For many decades, the cult phenomenon has fascinated the masses. A cult is an organization with deviant beliefs and practices, and is characterized by the apparent life-time membership of its participants. It seems to be very popular among troubled teenagers and adults. The psychology behind why some people are more susceptible to the charms and the lure of being in a cult is not very widely researched or understood. Many people are concerned with cultist behavior and the effect that they have on the individuals involved, believing that they have been “brainwashed” into this lifestyle. This paper deals with cult mentality and how people become involved in certain religious and secular cults. It will explore the personality traits of current and ex-cult members as well as look at case studies of members of particular cults. The format of this paper will first look at some preexisting dispositions, the psychological effects while in the cult, and any short term or long term effects upon leaving the cult, as well as some treatment options. Preexisting Dispositions Individuals with certain preexisting or underlying psychological issues can render them more likely to join a cult. It’s evident that there are severe psychological problems originating in childhood including physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect in the cult members. There seems to be a life-long pattern of self-destructive patterns of behavior that manifests in early childhood, which include self-mutilating behavior, chronic substance abuse, absent parents, and sexual perversion. Placing these individuals in emotionally and physically vulnerable situations such as in a cult seems to have adverse effects. The severity of the cult members’ psychological problems... ... middle of paper ... ..., to note that there seems to be no adverse effects while a person is in a cult, as their levels of stress goes down and they seem happier. Overall, the cult mentality is one that continues to be an enigma to society today. Works Cited Marc Galanter, M.D., Richard Rabkin, M.D., Judith Rabkin, PH.D., and Alexander Deutsch, M. D. (1979). The “Moonies”: A psychological Study of Conversion and Membership in a Contemporary Religious Sect. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136(2). Miller, T. W. (1999). An Adolescent Vampire Cult in Rural America : Clinical Issues and Case Study. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 29(3), 209–220. Schawrtz, L. L. (1979). Religious Cults, the Individual, and the Family. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, (5), 15–26. Walsh, Y., Russell, R. J. H., & Wells, P. A. (1995). THE PERSONALITY OF EX-CULT MEMBERS. Pergamon, 19(3), 339–344.
Imagine driving in Marin County, you miss your turn, suddenly you find yourself surrounded by 40-50 men and women with shaved heads, wearing blue bib overalls, yielding ax handles, clubs, and baseball bats, shouting, “Kill Them, Let’s Get Them!” Sounds like a horror movie. The word cult, from the Latin word Cultus, means a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object (Oxford English Dictionary). Robert J. Lifton, M.D., a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York defines the characteristics of a cult as: 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 called coercive persuasion or thought reform; 3) economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader (8.1) Numerous experts in both sociology and psychology supplementally include many other characteristics for cult classification, such as recruitment and isolation, but, the characteristics listed above prove prevalent amongst them all.
One aspect of this control is intimidation and threats. Cults will threaten members and their families to make sure they remain in control and make their leaders seem larger than life. A new recruit to the Church of Wells met with her family, after she left to join the group without any warning, and throughout the meeting she would always look to the church leader before saying anything (Smith 86). Cults also use isolation to manipulate members. One family described their daughter’s behavior when she first join the Church of Wells, “She seemed to withdraw from the world, dropping out of choir and quitting her job” (Smith 85). Cults have more control when their new recruits and other members are isolated from the rest of the world. If the members’ only source of information is the cult, they are less likely to question it. One cult that uses these harmful methods is The Children of God. This religious sect grew out of the 60’s counter culture and was founded in 1968 by David Berg (Zuckerman 108). Zuckerman states that “the children were kept very separate from the parents” and used to control the parents (Zuckerman 106). There is also a constant social pressure that comes with being in a cult. An escapee from The Children of God described the pressure, stating “you weren’t allowed to have imperfection. I had a little wart on my thumb, and I remember walking down this hallway-- a
A cult society is an organization that basically disguises itself as a religion. In a cult, they normally perform rituals. There are usually many people in these societies. In Jim Jones’s cult, there were at least one thousand people in this community.
The vampire is believed to also be capable of transmitting his vampirism to those he infects or bites. Kayton recognizes that though this belief has been found in early writings of the Babylonians, Semites, and Egyptians, the most famous vampire scare swept Europe in 1730. This vampire epidemic lasted approximately five years (305). The legend of consistency continues with adolescent and young adult schizophrenia. It is presented to us that young suicide victims are most likely believed to become vampires and attack members of their families (Kayton 304-05).
For many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling God's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.
Cults have existed throughout history since the beginning of time. A cult is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a “system of religious worship with a devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc.” Over the past thirty years numerous religious cults have caused “ tens of thousands to abandon their families, friends, education’s, and careers to follow the teaching of a leader they will never meet”(Beck 78).
Imagine living in a society where everything is uniform. Anything you wear, eat or think is controlled. Then you realize that your life is not actually yours. This sounds bizarre, but it’s true. Without knowing it, everyone dreams of the same things in life; the perfect job, the perfect family, or the perfect house. We may not all agree to this, but the fact is that we all dream the same dream. In some way, we are all part of one big “cult” because our desires are similar to one another. When the word “cult” comes to mind, it has a negative connotation. American society makes most of its profits by the use of advertisements. In Kalle Lasn’s essay “The Cult You’re In,written in 1996, he uses rhetorical tactics such as ethos, pathos, and logos to illustrate how ads increase a person’s desire for goods and services that he or she may not want. There are some aspects of as in his essay that are rhetorically effective; however, there are some aspects of his essay that are not.
Storey Amanda, Strieter Carrie et. Al, (2005), Richard Trenton Chase “Dracula Killer”, “The Vampire of Sacramento”, Department of Psychology, Radford University. (1-6)
Sociologists view cult behavior as a deviance from society’s norm. There are many theories as to why a cult leader forms a cult and how they garner such complete blind devotion from their members. While researching Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple I discovered that this particular cult adhered to several of the proven theories. Jones had few societal bonds and used fear and intimidation to control his members. In addition, he was an extreme socialist turned communist; when his original goals were met with resistance, he chose the path of rebellion, which was to reject society’s goals and seek to provide his own goals and means to accomplish them (Henslin, 2015).
evaluate these psychological theories while using the truth of the bible as a guide. Doing
In essence, what Sandage and Moe (2012) refer to as exterior religiosity (e.g. structure, benefit, and gain) are what often attracts narcissists to organized religion. For instance, several religious organizations are comprised of layers of hierarchy in which narcissists can entrench themselves, several church leaders have abused their posts for personal gain, and some organizations offer rewards for the faithful–such as the early Mormon Church’s offer of bigamy, worlds like the Earth for the deceased, and to eventually become god-like when one dies (Young,
“Most sociologists of religion note that cults represent a break with the mainstream of the religious tradition of the society in which they exist” (Enroth, 1987, p. 20). These terms “mainstream,” “culture,” and “society” are becoming more and more difficult to define because we live in an ever shrinking world. What happens in Japan at noon can be easily accessed here in the United States within a few hours. The culture that we live in is becoming ever more integrated with other cultures. For this reason, maybe a framework would be easier to
Cults are different from other groups. According to the American Journal of Psychotherapy, two factors distinguish how cults are different from other social groups. First, the ...
Smith, Cara L., Judith L. Johnson, and William Hathaway. "Personality Contributions to Belief in Paranormal Phenomena."Individual Differences Research 7.2 (2009): 85-96. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Lifton, R., foreword, Cults In Our Midst, by Margaret Thaler Singer & Lalich (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995).