduct experiments and attempt to create a mind control program. These experiments were typically conducted on prisoners of war and included drugs, hypnosis, electroshock, extreme temperatures, strange noises, bright lights, restricted diets, and sleep deprivation. Some of these experiments were conducted at CIA black sites, with help provided by WWII war criminals from Nazi Germany and Japan. The results of these experiments would be used in creating programs for reforming youth later on. 

In 1956, Judge Monroe Paxman founded the Pinehills Center, which was meant to reform teenage boys before they got into too much trouble with the justice system. It was also called The Provo Experiment. The program followed a GGI model, with boys doing schoolwork and manual labor during the day, then participating in therapy groups in the evening. The boys lived nearby and commuted to and from the center every day with graduate students from nearby Brigham Young University. Boys at Pinehills had to progress through a phase system that was tied to restrictions and privileges. They were required to vote on whether or not their peers were allowed to move up to the next phase. Boys who were not compliant with the program were insulted and shunned by their peers.

That same year, a man named Chuck Dederich went to his first AA meeting and it dramatically changed the course of his life. Dederich attended meetings regularly and allowed other AA members to stay at his home. 

In 1957, Dederich was at an AA meeting when he was recruited by Sydney Cohen and Keith Dittman to participate in a study researching how LSD affects alcoholics. This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dederich felt enlightened by his experiences with LSD and used the experience as inspiration to create his own program for people with substance use disorders called Tender Loving Care. He held meetings in his home where members would talk about themselves, like they did at meetings for AA and The Oxford Group, but in Dederich’s program, members were encouraged to confront and insult each other. This treatment method is often called attack therapy.

In 1958, Dederich changed the name of Tender Loving Care to Synanon Foundation. At this stage, Synanon was a two-year residential program for adults with substance use disorders, using a GGI model.

That same year, a popular Christian Fundamentalist pastor, radio host, and author named Lester Roloff opened his first boarding school. Roloff built The Lighthouse for Boys on Padre Island in Texas, which was only accessible by plane or boat. Most of the boys at Lighthouse had run away from home or were on court-ordered probation. Their program consisted primarily of bible study, prayer, forced manual labor, and routine physical assault. Roloff was vocally opposed to the study of psychology and sociology.

Throughout the 1960s, more centers were established based on Highfields, using funds from the Ford Foundation; The US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO); the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA); and NIMH.

In 1963, a priest named William O’Brien and a criminologist named Alexander Bassin visited Synanon in Connecticut. Inspired by Synanon, they teamed up with a psychiatrist named Daniel Casriel and a probation officer named Joseph Shelley to found a rehabilitation program for adults called Daytop Village in 1964. Daytop Village was created through a $390,000 grant from NIMH.

In 1966, Congress passed the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act. The act enabled drug-related charges to be dropped after three years if the person in question received rehabilitation treatment and stayed sober. 

In 1967, the deputy commissioner of the New York City Addiction Services Agency, Mitch Rosenthal, founded a rehabilitation center for children and adults called Phoenix House. Rosenthal based the program for Phoenix House on Synanon’s program in Santa Monica, CA. 

That same year, one of Lester Roloff’s supporters donated a former US Air Force base in Zapata, TX, which he used to found Anchor Home for Boys. Anchor Home used the same program model as the Lighthouse for Boys.

In 1967, Roloff also established Rebekah Home, outside of Corpus Christi, TX. Rebekah Home was advertised as a program for girls under 18 who were disobedient, sexually active, pregnant, or used drugs or alcohol. Girls who attended Rebekah Home experienced the same program of forced manual labor, bible study, prayer, and physical assault experienced at Roloff’s other homes.

In California, a Synanon member named Mel Wasserman founded CEDU, originally a working ranch with participants ranging from 13 to 24 years old.

Sources for this section included:

“To Use This Word … Would Be Absurd”: How the Brainwashing Label Threatened and Enabled the Troubled-Teen Industry by Mark M. Chatfield (2024, Cambridge University Press)

Fountain of Youth: Surviving Institutional Child Abuse in the Troubled Teen Industry by Andrew Gordon Brown (2022, University of Arizona)

The Game Part 1: Dopefiend (2022, TrueAnon podcast)

Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control by Stephen Kinzer (2019, Henry Holt and Co.)