So Fair A House : Daniel Casriel [ Synanon , Signed ]
$250
In stock
Description
Signed first edition of Daniel Casriel ‘s So Fair A House : The Story of Synanon , the drug rehab program turned “psychotherapy cult”.
Casriel, Dr. Daniel. So Fair A House: The Story of Synanon. Prentice Hall. New York. 1963. First Edition.
This signed first edition copy of So Fair A House: The Story of Synanon marks the beginning of widespread acceptance and respectability for Synanon, the controversial drug rehabilitation program turned arguable “psychotherapy cult”. The author, practicing psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Casriel, was invited to stay at a California branch of the Synanon group by the organization’s founder, Charles Dederich, in order to witness the program for himself and to speak with numerous members about the impact of their new lifestyle on their addictions.
Based on the theory that “one cannot get up until he is knocked down”, the group’s signature practice “The Game” aimed to inspire emotional catharsis through brutal “honesty” with participants taking turns being verbally denigrated and abused by other group members in order to help “quit their bullshit”. Genuinely successful in its initial aim to assist drug addicts — potentially representing the best available program in the United States before Narcotics Anonymous– the group grew into a true cult by the early to mid-1970s with Dederich allowing non-addicts (“squares”) to join Synanon as a sort of Utopian “Synanist” commune if they transferred their personal assets to the organization.
Although this book was written before that ultimate turn, it is striking that Casriel donated $2000 to Dederich to assist him in the opening of an East Coast Synanon branch before ultimately starting his own New York-based Daytop drug treatment program and center on Staten Island the same year as this publication. Synanon was later banned from operating in the United States in 1991 with one office remaining open in Germany.
8vo, 224pp, black cloth boards. Minor wear to corners. Inscribed by author on first free endpaper. Pages clean. Near Fine. Dust jacket toned at edges, small tear to back wrap bottom edge. Wear with pigments losses to bottom spine edges and front wrap edge. Very good.
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