GUIDELINES FOR THERAPISTS
Lorna Goldberq, M.S.W., A.C.S.W.
RECENTLY A 25-YEAR-OLD WOMAN came to
my office. At age 17, while in high school, she joined a Bible-based cult; she left the
group seven years later. Her consultation with me occurred one year after her cult
departure. She described how her high school boyfriend's family were, and continue to be,
members of what appeared to be a fundamentalist Christian church. They were the ones who
had encouraged her to be- come involved. At the time the young woman's parents were not
unduly concerned about her involvement in the group, believing it was simply a church.
After several months of therapy she
joined other members from her cult for an exit counseling session. During the exit
counseling she learned how cult leaders manipulate recruits to do many things contrary to
the recruits' own beliefs. The exit counselors told her that it was possible to be
sexually abused by a cult leader without having been sexually abused in childhood.
As we can see from this example,
cult life can have a traumatic impact on cult members. In working with a former cultist, a
therapist who minimizes the cult experiences and sees all cult actions exclusively as
indicative of experiences in early life and not, to a greater degree, due to the
manipulations of the cult leader is further victimizing the former cultist. Of course some
individuals have had traumatic experiences in their childhood, which are remembered or
repressed prior to their cult involvement, while others who join cults are not traumatized
by such an experience. However, therapists need to recognize the impact that cult life can
have on former cultists and not make a priori judgments about cult involvement
TYPICAL PRESENTING PROBLEMS
Former cultists who enter therapy
show a wide variety of presenting problems. These problems have changed in some respects
over the years. The former cultists that I began seeing as clients 16 years ago typically
had been in the larger cults that were prevalent in the early 1970’s. These
ex-members had spent up to five years in these groups, had entered the cultic environment
during late adolescence, and generally had left because of a deprogramming, usually
arranged by family members.
In a study coauthored with William
Goldberg (Goldberg & Goldberg, 1982), we described former cultists seen for counseling
or therapy within two to three months of having left their cult as continuing to show the
character traits and hold some of the attitudes of their cultic group. For example, those
who were in Eastern religious cults that focused on subservience to a spiritual leader
kept their heads bowed, spoke with a singsong cadence, and continued to struggle with
their desire to be good and holy, while those who were in cults that emphasized sexuality
as a lure for recruitment continued to relate to others in a seductive manner. Most of the
former cultists seen at that time also showed what appeared to be diminished abilities in
the areas of perception, decision making discrimination, judgment, and memory. It took
time for them to collect their thoughts; speech was often colorless and halting. Former
cultists who sought counseling within two months of leaving their cult were described as
being in the first stage of a process that typically lasted about two years. Usually by
the two-year marker the individual had integrated the cult experience and moved into the
wider world, no longer primarily defining himself or herself as a former cultist.
Although these individuals no longer
wished to remain in the deceptive and controlling environment of the cult, they initially
experienced a sense of confusion, manifest in their continued automatic expression of the
cult's attitudes and beliefs. They had difficulty integrating the bizarre cultic world
from which they had exited with the outside world-the world in which they had spent their
youth and adolescence. They were strangers to
their own families and to their former selves; they showed symptoms that revealed their
sense of disorientation, alienation, and identity confusion. Singer and Ofshe (1990) note
that these individuals feel like immigrants entering a new culture. However, they are
actually reentering their own culture, bringing with them beliefs from their cult life
that conflict with the norms of the larger society. Their pre-cult personality (or real
self) struggles with the personality that was imposed by the cult. West (1992) labeled
this the pseudo personality.
Case Example
Several years ago I interviewed a
woman who had left an Eastern meditation group one month prior to entering therapy. She
had returned home suddenly after a heated dispute with one of the leaders. Her parents arranged for her to see me after she
had gone through a voluntary exit counseling. (For a description and discussion of exit
counseling, see Section Two.) After five years of "doing service," she became
disillusioned with some of the deceptive practices of the leadership. In her first therapy
session, however, she expressed a concern about whether I would be "spiritual"
enough to work with her, a question that indicated she was continuing to hold onto her
group's doctrine. I responded that I wasn't sure if I was spiritual enough because I
wasn't sure what she meant by the term. "Thus began the long process of attempting to
define, and thereby demystify, the former cultist’s cult jargon and ideology.
