Developmental Communalism in the Therapeutic Community Movement: Synanon and the Oxford House Model
Abstract
Synanon started as a self-help drug rehabilitation program in the late 1950s in California, with founder Chuck Dederich applying what he learned in Alcoholics Anonymous to help drug addicts. By the late 60s, Synanon evolved into an intentional community with a psychotherapeutic focus – a community that has been called everything from a utopian community to a religion to a dangerous cult. After amassing a large following and significant assets, the community experienced a multitude of legal and financial problems, formally disbanding in 1991. In line with the idea of developmental communalism, many of the ideas that Dederich pioneered in Synanon live on in what is called the therapeutic community movement – a movement to provide more democratic, participatory residential care for people with mental health and substance use disorders. While therapeutic communities had their start in Britain around the time of World War II, the movement in the United States started later and was largely influenced by Synanon -- focusing on a self-help model that used the peer group to replace mental health professionals. One prominent example is the Oxford House, a resident-run communal home for sober living that got its start in 1975 and has expanded to over 3,000 houses, annually serving approximately 46,000 people largely in the USA but also in Australia, Canada, England, and Ghana. This paper will examine the Oxford House model to try to understand why it has prospered and spread when Synanon did not, and to consider how its path might inform the intentional communities movement.
