International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 9, 2018 11
of approximately 100,000 people.
149F
150 LRA
preaches the Acholi religion its adherents
believe that Joseph Kony, their leader, has
supernatural powers, making the followers
subservient.
150F
151 Children are preferred recruits
over adults because their smaller size allows
them to hide effectively in the bush, and because
they are fearless when put on the front lines and
told to fight without cover.
151F
152 By exploiting
religious beliefs of their followers, the LRA
maintains strict allegiance.
152F
153 Thus, LRA would
be characterized as a terrorist cult.
One of the distinctions between a political cult
operating as a terrorist organization and a
“traditional” cult is that the terrorist group is
centered on the destruction of others outside its
group, whereas a religious cult is destructive to
its own members.
153F
154 Heaven’s Gate, for
example, did not exhibit “terrorist” behavior
because its destruction was inward towards its
own members.
154F
155 Nevertheless, Heaven’s Gate
fit the characteristics of a cult because its
members were “strongly attached to their
leaders, who exerted exceptional psychological
control.”
155F
156
4. Psychotherapy Cults
Followers of psychotherapy cults espouse that
their followers’ devotion leads to greater
intellectual enlightenment.
156F
157 These groups are
profit-motivated centers run by the unskilled
who do more harm than good.
157F
158
An example is the Sullivan Institute in
Manhattan, New York, which was a community
of middle-class artists and professionals who
lived together in the 1970s and ‘80s and engaged
150 See id. at 130.
151 See id.
152 See id. at 141−43.
153 An organization that claimed to have raised money and
awareness about LRA was “Invisible Children.” They have
recently posted videos on YouTube explaining that they are no
longer operating.
154 See Dole, supra note 144 Rodriguez-Carballeira et al., supra
note 77, at 50.
155 See Dole, supra note 144, at 211.
156 Id.
157 See HASSAN, supra note 55, at 86.
158 See id.
in unorthodox psychoanalytic therapy.
158F
159 The
collective included an estimated 200 members
who lived in three buildings on the Upper West
Side and ran a political theater group in the East
Village.
159F
160 Children were separated from
parents.
160F
161 A former Sullivanian explained that
the basic tenet of the teachings was that the
nuclear family was the “root of all evil.”
161F
162
Children were separated from their parents
because it was preached that they should not
have special bonds with their parents.
162F
163 Sexual
promiscuity was strongly encouraged for adults
and minors.
163F
164 As a former member explained,
“[e]veryone, even the kids, was supposed to
have as many ‘dates’ as possible. In one week,
my son had dates with 23 different people. I
didn’t want him to live like that.”
164F
165 Married
couples were encouraged to sleep with a
different member of the opposite sex each
night.
165F
166 Psychotherapy cults can cause harm to
the members’ psyche.
166F
167
5. Commercial Cults
Commercial cults recruit with a promise of
profit for the individual.
167F
168 Often the leaders
build their organization around pyramid schemes
that depend upon recruitment of people to sell
and purchase wares.
168F
169 Their commercial
159 Amy B. Siskind –The Sullivanian Institute/Fourth Wall
Community: The Relationship of Radical Individualism and
Authoritarianism (Praeger: Westport, Conn. 2003) reviewed by
Daniel Shaw, 5 Cultic Stud. Rev. 333 (2006).
160 See Margaret Thaler Singer, Maurice K. Temerlin &Michael
D. Langone, Psychotherapy Cults, 7 CULTIC STUD. J.101−25
(1990).
161 See id.
162 Singer et al., supra note 158.
163 In the formative years of the community (1957 to 1970), the
leadership advocated that their patients either send their children to
boarding schools or hire full-time caregivers. In the later years
(1971 to 1992), the Sullivanians reared children in communal
households with one parent and a group of same-sex roommates.
Young children were separated from their parents and spent most
of their time with paid caregivers and other community children.
Amy B. Siskind, Pathological Psychoanalysis: An Insider’s View
of the Sullivanian? Fourth Wall Psychotherapy Community, 5
INT’L J. CULTIC STUD. 45−51 (2014).
164 See Singer et al., supra note 158.
165 Id.
166 See id.
167 See id.
168 See HASSAN, supra note 55, at 87.
169 See id.
of approximately 100,000 people.
