A Way Out of Learned Helplessness & the Traumatized Victim Identity

What I understand today after many years working with trauma survivors is that...

1) having been regularly neglected, ignored, abandoned, discounted, disclaimed, and rejected -- as well as invalidated, confused, betrayed, insulted, criticized, judged, blamed, embarrassed, humiliated, ridiculed, denigrated, derogated, victimized, demonized, persecuted, picked on, dumped on, bullied, gaslighted, scapegoated, and/or otherwise abused -- by others upon whom they depended for survival in early life,...

2) many children develop Learned Helplessness & Victim Identities.

When this occurs, they display a combination of...

. . . a) exaggerated startle response, 

. . . b) expectation of abuse, in my reply on this Reddit thread, 

. . . c) hypervigilance and 

. . . d) interpersonal boundaries that swing back and forth from 

. . . . . . 1) extreme porosity (in Walker's "fawn" state") to 

. . . . . . 2) extreme density (in fight or flight).

It is my view now that one who grows up with "wounded child syndrome" will have to be "re-raised" or "re-developed" in pretty much the manner described in Erikson's Pathway Out of Kernberg's Hell.

Such "adult children" need to learn emotion & behavior management skills like those in Stress Reduction for Distress Tolerance & Emotion Regulation in order to do sufficient Competence Rebuilding, in my reply on this Reddit thread (which is now relocated to the replies to repliers on this other Reddit thread) to both feel okay about themselves and to deal effectively with others.

This is the way I did that, and that I try to teach others to do.

Resources

A CPTSD Library

Why Memory Retrieval is so Important

Confronting Abusers & Handling Rage Effectively

Managing Current Abuse (in my reply on this Reddit thread)

Understand the Drama Triangle. Understand BPD

Interoception vs. Introspection

Recovering from Shame

Are Terrorist Groups Cults? Similarities & Differences from Ideological, Psychodynamic & Group Dynamic Perspectives

Abstract

Do the ideological and behavioral phenomena and dynamics of cults and terrorist organizations resemble each other? The simple answer is, "Very much so." Modern terrorist organizations like Al Queda, Boko Haram, Hezbollah, Islamic Johad and ISIS -- and ostensibly (but not actually) -- hyper-nationalistic groups like the North Koreans -- are little more than cults dedicated to the cynically manipulated expression of what is likely identical to the abuse- and abandonment-conferred rage seen in street gangs and many of the more aggressively authoritarian and totalitarian mind control cults. But instead of the bulk of the faithful going "learned helpless," they go cynically violent. I will attempt to advance this thesis by combining material from the paper cited below with that from other published literature on cult dynamics, group dynamics, psychodynamics and personality traits, per se.

Background

Jerrold Post is the author of an intriguing pre-9/11 paper entitled Terrorist psycho-logic: Terrorist behavior as a product of psychological forces. A paper I will try to summarize here... largely with direct quotations from the version in a 1990 book entitled Origins of Terrorisim: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind, edited by Walter Reich, published by the Woodrow Wilson Center Press in Washington, DC, and distributed by Johns Hopkins University Press of Baltimore, MD.

In the paper, Post asserts (in several direct lifts from the paper with comments of my own in brackets) that...

1) "...the act of joining the terrorist group represents an attempt to consolidate a fragmented identity, to resolve a split and... to belong. ... specialists who have closely followed the Middle Eastern terrorist groups share the impression that many of their members come from the margins of society and that belonging to these... groups contributes to consolidating [their] psychosocial identity...

[A significant feature of cult organization should be clarified at the outset: All cults are organized like pyramids, with a) new members at the bottom layer of "bricks," b) older and less aggressive members who have become Hoffer's "true believers" and totalistic loyalists in the smaller, middle layers that become the cult's "service structure," and c) (not always but generally) yet older and more aggressive, cynical and sadistic members who willingly do the guru's "dirty work" to control the wealth-accumulating second (b) membership tiers.]

[Though those who "attempt to consolidate a fragmented identity" and "come from the margins of society" are far from universally the case at the lower (a) levels on most cultic pyramids, it is very evident from interviews of cult exiters who had moved up the "bricks" to the "service structure" (b) that those who remain stuck at the service structure level and become virtual slaves to the masters on the managerial (c) levels just above them -- e.g.: as in the CoS at the Gold Base near San Jacinto, CA -- very often have histories of child abuse and/or abandonment (a.k.a. neglect) resulting in fragmented identity structures compared to the general culture. See also Neumann on anxiety and politics.]