The young woman often used amorphous
language, speaking such an abstract manner that it was difficult to follow her. At the
same time, the difficulty I experienced in concentrating on what she was saying helped me
understand the diffuse and trance-inducing environment that she had been in. Telling her
of my confusion in session helped her objectify her experience. To serve as someone who
aids the client in relearning how to speak more concretely and clearly is a crucial
therapeutic function. The goal here was to "ground" this young woman, who seemed
to float on air with language and a demeanor that might lead me, her therapist, to float
along with her.
Upon leaving her Eastern meditation
group, she continued to dress in a "hippie" style, to practice yoga, and to
maintain a vegetarian diet. These decisions
were not challenged. In our sessions, however, we explored how yoga affected her, whether
it was a regressive experience returning her to cultic thinking, or a progressive
experience, providing her with more structure and a sense of well-being in her current
life. Her cult had encouraged long periods of
meditation. After her departure, she often found herself dissociating, automatically
drifting into trance state. Once she began to link dissociation to yoga, she gave up the
practice of yoga on her own.
Although she had attended college,
she at first believed she was too much of an outsider and too "slow thinking" to
succeed in a conventional job. She was an excellent typist but could only get temporary
employment. She sensed that her behavior and dress were too offbeat for her to gain
rapport with other workers. Sometimes she had trouble following complex directions and she
had difficulty concentrating. Although she was a voracious reader prior to cult
involvement, she found it difficult to read after leaving her group. She feared that she
had lost some of her intelligence. In time, however, to her relief and mine, her cognitive
and social abilities returned.
CHANGES IN RECENT YEARS
In contrast to those ex-members seen
years ago, the majority of excultists seen in recent years do not initially present
themselves dramatically different from the outside world. Their appearance is not as
otherworldly as those who left cults in the 1970s. This difference results from several
factors.
First, the majority of cults today
are not as isolated from the outside world as were cults in the 1970s. Although the
individual still enters into a new belief system when joining a cult, now a connection is
often kept with the outside world. Typically believers continue working at their pre-cult
jobs and more often tend to remain in contact with family and friends, even though this
contact becomes more strained as the cult member's behavior, attitudes, and language begin
to change.
Second, while in the late 1960s and
1970s there were more cults with an Eastern religious doctrine, today there are more
Bible-based, new age, or psychotherapy cults. Therefore, on the surface at least cult
members do not appear to be as otherworldly as their earlier counterparts.
Third, those who seek help today are
more likely to have left a cult on their own (as opposed to leaving as a result of a
deprogramming, which was more prevalent in the 1970s) and may not be seen for several
months or even years after their departure. Therefore, the residual identifications with
the cult and the cult leader have loosened.
However, some cultic identifications
and attitudes do remain. For example, some former cult members describe having more
critical attitudes toward themselves and others after leaving their cult. It seems that
they have incorporated the harsh attitudes of their cult leaders. Some continue to believe that they have no
personal worth now that they are separated from the group that claimed all responsibility
for their accomplishments. One woman, for example, formerly an editor of her cult's
newspaper, was doing simple clerical work several months after her cult departure. She was
certain that all her editing skills were attached to the cult; she was terrified that she
would fail at a more demanding job.
Without an understanding of their
cultic experience, those who leave cults on their own tend to be plagued by aftereffects
longer than those who gain such an understanding, for example, because they have been exit
counseled. This is particularly true for individuals who have spent most of their young
adulthood in a cult. We are now seeing an increasing number of former cultists who have
spent 10, 15, or even 20 years in a cult.
Case Example
One 36-year-old man did not enter
therapy with me until five years after he had left the psychotherapy cult he had been in
for 10 years. In the years following his departure from the group he had no idea that he
had been in a cultic group nor that his experience had banned him until he came across
Hassan's (1988) book, Combating Cult Mind Control. An intelligent man, he also appeared
to be somewhat intense and moralistic. He was having difficulty settling on a career (he
was working well below his potential) and was having problems developing intimate
relationships. Three years after having left his cult, he was disturbed enough by these
problems to have sought out therapy, which focused mainly on his current life and its
relationship to early childhood experiences. He felt uncomfortable with his therapist, had
concerns about being "controlled," and terminated the therapy after a brief
period. Thus, his first therapy experience touched on but did not explore his cultic
involvement.