149F
150 LRA
preaches the Acholi religion its adherents
believe that Joseph Kony, their leader, has
supernatural powers, making the followers
subservient.
150F
151 Children are preferred recruits
over adults because their smaller size allows
them to hide effectively in the bush, and because
they are fearless when put on the front lines and
told to fight without cover.
151F
152 By exploiting
religious beliefs of their followers, the LRA
maintains strict allegiance.
152F
153 Thus, LRA would
be characterized as a terrorist cult.
One of the distinctions between a political cult
operating as a terrorist organization and a
“traditional” cult is that the terrorist group is
centered on the destruction of others outside its
group, whereas a religious cult is destructive to
its own members.
153F
154 Heaven’s Gate, for
example, did not exhibit “terrorist” behavior
because its destruction was inward towards its
own members.
154F
155 Nevertheless, Heaven’s Gate
fit the characteristics of a cult because its
members were “strongly attached to their
leaders, who exerted exceptional psychological
control.”
155F
156
4. Psychotherapy Cults
Followers of psychotherapy cults espouse that
their followers’ devotion leads to greater
intellectual enlightenment.
156F
157 These groups are
profit-motivated centers run by the unskilled
who do more harm than good.
157F
158
An example is the Sullivan Institute in
Manhattan, New York, which was a community
of middle-class artists and professionals who
lived together in the 1970s and ‘80s and engaged
150 See id. at 130.
151 See id.
152 See id. at 141−43.
153 An organization that claimed to have raised money and
awareness about LRA was “Invisible Children.” They have
recently posted videos on YouTube explaining that they are no
longer operating.
154 See Dole, supra note 144 Rodriguez-Carballeira et al., supra
note 77, at 50.
155 See Dole, supra note 144, at 211.
156 Id.
157 See HASSAN, supra note 55, at 86.
158 See id.
in unorthodox psychoanalytic therapy.
158F
159 The
collective included an estimated 200 members
who lived in three buildings on the Upper West
Side and ran a political theater group in the East
Village.
159F
160 Children were separated from
parents.
160F
161 A former Sullivanian explained that
the basic tenet of the teachings was that the
nuclear family was the “root of all evil.”
161F
162
Children were separated from their parents
because it was preached that they should not
have special bonds with their parents.
162F
163 Sexual
promiscuity was strongly encouraged for adults
and minors.
163F
164 As a former member explained,
“[e]veryone, even the kids, was supposed to
have as many ‘dates’ as possible. In one week,
my son had dates with 23 different people. I
didn’t want him to live like that.”
164F
165 Married
couples were encouraged to sleep with a
different member of the opposite sex each
night.
165F
166 Psychotherapy cults can cause harm to
the members’ psyche.
166F
167
5. Commercial Cults
Commercial cults recruit with a promise of
profit for the individual.
167F
168 Often the leaders
build their organization around pyramid schemes
that depend upon recruitment of people to sell
and purchase wares.
168F
169 Their commercial
159 Amy B. Siskind –The Sullivanian Institute/Fourth Wall
Community: The Relationship of Radical Individualism and
Authoritarianism (Praeger: Westport, Conn. 2003) reviewed by
Daniel Shaw, 5 Cultic Stud. Rev. 333 (2006).
160 See Margaret Thaler Singer, Maurice K. Temerlin &Michael
D. Langone, Psychotherapy Cults, 7 CULTIC STUD. J.101−25
(1990).
161 See id.
162 Singer et al., supra note 158.
163 In the formative years of the community (1957 to 1970), the
leadership advocated that their patients either send their children to
boarding schools or hire full-time caregivers. In the later years
(1971 to 1992), the Sullivanians reared children in communal
households with one parent and a group of same-sex roommates.
Young children were separated from their parents and spent most
of their time with paid caregivers and other community children.
Amy B. Siskind, Pathological Psychoanalysis: An Insider’s View
of the Sullivanian? Fourth Wall Psychotherapy Community, 5
INT’L J. CULTIC STUD. 45−51 (2014).
164 See Singer et al., supra note 158.
165 Id.
166 See id.
167 See id.
168 See HASSAN, supra note 55, at 87.
169 See id.