"Data indicate that many terrorists have not been successful in their personal, educational and vocational lives. The combination of the personal feelings of inadequacy with the reliance on the psychological mechanisms externalization and splitting leads them to find especially attractive a group of like-minded individuals whose credo is, 'It's not us -- it's them; they are the cause of our problems.'

"For many, belonging to the terrorist group may be the first time they truly belonged [to anything 'important' or 'meaningful'], the first time they felt truly significant, the first time the felt that what they did counted."

[Likewise as above with respect to what I saw in the CoS, as well as in several fundamentalist, evangelical, psuedo-Christian cults and/or exiters therefrom... and certainly reported as well by such as Arterburn & Felton, Conway & Siegelman, Deikman, Galanter, Harris, Hassan, Hood et al, Kramer & Alstad, Langone, Lifton, Martin, Meerloo, Mehta, Miscavige, Rokeach, Ross, Taylor, Schein, Singer, Strozier et al, and Wright.]

2) Psychologist Wilfred Bion, an renown expert in both psychodynamic object relations theory and group dynamic theory, identified three types of cult-like groups:

. . . a. "The fight-flight group [which] defines itself in relation to the outside world, which both threatens and justifies its existence...

. . . b. "The dependency group [which] turns to an omnipotent leader for direction...

. . . c. "The pairing group [which] acts as if the group will bring forth a messiah who will rescue them and create a better world."

[All three dynamics have been reported -- albeit in different wording -- by most of the cult experts cited above, and should bare little need for clarification to anyone familiar with cult dynamics.]

3) In the "anarchic-ideologic" (as opposed to the "nationalist-separatist") type of terrorist group, "...the decision to cross the boundary and enter the underground illegal group is an irrevocable one, ... Group pressures are especially magnified for the underground group [see Parsons], so that the group is the only source of information, the only source of confirmation, and in the face of danger and pursuit, the only source of [perceived] security."

[Think David Koresh and Branch Davidians, as well as Jim Jones and the People's Temple, and Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh and the Rajneeshpuram. "Worse," perhaps, think Red China under Mao Zedong during the traumatic "Cultural Revolution" and North Korea under the Kims since the end of World War II. (See Gao.)]

4) "Pressure to conform [see Asch]: Given the intensity of the need to belong, the strength of the affiliative needs, and, for many members, the as-yet incomplete sense of individual identity, terrorists have a tendency to submerge their own identities into the group, so that a kind of 'group mind' emerges.

[Regardless of the completeness or lack thereof of physical separation from mainstream culture, it is evident from interaction with current, mid- (b) level, "true believer" cult members that they have bought into a group mindset and epistemological system which defines reality for them according to the dictates of the upper- (c) level leadership as reinforced by the dynamic of "social proof" and "groupthink" among their mid- (b) level peers. See Berger & Luckman, Burrow, Cialdini, Cooley, Freud, Gergen, Hood et al, LeBon, McDougall, Parsons, and Trotter.]

"Doubts concerning the legitimacy of the goals and actions of the group are intolerable to such a group. The person who questions a group decision risks the wrath of the group and possible expulsion."

[Which, of course, is intolerable to the anxiety-fed, almost (?) addictive need to retain the sense of identity conferred by cult membership.]

"The group ideology plays an important role in supporting the conformity-inducing group environment. When questions are raised, the absolutist [i.o.w.: totalistic; see Greenwald] ideology becomes the intellectual justification. Indeed, the ideology becomes, in effect, the scripture of the group's morality. ... What the group, through its interpretation of its ideology, defines as moral becomes moral -- and becomes the authority for the compliant members."

[Such was certainly the case during the "dark ages" of both Holy Roman Christianity and expansionist Islam during the period of constant conflict between them during the eighth through 15th centuries (see Tuchman). Scriptural authoritarianism (see Altemeyer, Arendt, Fromm, Hood et al, Horkheimer, Kramer & Alstad, Milgram, and Miller) and absolutism / totalism provided the "glue" that kept these cult-ures together for the sake of both territorial and wealth accumulation, as well as defense of what had been accumulated. (Is this any different from any organized cult dynamic save for the small "cults of significance" like the "Manson Family?")]

[Desperate to belong and derive the identity emanating therefrom, the cult member rationalizes the cult's proscribed ideology as his own, one new idea or level of abstraction at a time... when in fact, he may have previously believed in almost diametrically opposing ideas. To "go along to get along," however, the cult member or terrorist group member sees and senses (literally feels) the empowerment of the ideas that differ so much from those of his earlier "learned helplessness and victim identity, and buys into them with the same motives as any abuse- and abandonment-fearing codependent. Please see my earlier paper entitled "Understanding Codependence as "Soft-Core" Cult Dynamics... ...and Cult Dynamics as "Hard-Core" Codependence" with respect to the dynamics of identity submergence, ideology over identity, etc.)]

