Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Joe's Apartment
Fornits Vocabulary Bee
Sid Vicious:
--- Quote ---On 2004-04-07 08:44:00, Antigen wrote:
"Yup, we used "rationalize" the same way. Also, it was a cardinal rule that we not "intellectualize" anything. For all intents and purposes (NOT "intensive purposes"!), thinking was against the rules.
Step 1. We came to understand that the government is powerless over people's private use of drugs and that the War on Drugs was making the government's life unmanageable.
--Scott Tillinghast
--- End quote ---
"
--- End quote ---
Or you could say "the war on drugs and terrorism is giving the government the perfect excuse to ignore everyone's rights and become the fourth order (Hitler being the third)"
Rachael:
I survived AARC (Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre), the (as far as I know) farthest down the chain of the ubiquitous Straight, Kids, Seed line.
Pretty much every term I saw posted was used in AARC. Especially "pushing feelings", "rationalizing" , "in my past".
Also, I had exactly the same experience my first night w/ respect to the term "relate". I said to another "client": I empathize with .... Not only should I have said "I relate", but I was also "intellectualizing". Never before in my life as the daughter of an English prof had I been chastized for having used a three-syllable word. I never could force myself to speak AARCish, although I tried.
Also, before AARC, I never used swear-words to express myself. I found that I was "intellectualizing" if I didn't though.
Goodtobefree:
Let's see what I can rememember. Rules were always referred to as agreements. The 3 main ones were the drug sex and violence agreements. To be "out of agreement" meant you had broken an agreement and had not yet confessed or been caught.
Punishments for infractions were called consequences. If these punishments involved exercise they were called P.T. or physical training.
The wilderness/soulcrushing portion of the program was called Base Camp, or Passages. You progressed through a complex system of ranks named after animals by completing a variety of tasks such as memorizing the values the animal symbolized, and what this meant in the program, reading short stories and discussing their meaning with counselors, completing camping tasks like making a fire with 2 sticks and cooking meals, writing assignments on why you were at ASR and how you intended to stop being a nasty little fucker, etc. Depending on your rank you could have certain spices in your food, or sugar on your oatmeal.
The main therapy terms tossed around were "patterns", kinda self explanatory, your typical responses to given situations. To be "going into your patterns" meant to be acting in a way believed to be characteristic of your unhealthy lifestyle and/or your counterproductive attitude.
"Image" meant the stereotypical image of the social group people believed you were a part of pre-ASR. Hippie, punk, prep, jock, thug, etc. Unfortunately counselors were sometimes woefully uneducated and judgmental about youth cultures. If a kid listened to Marylin Manson, he'd spend the next 14 months being hassled for being in denial about being a satanist. It was also used as an adjective. "You're being imagey."
To speak about your past in a manner that didn't conform to ASR ideals was called "Warstorying, or telling war stories".
"Bans" a ban on communication. You're not allowed to talk to... It could be 1 person, half the school, etc. depending on circumstances. "Stop talking to each other, you're on bans."
Restrictions came in 3 flavors, Reflections, Challenges, and Self-Studies. Reflections were usually just a series of writing assignments and talks with a counselor and/or students who'd committed the same infraction. Challenges had all of the above, plus a few more. No recreational activity. Bans with all other restricted students at a bare minimum. Work detail, such as shoveling snow or unpleasant cleaning duties such as the kitchen in summer. Self-Studies had all of the above plus bans with either all or almost all students. A self study meant you were an infraction away from being recommended for a more intensive facility.
On campus there were a lot more vocabulary terms. Once you got to campus you were assigned a "Peer Group". Between 10 and 18 kids and 2 counselors. Enrollment was rotational, so peer groups were formed as kids got to campus. Peer groups went through the psychological curriculum together, though you might not necessarily have any academic classes with peer group members, since ages ranged from 14 to 19.
The curriculum involved four LGAT seminars called "lifesteps", with "educational seminars" on topics such as STD's, Drugs, Learning Disabilities, and Goal Setting. Depending on your progress you were either in upper or lower school. The dividing line was whether you'd been through the 2nd lifestep. Upper school kids were expected to accept program doctrine unquestioningly, and enforce it on the lower school kids.
Some of the therapy terms were "games", i.e. manipulative techniques we employ on others. If you try to get what you want through intimidation that's the "intimidation game". If you did anything out of the ordinary, you were probably playing the "attention game".
"Intellectualizing" meant applying logic and reason to something. Pointing out inconsistencies in rules or practices meant you were "intellectualizing"
"Rationalizing" or "Justifying" meant trying to explain yourself or your belief system.
"Truth lists" were written confessions of any and all infractions you hadn't confessed to or been caught for, as well as any you knew about. They were the first thing you did on every restriction, before every lifestep, and anytime a counselor thought you were lying.
That's about all I remember at the moment.
flygirl:
[ This Message was edited by: flygirl on 2006-04-26 06:26 ]
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