He consciously understood that it
was in his best interest to have left his cult; yet he still believed that he had failed,
thereby minimizing his cult experience. In our therapy sessions he realized that his sense
of shame and feeling that he was a bad flawed person made him suppress his painful
feelings about the group. He had held onto the belief that the group's doctrine was
perfect, although he regarded the middle-management types who administered the
"program" as manipulative and, therefore, flawed. Yet he continued to hold the
cult leader-a more distant figure-in high esteem.
Due to his sense of being a failure
for having left the group, he unconsciously undermined his ability to succeed in new
projects. Because of his unconscious sense of feeling trapped in the cult, he feared new
commitments. After some time in therapy he was able to begin to speak of the antisocial,
even criminal, activities that he had engaged in while in the cult. He was extremely
ashamed of this behavior, and it helped him to be reminded that these actions were put
forth by his cult leader as having been in the service of the "greater good."
His distaste for these irregular activities and the group's attitude toward them in fact
had eventually played into his decision to leave. At times during therapy, his highly
moralistic demeanor led to feelings that the therapist was not "up to par"; this
demeanor in fact was a reflection of his own feeling of worthlessness and served as a
"cover" for, or characterological defense against, his feelings of shame.
RECOGNIZING CULT-INDUCED EMOTIONS
In the cult, emotions are
manipulated by others. When cultists leave the group, they continue to feel unable to
control their affects. While some former cultists will appear lacking in affect, others
will appeal to be overwhelmed by their emotions. For example, a man who left a mass
therapy group not long before coming in for therapy felt anxious all the time. He appeared
to be jumping out of his skin, expecting to be "nailed" by those he came in
contact with. In his group, members were videotaped, then picked apart by the leader and
other members.
In addition to anxiety, he suffered
from periodic depression. The intensity of these feelings was not noticed prior to his
cult involvement. This creative man was
dissuaded from continuing his artistic profession and for some time found it hard to
return to his career because of the cult-induced feeling that to pursue his art was
"selfish," and because he feared criticism from others. Ironically it was the
promise of enhanced creative ability that lured him into participating in this cult's
workshops in the first place. It was only after examining how the cult had manipulated him
that this young man was able to begin to succeed in the art world.
Many former cultists, particularly
those from new age, mass therapy, or other cults that violate their members' natural
boundaries and defense mechanisms, describe feeling flooded with emotion all the time.
Halperin (1992) notes that some former members initially appear to be in a manic state.
Others, particularly those from religious groups, appear to suffer from symptoms related
to depression. They describe feeling racked with guilt or shame; they believe that they no
longer are "good" people and are now on the path to Hell. Ex-members of cults
that required long periods of chanting, meditation, visualization, or other hypnotic
techniques often appear detached from their emotions. They suffer from anxiety about
entering into trance states involuntarily; as a result they have difficulty with
concentration and other cognitive abilities. Those who experienced repeated verbal,
physical, or sexual abuse often develop several of a cluster of symptoms (classified as
post-traumatic stress syndrome), including flashbacks, nightmares, amnesia, phobias,
anxiety, depression, emotional numbing, shame, guilt, self-loathing, and social
withdrawal.
Most former cultists suffer from a
strong sense of loneliness. They were constantly surrounded by others in the cult and
induced to identify with the leader. Cultic friendships usually are conditional, based on
the individual's loyalty to the cult. For some afterward in therapy there is a discovery
that part of the cult's appeal was to escape from a sense of loneliness that developed in
early childhood and adolescence. In any case,
a group of former cultists is a helpful adjunct to individual therapy for those who are
feeling lonely or isolated from others who had similar experiences.
Coupled with loneliness are feelings
of sadness and grief—sensing a loss of a life that promised total fulfillment. Former
cultists are mourning the loss of a period in their lives that appeared to fulfill their
idealism. Sadness is a healthy reaction to loss. Former cultists need to come to terms
with how their normal idealism and perhaps youthful grandiosity were exploited and
destroyed by the cult. For some the sadness focuses on the years of missed possibilities
while in the cult for example, not having had the opportunity to enter into a satisfying
relationship, to have children, or to acquire career skills. After a time there is often an expression of
intense anger at the cult leader and/or a desire to act against the cult. Social or legal
action is usually seen as a progressive step. Rather than directing anger primarily at the
self, the former cultist is now taking constructive actions against the manipulators or,
through education, is preventing others from getting ensnared.
