ICSA TODAY 24
Book Review
Institutionalized
Persuasion: The
Technology of
Reformation in Straight
Incorporated and
the Residential Teen
Treatment Industry
By Marcus Chatfield
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2014. ISBN-10:
1503137198 ISBN-13: 978-1503137196 (paperback). $12.00
(Amazon.com). 316 pages.
Review by Ron Burks
To begin, I must admit bias in this review. Almost twenty years
ago, while at Wellspring, I treated several former “Straightlings”
and other former residents of abusive adolescent drug-
treatment centers. I thought the Straight program had
been discredited and the related organizations shut down
around that time. However, I now know that the last Straight-
connected facility was not closed until 2008, and hundreds
more have taken their place.
Marcus Chatfield, a client of Straight Incorporated in the
1980s, has been researching the program informally and
now academically for more than 25 years, and this work is his
undergraduate thesis. Much of the text of Institutionalized
Persuasion is an exposé of a corrupt organization. On the first
page, we find the author’s thesis: “Abuse has been condoned
as therapeutic treatment for institutionalized teens in the
United States for decades” (p. 9). By the time we get to the
end of the book, we find that the problem of institutional
persuasion is far more pervasive than what happened at this
one organization. It continues to put thousands of children at
risk today.
In the first chapter, the author describes institutionalized
persuasion as a technology. He gives “extreme examples
showing how far some groups have taken these methods…”
(p. 14). He cautions that thought reform can be used by
people who do not know its potential for harm: “In much the
same way fire is ‘triggered’ according to natural laws,
...coercion is triggered by environmental and social
conditions.” These conditions
“seem to activate evolved human tendencies that work
together as a predictable ‘technology of behavior’
(Rutherford, 2009 Skinner, 2002). Whether or not the
conditions and ingredients are imposed by design or
by spontaneous development, where they are present
together, the technology is activated, often leading to
abuse and trauma. (p. 19–20)
In the second chapter, Chatfield provides a program overview
and shares his experience in Straight. His description of
his daily life in Straight is horrifying. Life, every day, was
humiliation, isolation from family, sleep deprivation, 12-hour
meetings, inadequate nutrition, and living under the constant
threat of demotion and having to start the program over.
In Straight, the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and
Narcotics Anonymous (NA) were reduced to 7 steps and
twisted, completely altering the experience of recovery. For
example, Straight conflated the principles found in AA’s steps
4, 5, and 10. AA’s Step 4 states, “Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves” step 5 states, “Admitted to God,
to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature
of our wrongs” (italics mine). In practice, 12-step members
might take these actions once every year or two in the early
years of sobriety, with a sponsor, someone with several years
of sobriety who works one on one with the new member.
The content of the steps is considered confidential and is not
shared by the sponsor with anyone else. The context is one
of identification and encouragement (“W,” 1952, p. 46). Step
10 reads “Continued to take personal inventory and when
we were wrong promptly admitted it.” This is considered
a personal practice to support the serenity that is seen as
necessary for sustained abstinence. Larger life problems might
call for the involvement of one’s sponsor (pp. 89-90).
The Straight version of AA’s step 4 reads, “Make a searching
and fearless moral inventory of myself daily” (p 42, italics
mine). AA’s step 5 was combined with step 10 to become
“Admit to God, myself, and another human being the exact
nature of my wrongs immediately” (p. 43, italics mine). Further,
according to the author, this practice happened in a group
setting, and any failure to denounce oneself every day
resulted in “consequences.” Consequences included hours of
public humiliation, along with sleep deprivation and a diet of
peanut-butter sandwiches.
The author’s diet, sleep and toileting were strictly
controlled. He was in meetings at least 12 hours every day.
Communication with parents, if they were able to come to the
facility on Sundays, was limited to 7 minutes and could only
consist of apologies for wrongs committed before coming to
Straight. Any complaints would result in loss of seeing parents
at all.
