Synanon by Guy Endore [FIRST EDITION]

FIRST EDITION [1968] DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY

Hardcover with dust jacket in very good condition.  DJ has some shelf wear and a few nicks.  Book itself is excellent and reads like new. 

A first hand account from the early days of Synanon, a once sane organization founded for the purpose of helping struggling addicts that gradually devolved into a mind-control cult. 

Guy Endore implements the saga of Synanon, "This place is really a more powerful fix than heroin,"" Endore was assured. A square who shied at a cigarette or a cocktail, he played the Game and gained the endorsement of "honorary dope fiend." There is no doubt that he is sold on Synanon if not accepting it as a religion: he explores this aspect of founder Chuck Dederich's role.  There is something of a mystery of what makes Synanon work: Dederich explains the complete mutuality of the community, describes it as a family, not a religion. Endore features interviews with Chuck, his wife and daughter, Synanon members who stayed or split. His book is not so clear on Synanon dynamics as Yablonsky's, leaves the question of growth and perpetuation in the air, as it currently seems to be. There is the feeling that Synanon has a big fish on its line, can solve a lot more than drug addiction (only a beginning). Endore does not substantially alter the image already projected but furthers the human dimension.