Discussion

It seems fair to say then, that...

1) Post was asserting that people join terrorist groups to find a sense of psychological identity rather as Erikson defines the concept as the fifth of his scheme of eight stages of psychosocial development. And...

2) That -- given the nature of the thwarted and "unsuccessful" developmental paths of the members of terrorist groups cited by Post, as well as the splitting mentioned elsewhere in the article by Post -- terrorist cell members may be similar in development to cult members who so often display the opposite of Erikson's Pathway Out of (something like) Kernberg's Hell.

It is important here to note that I am not asserting that this pathway of "split" and conflicted development is common to all cult members. I have seen many who do not show evidence of Kernberg's "borderline organization." BUT... I see those who do not display such characteristics at the lower ((a), more "introductory") levels of the cult pyramids, as well as at the highest (c) levels... and not in the middle. Those who are better (or "more functionally") integrated psychologically, and not unduly narcissistic, anti-social, and/or sadistic (on all, see Millon and Beck & Freeman) tend to leave the cult when the demands and impositions become uncomfortable... which is to say, "long before they become insufferable."

On the other end, those who have integrated to dense, narcissistic and/or anti-social and/or sadistic personality organizations tend to be seen at the top (c) levels of "bricks" in cults. Would one expect to see otherwise in terrorist groups? Given what we know of terrorists from Northern Ireland and Germany to sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East to the island states of Indonesia and the Philippines, the answer to that seems clear.

3) Like the terrorist, the mid- (b) and upper- (c) level cult member is pre-conditioned to authoritarianism in his or her family of origin, predisposing the cult member or terrorist to blind following of authority, or -- and much more significantly -- a polarized, oppositional split (as above) between resentment and rage toward authority here... and an easily subjugatable willingness to follow authority there (see Altemeyer, Arendt, Fromm, Hood et al, Horkheimer, Kramer & Alstad, Milgram, and Miller).

4) The same Karpman Drama Triangle dynamics (see Karpman) that are in play in the authoritarian control dynamics of terrorist groups are in play in mind control cults, with "true believers" at the most codependent, middle (b) levels on the "bricks" of the pyramid being generally the "victims," and the cynical, messianic, authorities at the upper (c) levels being the "rescuers" and "persecutors."

5) However, there is a significant difference at pyramid level (b) where the psychological and group dynamics remain consistent with those described by Berrebey, Burrow, Cooley, Freud, LeBon, McDougall, Parsons, and Riezler, but in dichotomously, polar opposition. Whereas in most mind control cults one sees a cadre of committed true believers who become and/or remain "learned helpless," internalizing, and self-abusively subservient to the ingroup... the terrorist is more like an ego-syntonic, learned vicious externalizer, spewing his continually whipped up rage onto the selected outgroup (see Burrow, LeBon, McDougall, and Trotter).

6) Citing Schein 1961; Ofshe and Singer 1986, the key factors that distinguish coercive persuasion from other training and socialization schemes in cults are:

. . . a. The reliance on intense interpersonal and psychological attack to destabilize an individual's sense of self to promote compliance

. . . b. The use of an organized peer group

. . . c. Applying interpersonal pressure to promote conformity

. . . d. The manipulation of the totality of the person's social environment to stabilize behavior once modified. 

Modern terrorist groups like Al Queda, Boko Haram and ISIS are largely military organizations. In that regard, it will be pretty obvious to anyone who has been through military training themselves (especially in the U.S. Marine Corps) that all four training and socialization schemes listed above would be utilized by large, well-organized, military model  terrorist groups.

7) Lifton (1961) identified eight themes or properties of reform environments that contribute to their totalistic quality:

. . . a. Control of communication

. . . b . Emotional and behavioral manipulation

. . . c. Demands for absolute conformity to behavior prescriptions derived from the ideology

. . . d. Obsessive demands for confession

. . . e. Agreement that the ideology is faultless

. . . f. Manipulation of language in which cliches substitute for analytic thought

. . . g. Reinterpretation of human experience and emotion in terms of doctrine

. . . h. Classification of those not sharing the ideology as inferior and not worthy of respect

Save for item (d) above, all of these themes or properties are regularly seen in military training environments, and may thus be expected to be observed in large, well-organized, military model  terrorist groups.

8) Finally, Hassan's BITE Model of Influence (see Hassan, 1989 / 2015) identifies no less than 35 characteristics commonly seen in cults.

Behavior Control 

. . . a. Promote dependence and obedience.