Anxiety is commonly experienced by
former cultists. One woman told me, "The hardest thing for me to face is the feeling
that I am no longer protected from the forces of the outside world." It is difficult
to face a world without the magical powers of the cult leader and the protective
mechanisms of decreeing, chanting, meditation, and so forth. Once away from the cult,
however, the former cultist no longer needs to feel the conditioned anxiety that all can
be taken away from the individual at any time based on the predilections of the cult
leader. Ex-members sometimes fear their
fragility upon leaving the group. This is not
only because of the symptoms they are experiencing but also because family members or
friends treat them as if they were made of porcelain and will easily break. It is
important for ex-members to see that if they have survived their cult experience, they
have survived the most difficult part. Now they can begin to recover.
INITIAL ASSESSMENT:
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
All those recruited by cultic groups
are not necessarily living under mind-control influences. Conversely some individuals are
involved in very controlling relationships that might not appear to be cults. It has
become clear to me that what is important in terms of therapeutic intervention is not
whether a person has left a group that fits within the definitional boundaries of a cult,
but whether that individual reacted to involvement in that group in a particular way, as
described in this chapter. That is, the issue is not the group itself but a particular
reaction of the individual to the group's pressures while in the group and to the
experience of leaving that group. Sirkin and Wynne (1990) describe the cultic relationship
as similar to a folie & deux. Upon
ascertaining if a particular client indeed was in a high-demand situation and in fact had
been controlled within that situation, it is important that the therapist
"normalize" post-cult symptoms and emotions. Ex-cultists need to know that their
reactions usually are related to cultic suggestions, practices, and manipulations, and to
their actual separation from the cult. After
helping former cultists understand that separation from their cult may normally induce a
variety of symptoms and emotions, the clinician should, begin to focus on how these
symptoms might be related to several factors. Factors to be considered include the
individual's experience in the cult, the nature of the cult, the duration and intensity of
involvement, the type of departure from the cult, and the degree of emotional support and
understanding received after departure. For example, somatic complaints might be related
to the cult's suggestion that a person's body will rot or the person will contract a
severe illness upon leaving the group. Fear of accidents, death, or negative life
circumstances might have to do with cultic suggestions and a general fearfulness of
disaster now that the cult's supposed protection no longer exists in the former member's
life. And as mentioned previously, for some, it is quite painful to consider getting
through life without protection. A homosexual man, for example, was lured into a cult by
the leader's promise that by following her practices he would be safe from AIDS.
Many former cultists suffer from
sexual difficulties after having been forced to practice celibacy for many years or after
having been sexually manipulated or abused within the cult. This makes it difficult to
trust new relationships. Ex-cultists usually feel awkward in social situations; to their
alarm they often find themselves behaving in the manner deemed "proper" by their
cult. This behavior, however, usually contrasts sharply with their pre-cult behavior and
post-cult values.
THE PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL PROCESS
Exploring Vulnerabilities to the
Recruitment Process
Vulnerability to cult recruitment is
particularly high during transitional periods. Those who entered cultic groups in late
adolescence should be helped to see the degree to which their involvement parallels the
developmental process. In adolescence there is a push for separation. Healthy late
adolescents value a sense of their own autonomy and attempt to develop a vision of the
world that is different from their parents' view. Offer and Offer state that "The
establishment of a self separate from the parents is one of the major tasks of young
adulthood. The young adult must disengage himself from parental domination" (1975, p.
167). Erikson (1950) defines the consolidation of identity as the life crisis of
adolescence. Even though adolescents have made numerous identifications with their parents
throughout their early life, they are pressured by cultic groups to give up these identifications and to replace them with the group's values. The clinician should help the former
cultist see how he or she was pressured to make these new identifications, which met the
group's needs rather than his or her own.
