Cult Information Bookstore
Article: other

AFF 2002 Annual Conference

Understanding Cults and New Religious Movements

June 14-15, 2002

Crowne Plaza Hotel Orlando (FL) Airport

Continued, Part 3

Psychological Research

Inner Experience and Conversion

Counseling psychologist Michael Langone, Ph.D. (AFF Executive Director and Editor of Cultic Studies Review) noted that there are many theories of conversion embraced by the various disciplines that study the phenomenon. He then discussed a cognitive psychological approach that assumes that people tend toward logical consistency in their beliefs and endeavors, even if they do not always achieve it.

In applying this approach, he said that some conversions can best be understood as arising from compelling inner experiences — whether engineered by a group or in response to a guru’s apparent wisdom — that lead an individual to alter his fundamental assumptions about the world and his place in it. Since the individual wants to be logically consistent, the experience leads him to reconsider and rearrange his beliefs and behaviors to make them more consistent with the new assumptions he is exploring. He reaches out to others for support and guidance, and in high-pressure manipulative groups there is always someone ready to help him draw the “correct” conclusions from the compelling experience that elicited the reevaluation process (whereas in more ethical groups, members are encouraged to take their time in deciding for themselves). In the end, the neophyte accepts the group’s ruling propositions, e.g., the guru is “God’s messenger.” Inconsistencies are rationalized by normal cognitive dissonance combined with group pressure. (When many disturbing discrepancies accumulate, perhaps after many years, the member may once again question fundamental assumptions and look for an exit.)

Dr. Langone’s introduction was followed by two case studies of conversions to cultic groups based on inner experiences mediated by groups, one from Patrick Ryan, a thought reform consultant and contributor to AFF’s book, Recovery from Cults (W.W. Norton), another by Joseph Kelley, also a thought reform consultant and co-author of “Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants” (published in AFF’s Cultic Studies Journal).

Assessment Results: Examples from the U.S., Mexico, and Spain

Rod Marshall, Ph.D., head of the Department of Human Sciences at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, in Wycombe, England, reported on the results of his testing for harmful effects of cult involvement, which used the Beck Depression Inventory and other measures with data he collected on former cult members when he visited the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, in Albany, OH. 

Ron Burks, Ph.D., a Wellspring staff member, spoke of his work to assess depression among cult leavers, and Jonibeth Whitney, Ph.D., reviewed her work on the risk to children in cultic groups; she found that the danger of sexual abuse was greater than in the general population.

Panel discussant Dr. Paul Martin, Ph.D., a psychologist and head of the Wellspring facility, said that Ron Burks’s work showed that leaving a cult was not necessarily harmful, and that Dr. Marshall’s study, using “the most sophisticated empirical data to date on the question,” indicates that although the mechanisms are not yet entirely clear. cultic groups do, indeed, harm members.

José Antonio Carrobles, Ph.D., Professor of Personality, Assessment, and Treatment at the Universidad Autónomia de Madrid, said that his research with former members of Spanish cultic groups, using the same measurement scales employed by his U.S. colleagues, showed only slightly lower levels of psychological abuse. Carmen Almendros, a doctoral student at the Universidad Autónomia, found that some 18% of the former members she surveyed fell into the pathological category (many more suffered various symptoms). Post traumatic stress disorder rates among them were high, and problems included paranoia and psychotic delusions. The Spanish researchers found that ex-members’ symptoms diminished over time after leaving the group.

Cesar Mascarenas, M.D., Dean and Professor in the School of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autonomia de Mexico, reported that former members of the international cultic group he studied showed much higher levels of distress on the standard scales than the ex-Catholics to which he compared them.  These results, he said, were similar to those from U.S. studies.  Dr. Mascarenas found the scales reliable, and not influenced by cultural differences.