. . . b. Modify behavior with rewards and punishments.

. . . c. Dictate where and with whom members live.

. . . d. Restrict or control sexuality.

. . . e. Control clothing and hairstyle.

. . . f. Regulate what and how much members eat and drink.

. . . g. Deprive members of seven to nine hours of sleep.

. . . h. Exploit members financially.

. . . i. Restrict leisure time and activities.

. . . j. Require members to seek permission for major decisions.

Information Control 

. . . a. Deliberately withhold and distort information.

. . . b. Forbid members from speaking with ex-members and critics.

. . . c. Discourage access to non-cult sources of information.

. . . d. Divide information into "insider" vs. "outsider" doctrine.

. . . e. Generate and use propaganda extensively.

. . . f. Use information gained in confession sessions against members.

. . . g. Gaslight to make you doubt your own memory.

. . . h. Require members to report thoughts, feelings, & activities to superiors.

. . . i. Encourage members to spy and report on others’ “misconduct.”

Thought Control 

. . . a. Instill black vs. white, us vs. them & good vs. evil thinking.

. . . b. Change your identity, possibly even your name.

. . . c. Use loaded language and cliches to stop complex thought.

. . . d. Induce hypnotic or trance states to indoctrinate.

. . . e. Teach thought-stopping techniques to prevent critical thoughts.

. . . f. Allow only positive thoughts.

. . . g. Use excessive meditation, singing, prayer & chanting to block thoughts.

. . . h. Reject rational analysis, critical thinking, & doubt.

Emotional Control 

. . . a. Instill irrational fears of questioning or leaving the group.

. . . b. Label some emotions as evil, worldly, sinful, or wrong.

. . . c. Teach emotion-stopping techniques to prevent anger, homesickness.

. . . d. Promote feelings of guilt, shame & unworthiness.

. . . e. Shower you with praise and attention (“love bombing”).

. . . f. Threaten your friends and family.

. . . g. Shun you if you disobey or disbelieve.

. . . h. Teach that there is no happiness or peace outside the group.

Save for items, Bh, If, Ig, Ih, Td, Te, Tf, Ec, Ed, Ee and Ef, all of the other characteristics are regularly seen in military training environments, and it may be that several of the items called out in this sentence are used by such as the North Korean government, Al Queda, Boko Haram and/or ISIS.

Conclusions

Thus -- in summation -- it seems workable to theorize that the intra- and inter-personal dynamics of mind control cults and terrorist groups are similar in some respects... with the outstanding difference being the...

1) difference in externalizing vs. internalizing objectives of terrorist groups, and... 

2) the degree of violence to which the latter are willing to go to achieve their externalized purposes. 

That said, employment of many of Hassan's, Lifton's, Schein's, and Singer's factors and characteristics of cult dynamics and behaviors seems evident in modern, military, terrorist organizations. If that is the case, it may be that the same or similar group dynamic methods and techniques used to re-integrate cult members into mainstream society are applicable to the "de-programming" of terrorists from the middle tiers of the cultic pyramids of such organizations. 

Links to Articles on Cult Dynamics

Commentator's References

Altemeyer, R.: The Authoritarian Specter, Boston: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Altemeyer, R.: The Authoritarians, Charleston, SC: Lulu, 2006.

Arendt, H.: The Origins of Totalitarianism (The Burden of Our Time), orig. pub. 1951, New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973.

Arterburn, S.; Felton, J.: Toxic Faith: Understanding and Overcoming Religious Addiction, Nashville: Oliver-Nelson, 1991.

Asch, S. E.: Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgments, in Guetzkow, H. (ed.): Groups, Leadership and Men; Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press, 1951.

Beck, A.; Freeman, A.: Cognitive Theory of the Personality Disorders, New York: Guilford Press, 1990.

Berger, P.; Luckman, T.: The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, New York: Doubleday, 1966

Berreby, D.: Us & Them: The Science of Identity, U. of Chicago Press, 2005.

Bion, W.: Experiences in Groups, London: Tavistock, 1961.

Burrow, T.: The Social Basis of Consciousness, New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1927

Cialdini, R.: Influence: Science and Practice, 4th Ed., New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

Conway, F.; Siegelman, J.: Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, New York: Dell Delta, 1978.

Cooley, C.: Human Nature and the Social Order, Piscataway, NJ: Transaction, 1902, 1986.

Deikman, A.: The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society, Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.

Deikman, A.: Meditations on a Blue Vase (Collected Papers), Napa CA: Fearless Books, 2014.

Deikman, A.: Them and Us: Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat, Berkeley CA: Bay Tree, 2003.