An ex-member told me, for example,
that when she informed her group that she was planning to attend graduate school in
clinical psychology she was told that she was "copping out on her responsibility to
God" by thinking only of her own needs. The leaders encouraged her to be a counselor
to the youth group; as a result, she placed her career on hold during her four years of
cult membership. Therapy involves reworking pre-cult, cult, and post-cult values to help
the individual gain a better integrated and more autonomous sense of self. Now that this woman has left the cult, she plans
to fulfill her career goal.
Working with Adolescents
During late adolescence
vulnerability to cult recruitment can be intensified because of the individual's physical
distance from the family, perhaps on a college campus or while traveling during a vacation
period. Many cults recruit on or near college campuses or at youth hostels or
transportation centers. Separation from home might increase an adolescent's feelings of
anxiety and sense of loss. Living in a college dorm can increase an individual's concern
about his or her sexuality and anxiety about how to deal with increased personal and
sexual freedom. Additionally there are specific personality dynamics of adolescents that
make them vulnerable to cults. Anna Freud (1966) describes how the defenses of
intellectualization and asceticism are often utilized in adolescence. Blos (1962) notes a
tendency toward inner experience and self-discovery-the religious experience. Adolescents tend to be idealistic, and cults hold
out the promise of the fulfillment of idealistic dreams. William Goldberg and 1 (1988)
noted that adolescents who seem particularly vulnerable to cults are those who have high
expectations for themselves and are ready to see the best in others. This characteristic
might play into their faith in the cult's idealistic words and a tendency to ignore the
disparity between the group's words and actions. The demand for perfection might be
related to growing up in families where high standards of performance were set by one or
both parents. Vulnerable individuals may feel that they could not measure up to these
expectations on their own. The cult promised a way to achieve a high standard or a means
to escape from some minor or major disappointments in themselves or
By looking at the vulnerability of
all adolescents, the former cultist is helped to feel less embarrassed and weak-minded.
What happened to him or her could have happened to anybody who was in the wrong place at
the wrong time. Ex-members tend to believe that this bad event (that is, joining the cult)
happened because of something they lacked. They often feel ashamed of, and responsible
for, the events in their lives-a vestige of the childhood magical thinking that is also
There are other vulnerability
factors not related to late adolescence. Those
who joined cults may have had a desire for a sense of community, acceptance, or increased
skills at a time in their lives when they were experiencing loneliness or anxiety about
the future. They may have been vulnerable because of a loss or fear of loss. This may be
related to internal factors such as a disappointment in themselves causing a loss of
self-esteem, or external factors such as divorce, physical illness, death, change in
physical location of their residence, or a change in employment that caused a disruption
in their life. They may have been vulnerable because of pressure to take a training
workshop run by a cult in connection with their job. Some individuals joined cults as a
restitutive attempt to deal with chronic depression or various character disorders. Others
joined as a way of fending off ensuing psychotic behavior, which rarely works because
nonproductive members are usually thrown out since cults demand a high level of
functioning and effectiveness at fund-raising, recruitment, and other cult-directed work.
Those with antisocial tendencies often use what they have learned in one cult to form a
new group in which they can control others. (Although over the years former cultists have
given me numerous anecdotal accounts of sociopathic cult leaders or members, I have not
seen antisocial ex-members in my practice.)
EXAMINING THE CULT EXPERIENCE
Cults often deceive new recruits
about requirements, the doctrine, and the sponsorship of the group itself. Rarely does the
initiate understand that he or she will be induced to become involved in a regressive,
totalistic environment. Doctrine is given in a piecemeal fashion so that initially members
see only the most universally acceptable ideas and practices. Thus the initiate is not
making an informed choice when he or she joins a cult.
Certainly understanding the powerful
effect of group processes is not new. In 1895 LeBon (1972) emphasized the power of
suggestion and contagion in groups. Freud elaborated on this theme by noting that an
individual "liability to affect becomes extraordinarily intensified, while his
intellectual ability is markedly reduced" (1921, p. 20) when he participates in a
group. Freud also referred to the tendency of groups to temporarily or permanently suspend
feelings of hostility toward members and to use the mechanisms of identification and
reaction formation to further defend against hostile feelings. He also noted that group
leaders are seen by members as a new ego ideal and this further encourages the
identification process with the leader.