Unlike many works of this genre, Chatfield only briefly
explores how he coped with the aftermath of the experience
and how the abuse in the group affected his life. Perhaps
spending 25 years researching the organization was his way
Book Review
Institutionalized
Persuasion: The
Technology of
Reformation in Straight
Incorporated and
the Residential Teen
Treatment Industry
By Marcus Chatfield
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. 2014. ISBN-10:
1503137198 ISBN-13: 978-1503137196 (paperback). $12.00
(Amazon.com). 316 pages.
Review by Ron Burks
To begin, I must admit bias in this review. Almost twenty years
ago, while at Wellspring, I treated several former “Straightlings”
and other former residents of abusive adolescent drug-
treatment centers. I thought the Straight program had
been discredited and the related organizations shut down
around that time. However, I now know that the last Straight-
connected facility was not closed until 2008, and hundreds
more have taken their place.
Marcus Chatfield, a client of Straight Incorporated in the
1980s, has been researching the program informally and
now academically for more than 25 years, and this work is his
undergraduate thesis. Much of the text of Institutionalized
Persuasion is an exposé of a corrupt organization. On the first
page, we find the author’s thesis: “Abuse has been condoned
as therapeutic treatment for institutionalized teens in the
United States for decades” (p. 9). By the time we get to the
end of the book, we find that the problem of institutional
persuasion is far more pervasive than what happened at this
one organization. It continues to put thousands of children at
risk today.
In the first chapter, the author describes institutionalized
persuasion as a technology. He gives “extreme examples
showing how far some groups have taken these methods…”
(p. 14). He cautions that thought reform can be used by
people who do not know its potential for harm: “In much the
same way fire is ‘triggered’ according to natural laws,
...coercion is triggered by environmental and social
conditions.” These conditions
“seem to activate evolved human tendencies that work
together as a predictable ‘technology of behavior’
(Rutherford, 2009 Skinner, 2002). Whether or not the
conditions and ingredients are imposed by design or
by spontaneous development, where they are present
together, the technology is activated, often leading to
abuse and trauma. (p. 19–20)
In the second chapter, Chatfield provides a program overview
and shares his experience in Straight. His description of
his daily life in Straight is horrifying. Life, every day, was
humiliation, isolation from family, sleep deprivation, 12-hour
meetings, inadequate nutrition, and living under the constant
threat of demotion and having to start the program over.
In Straight, the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and
Narcotics Anonymous (NA) were reduced to 7 steps and
twisted, completely altering the experience of recovery. For
example, Straight conflated the principles found in AA’s steps
4, 5, and 10. AA’s Step 4 states, “Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves” step 5 states, “Admitted to God,
to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature
of our wrongs” (italics mine). In practice, 12-step members
might take these actions once every year or two in the early
years of sobriety, with a sponsor, someone with several years
of sobriety who works one on one with the new member.
The content of the steps is considered confidential and is not
shared by the sponsor with anyone else. The context is one
of identification and encouragement (“W,” 1952, p. 46). Step
10 reads “Continued to take personal inventory and when
we were wrong promptly admitted it.” This is considered
a personal practice to support the serenity that is seen as
necessary for sustained abstinence. Larger life problems might
call for the involvement of one’s sponsor (pp. 89-90).
The Straight version of AA’s step 4 reads, “Make a searching
and fearless moral inventory of myself daily” (p 42, italics
mine). AA’s step 5 was combined with step 10 to become
“Admit to God, myself, and another human being the exact
nature of my wrongs immediately” (p. 43, italics mine). Further,
according to the author, this practice happened in a group
setting, and any failure to denounce oneself every day
resulted in “consequences.” Consequences included hours of
public humiliation, along with sleep deprivation and a diet of
peanut-butter sandwiches.
The author’s diet, sleep and toileting were strictly
controlled. He was in meetings at least 12 hours every day.
Communication with parents, if they were able to come to the
facility on Sundays, was limited to 7 minutes and could only
consist of apologies for wrongs committed before coming to
Straight. Any complaints would result in loss of seeing parents
at all.
Unlike many works of this genre, Chatfield only briefly
explores how he coped with the aftermath of the experience
and how the abuse in the group affected his life. Perhaps
spending 25 years researching the organization was his way