Erikson, E.: Childhood and Society, New York: W. W. Norton, 1950, 1967, 1993.

Erikson, E.: Identity and the Life Cycle, New York: W. W. Norton, 1959, 1980.

Erikson, E.: The Problem of Ego Identity, in Stein, M., et al: Identity and Anxiety, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1960.

Freud, S.: Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, orig. pub. 1921, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.

Fromm, E.: Escape from Freedom, New York: Avon, 1965.

Galanter, M. Psychological Induction into the Large Groups: Findings from a Modern Religious Sect, in American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 137, 1980.

Galanter, M.: Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion, New York: Guilford Press, 1989.

Gao Wenqien: Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary, New York: Perseus Books, 2007.

Gergen, K.: An Invitation to Social Construction, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1999.

Greenwald, A.: The Totalitarian Ego: Fabrication and Revision of Personal History, in American Psychologist, Vol. 35, No. 7, July 1980.

Harris, S.: Waking Up: A guide to Spirituality Without Religion, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.

Hassan, S.: Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults, South Paris, ME: Park Street Press, 1989. (Revised and updated in 2015.)
Hassan, S.: Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults & Beliefs, Newton, MA: Freedom of Mind Press, 2012.

Hitler, A.: Mein Kampf, orig. pub. 1925/1926 in two volumes, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1943.

Hoffer, E.: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: Harper and Row, 1951, 1966.

Hood, R., Jr.; Hill, P.; Williamson, W. P.: The Psychology of Religious Fundamentalism, New York: Guildford Press, 2005.

Horkheimer, M.: Authoritarianism and the Family Today, in R. N. Anshen, ed.: The Family: Its Function and Destiny, New York, Harper, 1949.

Karpman, S.: Fairy tales and script drama analysis, in Transactional Analysis Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 26, 1968.

Kernberg, O.: Severe Personality Disorders: Psychotherapeutic Strategies, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.

Kramer, J.; Alstad, D.: The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power, Berkeley, CA: Frog, Ltd., 1993.

Langone, M., ed.: Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse, New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.

LeBon, G.: The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, orig. pub. 1895, Minneola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002.

Lifton, R. J.: Methods of Forceful Indoctrination, in Stein, M.; Vidich, A.; White, D. (editors): Identity and Anxiety: Survival of the Person in Mass Society, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press of Glencoe, Illinois, 1960.

Lifton, R. J.: Boundaries: Psychological Man in Revolution, New York: Vintage, 1970.

Martin, J.: The Kingdom of the Cults, Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1985.

McDougall, W.: The Group Mind: A Sketch of the Principles of Collective Psychology, orig. pub. 1920, North Stratford: Ayer Company, NH, 1973.

Meerloo, J.: Brainwashing and Menticide, in Stein, M.; Vidich, A.; White, D. (editors): Identity and Anxiety: Survival of the Person in Mass Society, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press of Glencoe, Illinois, 1960.

Mehta, G.: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.

Milgram, S.: Obedience to Authority, New York: Harper, 1974.

Miller, A. G.: The Obedience Experiments, New York: Prager, 1984.

Millon, T.; Simonsen, E.; Birket-Smith, M.; Davis, R.: Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior, Guilford Press, 1998.

Millon, T.; Grossman, S.; Meagher, S., Millon, C., Everly, G.: Personality Guided Therapy, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Millon, T.: Personality Disorders in Modern Life, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

Millon, T.; Grossman, S.: Moderating Severe Personality Disorders: A Personalized Psychotherapy Approach, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007.

Millon, T.; Grossman, S.: Overcoming Resistant Personality Disorders: A Personalized Psychotherapy Approach, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Miscavige (Hill), J., Pulitzer, L.: Beyond Belief: My Secret Life inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, New York: Morrow / HarperCollins, 2013.

Neumann, F.: Anxiety and Politics, in Maurice Stein et al (editors): Identity and Anxiety: Survival of the Person in Mass Society, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1960.

Parsons. T.: Social Systems and The Evolution of Action Theory, New York: The Free Press, 1975.

Riezler. K.: The Social Psychology of Fear, in Maurice Stein et al (editors): Identity and Anxiety: Survival of the Person in Mass Society, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1960

Rokeach, M.: The Open and Closed Mind: Investigations into the Nature of Belief Systems and Personality Systems, New York: Basic Books, 1961, 1973.

Ross, R. A.: Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out, Seattle: CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014.

Schein, E.: Coercive Persuasion: A Socio-psychological Analysis of the Brainwashing of American Civilian Prisoners by the Chinese Communists, New York: W. W. Norton, 1961.