Modern-day cultic groups have
incorporated sophisticated manipulative techniques that capitalize on the normal group
tendencies previously described. Of she and Singer (1986) have noted that destructive
cults have further refined programs of coercive influence that have been employed by the
communists in the former Soviet Union and China. Cult techniques have now gone beyond
political "thought reform" to focus on central (intrapsychic) rather than
peripheral (political) aspects of an individual's self. The cults of today use techniques
to break through and change an individual's coping strategies and defense mechanisms.
According to former members, in
order for cults to gain new adherents, they use sensory bombardment through such tactics
as prolonged lectures, sleep deprivation, environmental control, and love bombing. They
encourage the breaking of ties with the recruit's usual sources of information and
support, such as family and friends. Recruitment is most effective when the group is able
to completely monopolize the member's time. Cults induce recruits to be caught up in
hypnotic emotionality rather than the intellect through stirring songs, chants, and
confessional guilt-inducing sessions. All of this can serve to bring on a dissociative
state, that is, an altered state of increased suggestibility. To protect oneself in the
midst of confusion, loss of former ties, induced guilt, and dissociation, the recruit
tends to reorganize reality through a new defensive system in which identification with
the aggressor (the cult leader) predominates.
Although the recruit experiences the
positive effect of belonging to a community in which there is unanimity of thinking, the
pressure for such unanimity precludes any type of critical assessment of this coercive
experience and precludes the retention of a sense of the pre-cult self. The recruit is
unable to differentiate his or her thoughts and feelings from those of the group, as
boundaries between the individual and others in the cult have merged. Ex-cultists report
that at this point they experienced a sense of peace, a euphoric feeling. The cults
attribute this to a mystical or religious experience. Many cult members, in fact, describe
the fantasy of merging with their leader a fantasy often suggested by the leader. This
fantasy further induces the recruit to serve the wishes of the leader, who is presumed to
know the recruit's every thought. The leader is now imagined to be carried inside the
recruit's own body-as a new foreign superego. Some groups induce depersonalization in
their pressure on members to have out-of-body experiences. One woman, for example, was
encouraged to transport herself to other planets. After leaving the cult, she continued to
be plagued by out-of-body experiences until she was able to identify how depersonalization
was induced in her cult and the triggers that re-induced these experiences after she left
the group.
Although cults hold out the promise
of solving pre-cult difficulties for some, after an initial period of excitement and
relief, most former cult members describe in retrospect feeling that the promise was only
the "hook" and that their need for personal growth was in fact suppressed or
overridden by the needs of the group. Members are often encouraged to work for the group
full-time. Cults encourage passivity by teaching members to follow their leader without
question. Those who attempt to act independently are humiliated by the leader and treated
as object lessons for the others.
Assessing the Influence of
Mind-control Techniques
In the initial stages of therapy it
is particularly important to assess the influence that mind-control techniques continue to
have on the individual's behavior and thoughts. The cult's persuasive techniques, for
example, continue to have an impact to the extent that there is a belief that every
thought and action has cosmic significance, that individuals create their own reality,
that there is overwhelming guilt or fear when entertaining thoughts considered negative by
the group, and that there is a need to employ what Lifton (1961, p. 29) refers to as the
"thought-terminating clich6" when confronted with information that does not fit
into a simplistic black-and-white view of reality. This all indicates that the individual
views the locus of control as stemming from the cult rather than from the self.
TAKING AN ACTIVE AND RESPONSIVE
STANCE
Former cultists need to be told when
their emotional state is a natural reaction to separation from a cult. Since they were
coerced to restructure their personalities in order to conform to cultic attitudes and
behavior, they tend to feel completely depleted upon leaving that environment. Their task
is to begin to deal with not being tightly orchestrated by others. This orchestration,
plus the pressure to conform to the cult's view and ignore their emotions, leads cult
members to a passive and robotic existence. When they don't know what they feel, they find
themselves going through the motions at the request of others.
In one cult, for example, a woman
was told that whatever she felt, the opposite was the truth, which was her cult leader's
way of controlling individuals and putting them into a disoriented state. The woman was
hospitalized after she was mauled by a dangerous bull, which she ignored, believing that
what she was seeing was a friendly cow. The help that she received during her
hospitalization led to her cult departure.
Why Not Silence?