Discussant Rod Marshall, Ph.D., head of the Department of Human Sciences at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, in Wycombe, England, commenting on this research, said that clear progress was being made in developing and refining the scales used to assess harmful effects of cult involvement, and that clinical observations and psychological measurement were converging. The evidence, he said, tends to show that the higher influence groups have more profound effects, although the length-of-time-out-of-group factor is not yet a consistent finding. He stressed that researchers must use common scales aimed to test the same questions, and that the scales need additional refinement in order to show more consistent results. He said that testing former members did not render studies based on their experiences deficient.

Assessment and Assistance in Spain

Miguel Perlado Recacha, a clinical psychologist from the University of Barcelona, Spain, reviewed the diagnostic criteria employed in the therapeutic service provided by his organization, Atención e Investigatión de Sociadicciones (AIS). Presenting a psychoanalytically-based psychopathological model derived from his research, he concluded that cult experiences sometimes involved dissociative disorders and other pathological symptoms as well as psychological, financial, and sexual “addictions” — what might be called “dependency disorders.” His found that in cultic groups, the mutual dependence between leaders and members is greater than in other kinds of groups.

Josep Maria Jansa, M.D., a researcher and clinician with the government-supported AIS (Assessment and Information on Cults) in Barcelona, Spain, said that he and his colleagues have learned that incorrect assessment of the cult-involved can lead to the wrong approach to helping them.  Attempted deprogramming, for example, might drive the cult member deeper into his involvement, especially if the member has not, in fact, been “brainwashed.” It follows, he added, that cult involvement must not be treated in the black and white way it was in the past. Indeed, some members’ problems may not even be cult-related, and some individuals are merely “fellow travelers.” Whatever the situation, Dr. Jansa believes that clinicians should treat the whole family, not just the member, because it is a vital part of any solution.

There are many options for action, Dr. Jansa said, and timing is crucial. You must know what to expect from an “intervention.” Sometimes, nothing can be done. But families taking a flexible approach, with the advice of professionals, can often succeed, even if only in developing a dialog with a member who remains in the group, especially if he is not “symptomatic.”

Dr. Jansa reported that in Europe, former members are not nearly so involved in counseling and education as they are in North America. Yet the continents are alike in that most psychologists are not yet willing to work in the cult field; they see such work as essentially “esoteric.” The Catalan physician urged that standards of treatment be developed which would foster not only better treatment, but professional education.

Marriage After the Cult

Lorna Goldberg, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., a member of the faculty of the New Jersey Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis and co-leader of an ex-member support group for the past 25 years, said that “transference” and the defense mechanism of “projection” have a particularly destructive impact on the marriages of former cult members. As to transference, post-cult couples view partners the way they viewed the cult leader. As to projection, former members deal with conflicts about certain feelings by projecting uncomfortable or unacceptable feelings onto their partners. Ms. Goldberg suggested how therapists might help couples uncover these processes and deal with them.

“Brainwashing” As Extreme Influence

Edward J. Frischholz, Ph.D., a widely published clinical psychologist and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, argued compellingly that the imprecise and emotionally charged terms “brainwashing” and “mind control” do, in fact, represent real processes of social and psychological “influence” that have been well documented and accepted by scholars in many disciplines for a very long time now. He cited work on the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, the Moscow Show Trials, police tactics to gain false confessions, the practice of hypnosis, and more. He said that CIA and other covert government programs indicated that control could be gained without physical coercion. Similarly, he went on, contemporary cults use extreme psychological influence to effect attitude change, factitious identities, and obedience, all without force or confinement.

Dr. Frischholz noted that situational and personality variables determined the extent to which individuals might be influenced, and that the term “brainwashing” popularly represented the most extreme results. He suggested that the word be dropped from use in court, where it is now immediately dismissed as unscientific, even as science fiction, and replaced with a term like “undue influence,” which courts have recognized historically. He lamented that the word “hypnosis” — the practice of which, studies show, can clearly influence ideas and actions — is similarly excluded from consideration in legal cases involving extreme influence. Since suggestion is universal, Dr. Frischholz concluded; the real question in any given case is degree, and courts must be educated to see that extreme influence — “mind control” — is based on scientifically demonstrable facts.

Next