Singer, M. T.; Goldstein, H.; Langone, M.; et al: Report of the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control, New York: American Psychological Association, 1986.

Singer, M. T.: Cults in Our Midst, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Strozier, C.; Terman, D.; Jones, J.; Boyd, K.: The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence, and History, London: Oxford University Press (April 19, 2010).

Taylor, K.: Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control, London: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Trotter, W.: Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, orig. pub. 1916, New York: Cosimo Classics, 2005.

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Lifton's "Cult Formation" (1981) with Commentary

Cult Formation

Robert J. Lifton, M.D.

John Jay College

The Harvard Mental Health Letter

Volume 7, Number 8, February 1981

Abstract

Cults represent one aspect of a worldwide epidemic of ideological totalism, or fundamentalism.  They tend to be associated with a charismatic leader, thought reform, and exploitation of members.  Among the methods of thought reform commonly used by cults are milieu control, mystical manipulation, the demand for purity, a cult of confession, sacred science, loading the language, doctrine over person, and dispensing of existence.  The current historical context of dislocation from organizing symbolic structures, decaying belief systems concerning religion, authority, marriage, family, and death, and a "protean style" of continuous psychological experimentation with the self is conducive to the growth of cults.  The use of coercion, as in certain forms of "deprogramming," to deal with the restrictions of individual liberty associated with cults is inconsistent with the civil rights tradition.  Yet legal intervention may be indicated when specific laws are broken.
 

Two main concerns should inform our moral and psychological perspective on cults: the dangers of ideological totalism, or what I would also call fundamentalism; and the need to protect civil liberties.

There is now a worldwide epidemic of totalism and fundamentalism in forms that are political, religious or both. Fundamentalism is a particular danger in this age of nuclear weapons, because it often includes a theology of Armageddon--a final battle between good and evil. I have studied Chinese thought reform in the 1950s as well as related practices in McCarthyite American politics and in certain training and educational programs. I have also examined these issues in work with Vietnam veterans, who often movingly rejected war related totalism; and more recently in a study of the psychology of Nazi doctors.

Certain psychological themes which recur in these various historical contexts also arise in the study of cults. Cults can be identified by three characteristics:

1) a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power;

2) a process I call coercive persuasion or thought reform;

3) economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.

Milieu Control

The first method characteristically used by ideological totalism is milieu control: the control of all communication within a given environment. In such an environment individual autonomy becomes a threat to the group. There is an attempt to manage an individual's inner communication. Milieu control is maintained and expressed by intense group process, continuous psychological pressure [a hallmark of the large group awareness trainings that began with Eckankar, Mind Dynamics, est, Silva Mind Control and Lifespring in the late 1960s and early 1970s], and isolation by geographical distance, unavailability of transportation, or even physical restraint. Often the group creates an increasingly intense sequence of events such as seminars, lectures and encounters which makes leaving extremely difficult, both physically and psychologically. Intense milieu control can contribute to a dramatic change of identity which I call doubling: the formation of a second self which lives side by side with the former one, often for a considerable time. When the milieu control is lifted, elements of the earlier self may be reasserted.

Creating a Pawn

A second characteristic of totalistic environments is mystical manipulation or planned spontaneity. This is a systematic process through which the leadership can create in cult members what I call the psychology of the pawn. The process is managed so that it appears to arise spontaneously; to its objects it rarely feels like manipulation. Religious techniques such as fasting, chanting [more typical of the southern Asian style cults like ISKCON, OSHO and TM] and limited sleep are used. 

Manipulation may take on a special intense quality in a cult for which a particular chosen human being is the only source of salvation. The person of the leader may attract members to the cult, but can also be a source of disillusionment. If members of the Unification Church, for example, come to believe that Sun Myung Moon, its founder, is associated with the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, they may lose their faith. Mystical manipulation may also legitimate deception of outsiders, as in the "heavenly deception" of the Unification Church and analogous practices in other cult environments. Anyone who has not seen the light and therefore lives in the realm of evil can be justifiably deceived for a higher purpose. For instance, collectors of funds may be advised to deny their affiliation with a cult that has a dubious public reputation.

Purity and Confession

Two other features of totalism are a demand for purity and a cult of confession. The demand for purity is a call for radical separation of good and evil [or "false dilemma," a.k.a. "dichotomizing" or "either/or thinking"] within the environment and within oneself. Purification is a continuing process, often institutionalized in the cult of confession, which enforces conformity through guilt and shame evoked by mutual criticism and self-criticism in small groups.