Although silence with other types of
clients can promote the development of the client's fantasies about the therapist and
allows the transference to evolve, silence can be particularly anxiety provoking for a
former cultist. He or she might be at a loss about how to fill such a vacuum after years
of automatically responding to a structured life. A
silent therapist can unduly burden some former cultists or can become a blank screen for
the projection of paranoid ideation that was induced by the cult. Such projection can lead
to premature termination of therapy. Solomon (1988) points out that silence also is
contraindicated for those prone to dissociation. Lack of structure can induce
M
Some former cultists tend to
idealize their therapists, especially in the early stages of therapy. Again this can be a
way of filling the vacuum created by cult departure. It is vital that the therapist not
play into this idealization by assuming the role of rescuer and violating therapeutic
boundaries. Therapists should be seen as co-workers in the self-discovery process, not as
gurus. The former cultist should be a participating member in a team of equals. The
therapeutic rules and process need to be clearly explained to show that nothing magical
occurs, that the therapist has no special powers but does have human limits. It is helpful
to remind former cultists to put their thoughts into words, because the therapist is
unable to read minds. Equally important is to help former cultists see that the therapist
has human flaws and makes mistakes. In fact, when it seems appropriate, I often laugh at
my mistakes. This seems to help former cultists deal more effectively with their unusually
harsh attitudes toward themselves, those self-critical attitudes that may have been
exacerbated or even instilled by their cult.
In contrast to former cultists who
idealize or want to please the therapist, some relate in an angry, devaluing manner. They
will zero in on every character flaw and mistake made by the therapist. It is important to
face this anger with equanimity. However, the therapist should not allow herself to be
abused, thereby repeating her client's cult experience. Several authors, including Deutsch
and Miller (1983) and Halperin (1990), have focused on how some cultists have had a
preexisting difficulty with tolerating anger or with assertion. Former cultists need to
know that they will not be punished for displaying anger. Anger may also serve to protect
former cultists from their fear of being unduly influenced by the therapist. Additionally
perhaps, for some, there may be a need to displace anger from the cult leader onto the
therapist, who is seen as a less powerful and vengeful figure.
Many former cultists may decide to
see the therapist only for short-term goal-oriented therapy. For obvious reasons, these
individuals are sensitive to and resentful of pressure to remain in treatment. Therapists
should consider working with these clients on a goal-oriented periodic basis if that seems
desirable and potentially more productive. Former
cultists need to know that they can leave therapy with positivefeelings on both sides and
be welcomed back at a later date.
On the other hand, Dubrow-Eichel and
Dubrow-Eichel (1988) describe the tendency of some former cultists to expect therapy to be
the "quick fix" that was promised by the cult. Although it is useful to focus on
specific goals, the therapist must clearly state that there will be no quick, dramatic
transformation. The therapist cannot make promises of cure: only cult leaders do that.
Therapy requires hard work on the part of the client and the therapist; if all goes well,
in time, the former cultist will have a clearer understanding of his or her experience.
Focusing on the Positive
Former cultists have survived a
major crisis in their lives and have learned a great deal from this experience. Not all
cult-induced behaviors are negative. Some former cultists express that they can be proud
of having pushed themselves to the limit for their goals. Others state that they became
more outgoing and self-confident as a result of the proselytizing demanded by the group.
Many learned valuable skills, which can be used in post-cult life; this is generally true
for those who worked in cult-owned businesses. Generally cultists are induced to credit
the cult with the responsibility for all their achievements. It is therefore helpful to
remind former members that they, not the "magic" of the cult, were responsible
for their successes.
THERAPEUTIC GOALS
The primary therapeutic goals are to
help former cultists gain an understanding of their cult experiences and of themselves. By
inducing regression, suppression, identification with the aggressor, and numerous other
defensive strategies in their members, cults often intensify the dependency feelings and
uncertainty of childhood. Because a cult member is trained to no longer trust his or her
inner emotions, which have been reinterpreted by the cult as indicators of the
individual's "selfishness," the cultist finds it necessary to constantly check
with the leader for a sense of what behavior and which attitudes are correct. In the cult, correct behavior is rewarded and
incorrect behavior is punished.
