Charles E. Dederich

Charles Edwin Dederich , (born March 22, 1913 in Toledo , Ohio , † February 28, 1997 in Visalia , California ), called Chuck , was the founder of Synanon , a self-help organization for drug addicts.

Life

Dederich's family were Republican , Conservative, and Roman Catholic . His father Edwin Dederich had German ancestors, was an alcoholic and died in a traffic accident when Dederich was four years old. Chuck's mother Agnes, née Kountz, came from a good family. She had studied music and was trained as a classical singer. After the death of her husband, she had to rely on her brother's support and on making extra money with concerts. When Chuck was twelve years old, his mother remarried. Chuck is said to have not liked his stepfather.

Dederich went to high school and then attended Notre Dame University for a year and a half . He is said to have already consumed large amounts of alcohol there. He later worked in the administration of the Gulf Refining Company in Toledo for nine years .

In 1936 Dederich married a divorced woman - an affront to his Catholic environment. His son Dede comes from this marriage. In 1942, Chuck fell ill with meningitis and went into a very critical condition. He was one of the first civilians to be treated with penicillin and suspected it might have saved his life. However, he retained restrictions on the right side of his face; including a deaf ear, signs of paralysis and a half-closed eye. Part of his memory and feelings were also lost.

In 1943 Dederich left his wife and son and set out for the west coast of the United States to "die in the warm". He met Ruth in California. They married in 1948 and two years later his daughter Jady was born. He worked for Douglas Aircraft for a short time , but lost his job because of his alcohol problems.

On May 14, 1956, Chuck went to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and their drinking program quit. He was 43 years old, without money or work. He became very active at AA, attending as many of their meetings as possible and taking care of other alcoholics. He lived off occasional jobs and the help of friends. At the AA he became a well-known and feared speaker. Later he once said: “I say it with all the humility I am capable of, and it is not very large, but when I sit down and start talking, people gather around me. It is inevitable. No matter where I do this, it just happens. I can't stop it. "

In August 1957, Chuck took part in a controlled experiment at the University of Los Angeles on LSD and experienced violent emotions and many buried memories of his childhood. After that he should have felt much more alive.

Chuck rented an apartment with a group of AA members. People met there, listened to music and enjoyed life. At the window, also to the confusion of passers-by, were the mottos TLC for “tender loving care” and DVO for “deep vaginal orgasm”. Both and many other issues were lively discussed. There were only two rules: no substances that alter consciousness, and no physical violence or the threat of it.

Here happened what was later referred to as "the miracle on the beach in Santa Monica" and which would make Chuck famous: The first drug addict found himself in this club and voluntarily stayed sober. Until then, drug addicts were considered hopeless, untreatable, and could only be forcibly prevented from using drugs. Chuck realized that he had come across something important and new, something previously considered impossible. He decided to pursue this discovery with all his might. On September 18, 1958, Synanon Incorporated was incorporated in Santa Monica . From here until the end of Synanon Incorporated in 1991, Chuck remained closely associated with Synanon. He remained her head and her source of ideas.

In 1959, Betty Coleman came to Synanon, who married Dederich in 1963. On April 19, 1977, Betty died of lung cancer in Synanon. In the same year he married Ginny Shorin, a teacher at Synanon.

In 1978, while visiting Europe, Chuck began drinking alcohol again. Back in the USA, he was prescribed psychotropic drugs when he was depressed . There were also several heart attacks in the 1980s. After Synanon went bankrupt in 1991, he lived in Visalia , California with his fourth wife, Ginny, and remaining friends . There he died at the age of 83 on February 28, 1997 in the Kaweah Delta Hospital .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Lawrence van Gelder: Charles Dederich, 83, Synanon Founder, Dies. In: The New York Times. March 4, 1997, Retrieved April 15, 2011 .  

literature

• Daniel Casriel: So fair a House: the story of Synanon . Prentice-Hall Inc., 1963.
• David U. Gerstel: Paradise Incorporated: Synanon . Presidio Press, 1982.
• Rod Janzen: The Rise and Fall of Synanon . The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.