Confessions contain varying mixtures of revelation and concealment. As Albert Camus observed, "Authors of confessions write especially to avoid confession, to tell nothing of what they know." Young cult members confessing the sins of their pre-cultic lives may leave out ideas and feelings that they are not aware of or reluctant to discuss, including a continuing identification with their prior existence. Repetitious confession, especially in required meetings, often expresses an arrogance in the name of humility. As Camus wrote: "I practice the profession of penitence to be able to end up as a judge," and, "The more I accuse myself, the more I have a right to judge you."

[Public confession was widely utilized by the most powerful cult ever, the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong. Leaders as high as Zhou Enlai, for over 40 years Mao's second in command, were compelled to compose and present lengthy mea culpas in party congress sessions, some of which took several hours to deliver. The purpose of such confessions was to assure that no one ever developed such standing in the Party that he might challenge the authority of the unquestionable leader.]

Three further aspects of ideological totalism are "sacred science," "loading of the language," and the principle of "doctrine over person." [Again citing the example of China under Mao, the entire country was plunged into a decade-long reign of terror (for the sake of ideological "purification") called the "Cultural Revolution." Mao's objective was to destroy all possible threats to his power by distributing small red books of "Mao Thought" which were to be read a quoted on demand by all members of the party. The upshot was a "purity of ideology" that undermined the pragmatic provincial leadership so thoroughly that "states rights," so to speak, were destroyed and Mao's central authority in Beijing was enhanced.] Sacred science is important because a claim of being scientific is often needed to gain plausibility and influence in the modern age. The Unification Church is one example of a contemporary tendency to combine dogmatic religious principles with a claim to special scientific knowledge of human behavior and psychology. 

The term "loading the language" refers to literalism and a tendency to deify [or sanctify and "make sacred"] words or images. A simplified, cliche-ridden language can exert enormous psychological force reducing every issue in a complicated life to a single set of slogans that are said to embody the truth as a totality. [While I don't think I have ever seen a cult that did not load language, sanctify phrases and images, and reduce "truth" to memes and cliches, the human potential movement cults (e.g.: Scientology, the multi-level marketing cults like Amway and Herbalife, and most of the LGATs) elevated language loading to a science. To become a member of the Sea Org, one literally had to learn scores of demi-militaristic code words understandable only by other Sea Org members.] 

The principle of "doctrine over person" is invoked when cult members sense a conflict between what they are experiencing and what dogma says they should experience. The internalized message of the totalistic environment is that one must negate that personal experience on behalf of the truth of the dogma. [From the standpoint of cognitive-behavioral psychology, the negation of personal experience in favor of instructed belief is the most fundamental cause of anxiety, depression, neurosis and psychosis. In the limited and enclosed universe of the hyper-codependent cult, however, instructed belief may be more acceptable owing to the existence of "groupthink" and "social proof."] Contradictions become associated with guilt: doubt indicates one's own deficiency or evil.

Perhaps the most significant characteristic of totalistic movements is what I call "dispensing of existence." Those who have not seen the light and embraced the truth are wedded to evil, tainted, and therefore in some sense, usually metaphorical, lack the right to exist. That is one reason why a cult member threatened with being cast into outer darkness may experience a fear of extinction or collapse. Under particularly malignant conditions, the dispensing of existence is taken literally; in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and elsewhere, people were put to death for alleged doctrinal shortcomings. In the People's Temple mass suicide-murder in Guyana, a cult leader presided over the literal dispensing of existence by means of a suicidal mystique he himself had made a central theme in the group's ideology. The totalistic impulse to draw a sharp line between those who have the right to live and those who do not is especially dangerous in the nuclear age. 

[Few of the cults I have examined in detail other than the People's Temple, Heaven's Gate and the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas, have managed to dispense existence as effectively -- and none for as long -- as the Church of Scientology. One has only to read Lawrence Wright's and Jeanna Miscavige Hill's books -- and the Los Angeles Times series on the CoS facility in San Jacinto, California -- to grasp how "functionally" Hubbard's and David Miscavige's pyramids of intimidation worked to enslave hundreds of Sea Org members for as long as a half century.] 

Historical Context

Totalism should always be considered within a specific historical context. A significant feature of contemporary life is the historical (or psycho historical) dislocation resulting from a loss of the symbolic structures that organize ritual transitions in the life cycle, and a decay of belief systems concerning religion, authority, marriage, family, and death. One function of cults is to provide a group initiation rite for the transition to early adult life, and the formation of an adult identity outside the family. Cult members have good reasons for seeing attempts by the larger culture to make such provisions as hypocritical or confused. 