Initially, the therapist is
providing information to help the former cultist gain a better comprehension of how
mind-control processes at work in the cult tended to obliterate the members' sense of
self. Along with this, the therapist is providing a safe environment for the former
cultist to tap into what he or she truly feels, particularly in remembering the cult
experience. The toleration of a wider range of shared memories, emotions, and spontaneous
responses in proportion to the situation at hand is the therapeutic goal For example,
individuals need not be "up" all the time, as was necessary in the cult. Yet it
is important to combat the ex-member's cult-induced passivity by encouraging the
expression of spontaneous reactions and autonomous behavior so that former cultists can
begin to make independent life decisions and manage more successfully the tasks of work,
school, and relationships.
CONCLUSION
A therapist who sees only family
life experiences as the genesis of the difficulties experienced by ex-cultists is not
dealing with the precipitating, more recent traumatic event in the individual's life that
has led to the presenting difficulties. Although cults of the late 1980s and early 1990s
appear different from cults of the 1960s and 1970s, the differences are merely
superficial. For the most part, former cultists today are struggling with the same
post-cult reactions as did ex-members of earlier years. Cults use a variety of
manipulative techniques that superimpose new identifications and values on individuals. These cult-induced identifications and values
clash with pre-cult and post-cult beliefs.
Although they have left their cults,
ex-member clients initially enter therapy with many cult-induced behaviors, emotions, and
beliefs, which the therapist and client must begin to identify. Therefore, the therapist
needs to utilize a psychoeducational approach, initially giving information about the
cult's manipulative techniques to explain how this has influenced post-cult behaviors,
emotional reactions, and beliefs, while at the same time creating a safe environment for
the expression of memories and spontaneous reactions. Although the therapist needs to take
an active role in the therapeutic process, it is necessary that the former cultist be a
participating member in a team of equals. This contrasts sharply with the cultic
relationship in which the leader is seen as godlike and the cultist is denigrated and seen
as having little of value to contribute.
REFERENCES
Blos, P. (1962>. On adolescence.
New York: Free Press.
Deutsch, A., & Miller, M. J.
(1983). A clinical study of four Unification Church members. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 140, 767-770.
Dubrow-Eichel, S. K„ &
Dubrow-Eichel, L. (1988). Trouble in paradise: Some observations on psychotherapy with new
agers. Cultic Studies Journal, 5(2\ 177-192
Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and
society. New York: W. W. Norton.
Freud, A. (1966). The ego and the
mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press.
Freud, S. (1921). Group psychology
and the analysis of the ego. London: Hogarth Press.
Goldberg, L., & Goldberg, W.
(1982). Group work with former cultists. Social Work, 27,165-170.
Goldberg, L., & Goldberg, W.
(1988). Psychotherapy with ex-cultists: Four case studies and commentary. Cultic Studies
Journal, 5(2), 193-210.
Halperin, D. (1990). Psychiatric
perspectives on cult affiliation. Psychiatric Annals, 20(4), 204-213.
Halperin, D. (1992, April).
Presentation at the NY/NJ regional conference of the Cult Awareness Network, Wayne, NJ.
Hassan, S. (1988). Combatting cult
mind control Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.
LeBon, G. (1972). The crowd. New
York: Viking Press.
Lifton, R. J. (1961). Thought reform
and the psychology of totaUsm. New York: W. W. Norton.
Offer, D., & Offer, J. B.
(1975). From teenage to young manhood.- A psychological study. New York: Basic Books.
Ofshe, R., & Singer, M. T.
(1986). Attacks on peripheral versus central elements of self and the impact of thought
reforming techniques. Cultic Studies Journal, 3(1), 3-24.
Singer, M. T. (1991, November).
Presentation at the annual conference of the Cult Awareness Network, Oklahoma City, OK.
Singer, M. T., & Ofshe, R.
(1990). Thought reform programs and the production of psychiatric casualties. Psychiatric
Annals, 20{4), 188-193.
Sirkin, M. 1., & Wynne, L. C.
(1990). Cult involvement as relational disorder. Psychiatric Annals, 20(4.), 199-203.
Solomon, A. 0. (1988). Psychotherapy
of a casualty from a mass therapy encounter group: A case study. Cultic Studies Journal,
5(2), 211-227.
West, L. J. (1992, May).
Presentation at American Family Foundation conference, Arlington, VA.
