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WORKSHOP FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS: PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION, CULTS AND CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS |
PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION, CULTS AND CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS TOPA WORKSHOP FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS |
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Prepared by: Rosanne Henry, LPC |
A destructive cult is a group or movement that, to a significant degree:
Langone, M.D. (Ed.). (1993) Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse. New York: W. Norton & Company.
SINGER’S CONTINUUM OF INFLUENCE AND PERSUASION
Singer, M.T. (1995). Cults in our Midst. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers
When ex-members had been polled (at ICSA Recovery Workshops) they consistently gave these reasons for joining their groups:
Idealism, Friendship, Love, Freedom, Community, Mission, Sincerity, Salvation, Enlightenment, Spiritual high
People don’t join cults. They get involved in groups they are led to believe represent these high ideals.
“Cults promise salvation. Instead of boredom -- noble and sweeping goals. Instead of existential anxiety -- structure and certainty. Instead of alienation -- community. Instead of impotence -- solidarity directed by all-knowing leaders.”
Hochman, J. (1990). Miracle, Mystery, and Authority: the Triangle of Cult Indoctrination. Psychiatric Annals 20(4) 179-187.
FACTORS THAT INCREASE VULNERABILITY TO CULTS
After reviewing the literature Clark, Langone, Schecter and Daly (1981) identified factors that make some young people especially vulnerable to cult recruitment:
Clark, J.G., Langone, M.D., Schecter, R.E., & Daly, R.C.B. (1981) Destructive Cult Conversion: theory, research & treatment. Massachusetts: American Family Foundation.
CULT RECRUITMENT – ONE PREDICTABLE FACTOR
Clinical observations and research studies suggest that people join cults during periods of stress or transition, when they are most open to what the group has to say.
Approximately one third appear to have been psychologically distressed before joining, as evidenced by having participated in pre-cult psychotherapy or counseling. The majority, however, appear to have been relatively normal individuals before joining a cult.
Langone, M.D. (Ed). (1993). Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse. New York: W. Norton & Company.
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEMES IN THOUGHT REFORM ENVIRONMENTS
Robert J. Lifton, is a distinguished professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Director of the Center on Violence and Human Survival, at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. He has been studying ‘brain washing’ in various populations like the Chinese prisoners of war and the Nazi doctors for over 40 years. Dr. Lifton has developed and defined these psychological themes that dominate Thought Reform environments.
Lifton, R.J. (1961). Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. New York:W.W. Norton & Company
Dr. Michael Langone is the Executive Director of the International Cultic Studies Association and editor of the Cultic Studies Review and Cultic Studies Journal, published since 1984. Dr. Langone has been studying the cult phenomena since 1978 and has written many papers on the subject for scholarly and professional journals.
LANGONE’S DDD SYNDROME
Langone, M.D. (1991). Assessment and Treatment of Cult Victims and their Families. In P.Ketter & S.R. Heyman (Eds) Innovations in Clinical Practice: a source book. Florida: Professional resource exchange.
Janja Lalich, Ph.D., is associate professor of sociology at California State University, Chico. She had been studying cults since the late 1980’s and has co-authored Cults in Our Midst and Crazy Therapies with Margaret Singer, Take Back Your Life with Madelaine Tobias,and recently completed Bounded Choice.
THE BOUNDED CHOICE MODEL BY JANJA LALICH
The Bounded Choice framework and theory offers a new perspective on the identity shift and resultant behavior of the most dedicated adherents, or the true believers in cult systems. This model considers individual choice in the context of an authoritarian, transcendent, closed system.
Lalich (2004) defines the Bounded Choice framework with these fundamental dimensions:
Lalich, J. (2004) BOUNDED CHOICE: True Believers and Charismatic Cults. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer, was a clinical psychologist and emeritus adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. During the course of her career she counseled more than 3,000 current and former cult members and their families.
Singer, M.T., & Ofshe, R. (1990). Thought Reform Programs and the Production of Psychiatric Casualties. Psychiatric Annals, 20 (4), 188-193.
Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed one step at a time. Potential new members are led, step by step, through a behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the group.
Control the person’s social and/or physical environment; especially control the person’s time.Through various methods, newer members are kept very busy and encouraged to think about the group and its content during as much of their waking time as possible.
Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person. Cults create this sense of powerlessness by stripping recruits of their support systems and ability to act independently. Former friends and kinship networks are taken away, as well as careers, businesses and sources of wealth. Followers are isolated from their familiar environments and sometimes removed to remote locations.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person’s former social identity. The expression of your beliefs, values, activities and characteristic demeanor, prior to contact with the group is suppressed, and you are manipulated into taking on a social identity preferred by leadership.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote learning the group’s ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors. Members are rewarded for proper performance with social and sometimes material reinforcement. If they are slow to learn or non-compliant; recruits are threatened with shunning, banning and punishment; which includes loss of self esteem, privileges, and status, and often creates inner anxiety & guilt.
Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order. If you criticize or complain, the leaders or peers allege that you are defective; not the organization. (Singer, 1995)
ARE YOUR CLIENTS OR HAVE YOUR CLIENTS BEEN IN DESTRUCTIVE GROUPS OR CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS?
Winocur, N. (1997) Individual Cult Experience Index. Cultic Studies Journal, 14 (2) 290-303.
(www.CultRecover.com under Good Reading, Cult Evaluation Tools)
WHY WOULD PEOPLE CURRENTLY IN CULTS COME TO THERAPY?
Because cults tend to be elitist and distrustful of the outside world, current cultists will rarely consult a clinician. However, there are circumstances that may bring them into treatment. The most likely ones include:
Langone, M.D. (1991). Assessment and treatment of cult victims and their families. In P.Ketter & S.R. Heyman (Eds) Innovations in clinical practice: a source book. FL:Professional Resource Exchange.
Why do former members come to therapy?
People rarely seek treatment because of past involvement with a cult. The most frequent presenting problems among former cult members are depression and relational difficulties. Often the person is unaware that there is any connection between previous cultic involvement and current life problems.
Lalich, J.& Tobias, M. (2006). Take Back Your Life. Berkeley, CA: Bay Tree Publishing
CLINICAL PICTURE OF CULT SURVIVORS
When ex-members have been assessed with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI): “high scores on the dependency, avoidant, schizoid, anxiety, and dysthymia scales are typically associated with untreated former cultists.”
West, L.J. & Martin, P. (1996) Pseudo-identity and the treatment of personality change in victims of captivity and cults. Cultic Studies Journal, 13 (2), 125-149.
The distress levels of ex-cultists are comparable to levels of in-patients in psychiatric hospitals.
Martin, P.R., Langone, M.D., Dole, A.A. & Wiltrout, J. (1992). Post-cult symptoms as
measured by the MCMI before and after residential treatment. Cultic Studies Journal
9(2) 219-245.
POST GROUP DISTRESS
Percent responding “a great deal” to questions of how much a subject was troubled in day-to-day life during the first 6 months after leaving the group.
PROBLEM Anxiety, fear, worries Mental confusion Feelings of anger towards group leader Low self confidence Indecisiveness Vivid flashbacks to group experience Desire to help friends in group Difficulty concentrating Despair, hopelessness, helplessness Loneliness |
“A Great Deal” 58 56 54 48 48 46 45 42 41 41 (5 on a 5 point scale) |
M.D. Langone , Ph.D. Research Study Former Members of Charismatic Groups (1992) Sample size: 308 |
MOST TYPICAL CULT-INDUCED PSYCHOPATHOLOGIES:
THE TYPE OF THOUGHT REFORM PROGRAM RELATES TO THE TYPE OF PSYCHIATRIC CASUALTY:
Singer,M.T. & Ofshe, R. (1990). Thought Reform and the Production of Psychiatric
Casualties. Psychiatric Annals,20(4). 188-193.
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (DSM IV)
The person has been exposed to a traumatic event(s) that involved actual/threatened death, serious injury or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others and the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror and continue to be manifested by these clusters of symptoms:
COMPLEX POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Complex psychological trauma refers to experiences that:
Courtois, C.A., Jord, J.D. & Cloitre, M. (2009) Best Practices in Psychotherapy for Adults. In Courtois, C.A. & Ford, J.D. (Eds). Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders. New York: Guilford Press.
The following criteria are proposed for complex PTSD:
Herman, J .L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books
EVALUATE THE CLIENT’S SAFETY WHILE INQUIRING ABOUT THE CULT
The Predictions of Harm for leaving: what were cultists told would happen if they left?
What was the cult’s perspective about those who had left the group? What were they labeled? (Apostates? Evil? Unenlightened?) How were they treated?
Discuss the necessity of limiting contact with the cult or cutting if off completely.
Process the beliefs and especially the practices of the group.
Define the authority structure of the cult: Who was really in charge? How were doubt, dissent, disobedience and desertion handled?
Gather data on the group by filling out the Group Profile in Livia Barden’s COPING WITH CULT INVOLVEMENT.
Consider contacting other former members who are truly out of the cult for information and support.
EVALUATE THE CULT LEADER’S LETHALITY
What is the cult leader’s potential for violence?
How have those who have left this group been treated in the past?
Does your client think that the cult leader will pursue him or her? Why? How?
Does the leader have a criminal record? What does your client know about the leader’s past? (One good resource is Dennis King’s GET THE FACTS ON ANYONE.)
COLLABORATE WITH YOUR CLIENT ABOUT STRATEGIES FOR SAFETY
This might involve changing cell phone numbers, email addresses, moving, closing bank accounts, and even talking to the police and /or a lawyer.
THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF THE CULT LEADER
“Cultic groups and relationships are formed primarily to meet specific emotional needs of the leader, many of whom suffer from one or another emotional or character disorder. Few, if any, cult leaders subject themselves to the psychological tests or prolonged clinical interviews that allow for an accurate diagnosis. However, researchers and clinicians who have observed these individuals describe them... on a spectrum exhibiting neurotic, sociopathic, and psychotic characteristics, or suffering from a diagnosed personality disorder.”
Lalich, J. & Tobias, M. (2006) Take Back Your Life. Berkeley, CA: Bay Tree Publishing
“Totalitarian dictators study and invent thought reform techniques, but many cult leaders may simply be exhibiting characteristic behaviors of the Pathological Narcissist, with the attendant paranoia and mania typical of this personality disorder.”
Shaw, D. (2003). Traumatic Abuse in Cults: A Psychoanalytic Perspective. Cultic Studies Review, 2(2), 101-129.
Lalich, J.& Tobias, M. (2006). Take Back Your Life. Berkeley, CA: Bay Tree Publishing
1) REEVALUATION (focus on the past)
Reevaluate cult affiliation
Help them learn how they were under the influence of mind control - “Educate the client about mind control so the client sees the problem is with the cult system, not with them specifically. What people emerging from cults really need is information and help breaking the ties that they were led to assume... they need to understand how they were changed and why they stayed, so they don’t keep on thinking that there is this big defect in them...”
Singer, M.T. (1991, November) Workshop on recovery from mind control. Cult Awareness Network National Conference, Oklahoma City, OK.
(Caution: not all former members can handle this educational input right away. It is important to introduce it gradually and not overwhelm the client).
Help them understand trauma and how to deal with floating episodes.
Begin reevaluating their beliefs and value system before, during, and after their cult involvement.
Langone, M.D. (1991). Assessment and treatment of cult victims and their families.
In P.Ketter & S.R. Heyman (Eds). Innovations in clinical practice: a source book. Florida: Professional resource exchange.
THERAPEUTIC GOALS might include:
Psychoeducation on cults, trauma, and dissociation, Reconnection with critical thinking skills, Identification of coping skills to manage anxiety and dissociation, Exploration of vulnerability factors in cult recruitment.
2) RECONCILIATION (focus on the present)
Allow and encourage them to grieve the losses
Expect emotional volatility, normalize and offer support
Let the past reemerge
Deal with maturational arrests
Help them regain purpose
Facilitate the discovery of who they are after the cult
THERAPEUTIC GOALS might include helping clients:
Process and differentiate guilt and shame
Explore the basis of shame for what they did and did not do while in the cult
Rebuild their ego strengths
Enhance their resiliency
3) REINTEGTRATION (future-oriented)
Help plan and focus on the future
Encourage recovery of the whole self
Help survivors integrate their cult experience into their permanent identity
Martin, P.R. (1993). Post cult recovery: Assessment and Rehabilitation. In M.D. Langone (Ed). Recovery from cults: Help for victims of psychological and spiritual abuse. New York: W. Norton & Company
THERAPEUTIC GOALS might include:
Learning and practicing healthy boundaries in more mutual relationships
Exploring forgiveness of self and/or others
Making meaning of the experience, rediscovering their sense of humor
Evaluating their spirituality or relationship to the divine.
Phase 1: PERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL SAFETY AND STABILIZATION. Treatment must enhance the client’s ability to manage extreme arousal states so he/she can approach and master internal states and external events that trigger trauma symptoms.
A solid foundation of cognitive skills and adaptive coping must be established before the detailed narrative of the traumatic experiences begins.
THERAPEUTIC GOALS might include:
Gold, S. N. (2009) Contextual Therapy. In Courtois, C.A. & Ford, J.D. (Eds). Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders. New York: Guilford Press
Phase 2: PROCESSING OF TRAUMATIC MEMORIES-safe self reflective disclosure of traumatic memories and associated reactions in the form of progressively elaborated and coherent autobiographical narrative.
THERAPEUTIC GOALS might include:
Phase 3: REINTEGRATION-involves working on unresolved developmental deficits and on fine-tuning self regulation skills. Commonly encountered challenges include the continued development of trustworthy relationships, parenting, career and other life decisions…
THERAPEUTIC GOALS might include:
Courtois, C. A., Ford, J.D., Cloitre, M. (2009) Best Practices in Psychotherapy for Adults. In Courtois, C.A. & Ford, J.D. (Eds). Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders. New York: the Guilford Press.
TYPES OF AVAILABLE CARE:
EXIT COUNSELING
PASTORAL COUNSELING
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY
GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY
FAMILY THERAPY
RESIDENTIAL REHABILITATION
RELIABLE CULT RESOURCES:
INTERNATIONAL CULTIC STUDIES ASSOCIATION (ICSA)
REFOCUS: www.refocus.org Recovering former Cultists' Support
Rosanne Henry, LPC 303.797.0629
ver. 3-2-2019
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