[An entire school of sociology called "social constructivism" is dedicated to the construction and de-construction of society in general and subcultures in particular on the basis of ideological conditioning, values programming, belief indoctrination, socialization, normalization and institutionalization. For those who wish to pursue this fascinating -- if sometimes rather dry -- concept further, one can look into Berger & Luckman or Gergen (and all the social constructivists they cite)... OR... one can look into Berreby, Burrow, Cialdini, Cooley, Durkheim, Ellul, Ewen, Fromm, Henry, Hoffer, Hook, Horkheimer, Kauffman, Lears, LeBon, Lerner, Lippman, Marx, McDougall, McLuhan, Miles, Milgram, Mills, Neumann, Parsons, Postman, Rokeach, H. Smith, Swanberg, Trotter, Tye, Walter, Weber, and Woodward & Denton in the Realpolitik Library for far more entertaining and enlightening examples of how it's actually done.]

In providing substitute symbols for young people, cults are both radical and reactionary. They are radical because they suggest rude questions about middle-class family life and American political and religious values in general. ["Radical," however, is a relative term: Radical vs. what? American political and religious values were considerably more moderate in Lifton's time. Thirty-seven years later, the average American is a regular consumer of alcoholic beverages and at least an occasional user of recreational drugs. He or she is almost half again as likely to be single or divorced, publicly identified in the LGBT spectrum or the Libertarian takeover of the Republican Party. A third or more of the working class of 1981 is now either upper middle class or welfare poor... and either not affiliated with any religion or affiliated with a non-traditional religion of other "spiritual" practice.] 

They are reactionary because they revive pre-modern structures of authority and sometimes establish fascist patterns of internal organization. Furthermore, in their assault on autonomy and self-definition some cults reject a liberating historical process that has evolved with great struggle and pain in the West since the Renaissance. Cults must be considered individually in making such judgments. Historical dislocation is one source of what I call the "protean style." This involves a continuous psychological experimentation with the self, a capacity for endorsing contradictory ideas at the same time, and a tendency to change one's ideas, companions and way of life with relative ease.

The imagery of extinction derived from the contemporary threat of nuclear war influences patterns of totalism and fundamentalism throughout the world. Nuclear war threatens human continuity itself and impairs the [traditional, Judeo-Christian] symbols of immortality. Cults seize upon this threat to provide immortalizing principles of their own. The cult environment supplies a continuous opportunity for the experience of transcendence -- a mode of symbolic immortality generally suppressed in advanced industrial society. [An aspect of "traditional" society easily (and sometime rather accurately) critiqued in dystopic fashion by many -- not all -- cults and presented as stressful and damaging to human potential. Transcendence of Tart's "consensus consciousness" (or more perjoratively, "consensus trance") is a good example of the zeitgeist here, though I have never seen a cult provide nearly so complete a rendering of cultural constructivism... and for seemingly good reason: Were such as Tart's model to be fully revealed to the lower levels of the cultic pyramid, the cult itself would be in jeopardy.]

Role of Psychology

Cults raise serious psychological concerns, and there is a place for psychologists and psychiatrists in understanding and treating cult members. But our powers as mental health professionals are limited, so we should exercise restraint. When helping a young person confused about a cult situation, it is important to maintain a personal therapeutic contract so that one is not working for the cult or for the parents. Totalism begets totalism. What is called deprogramming includes a continuum from intense dialogue on the one hand to physical coercion and kidnapping [which was, in fact the case in the Ted Patrick era when this piece was written], with thought-reform-like techniques, on the other. 

My own position, which I have repeatedly conveyed to parents and others who consult me, is to oppose coercion at either end of the cult process. Cults are primarily a social and cultural rather than a psychiatric or legal problem. But psychological professionals can make important contributions to the public education crucial for dealing with the problem. With greater knowledge about them, people are less susceptible to deception, and for that reason some cults have been finding it more difficult to recruit members.

Yet painful moral dilemmas remain. When laws are violated through fraud or specific harm to recruits, legal intervention is clearly indicated. But what about situations in which behavior is virtually automatized, language reduced to rote and cliche, yet the cult member expresses a certain satisfaction or even happiness? We must continue to seek ways to encourage a social commitment to individual autonomy and avoid coercion and violence.

Links to Articles on Cult Dynamics

References 

Peter L. Berger & Thomas Luckman: The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge; New York: Doubleday, 1966.

Gao Wenqien: Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary; New York: Perseus Books, 2007.

Kenneth Gergen: An Invitation to Social Construction; London: Sage, 1999. 

Jenna Miscavige (Hill), Lisa Pulitzer: Beyond Belief: My Secret Life inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape; New York: Morrow / HarperCollins, 2013.

Lawrence Wright: Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief; Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.