One’s potential is defined in any way the
leader chooses but in one form or another,
cult leaders are always demanding
perfection in the form of devotion, loyalty,
willingness to obey, and willingness and
ability to recruit others. By demanding
perfection, the leader makes it impossible
for the follower to fully succeed at anything,
including devotion, and therefore it is
impossible for the follower to avoid the
leader’s abusive criticism. The follower’s
status can be raised, at least temporarily,
when he demonstrates his willingness to act,
abusively and criminally if need be, in
accordance with the principle that whatever
end is specified by the leader always
justifies any means.
The more successful and powerful a
particular cult becomes, the greater the risk
of public exposure, and therefore, the more
urgent and hysterical the culture becomes.
The leadership of the group becomes more
shameless and without boundaries,
demanding more and more time, money, and
energy of the followers defining enemies of
the group to eventually include anyone not
in the group and becoming increasingly
punitive of deviance within the ranks.
As followers discover that no effort they
make is ever good enough to earn the
leader’s full recognition, or to make them
exempt from the leader’s destructive attacks,
they become more and more desperate to
please the leader, becoming willing to let
down their own boundaries, and to violate
the boundaries of others at the leader’s
behest.
Ultimately, followers act on the belief that
only the leader’s thoughts and feelings
matter and have validity, and the follower
must exist only to serve the leader’s aims.
The follower actively seeks to negate any
aspect of his own subjectivity which the
leader might disapprove of.
To most outside observers, the leader’s aims
are clearly nothing more than self-
aggrandizement. Insiders, however, in spite
of little or no evidence on which to base
their assertions, cling stubbornly to the
belief that the leader is actually pursuing
lofty and noble aims. Asked to do anything
to enrich the leader, including, in the case of
some notorious groups, prostituting
themselves, followers obey and find a way
to believe that whatever they do is righteous.
By remaining loyal to the leader, the
followers persuade themselves that their
own existence is given meaning and validity
by their support of the leader’s mission.
We can readily understand a cult, then, as a
variant of the traumatizing narcissist’s relational
system, in which the leader presents herself as
the living embodiment and ultimate master of
the principles of her own ideology. Her mission
and her ideology are formalized in ways that
will vary in the details from one group to
another. The group’s goals frequently shift, are
proclaimed to the followers with grandiose
pomposity, and are often connected to a demand
for payment for the privilege of being granted
access to the esoteric wisdom. The unstated
actual goal of any group led by a traumatizing
narcissist, always disavowed, is for the leader to
keep herself in a state of narcissistic
hyperinflation and the actual job of the follower
is to do whatever it takes to help the leader to
achieve that aim.
Followers in cults are traumatized in various
ways by the different kinds of abuses they are
exposed to as they accept the leader’s control
over them these abuses typically include
intimidation, belittling, and humiliation, and,
more concretely, severe overwork and
deprivation of sleep and proper nutrition. The
follower’s rewards, which are recognition from
the leader and the ensuing prestige the followers
gain within their group, are bestowed and
rescinded at the leader’s whim, keeping the
follower in a state of instability and fear about
displeasing the leader and thereby losing status
and favor.
What is often most traumatic for followers who
leave cults is the realization that what led them
to blind themselves to the sadistic cruelty and
the selfishness of the traumatizing narcissist
leader was how desperately hungry they became
—how willing they became to abandon their
own subjectivity and allow themselves to be
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014 9
leader chooses but in one form or another,
cult leaders are always demanding
perfection in the form of devotion, loyalty,
willingness to obey, and willingness and
ability to recruit others. By demanding
perfection, the leader makes it impossible
for the follower to fully succeed at anything,
including devotion, and therefore it is
impossible for the follower to avoid the
leader’s abusive criticism. The follower’s
status can be raised, at least temporarily,
when he demonstrates his willingness to act,
abusively and criminally if need be, in
accordance with the principle that whatever
end is specified by the leader always
justifies any means.
The more successful and powerful a
particular cult becomes, the greater the risk
of public exposure, and therefore, the more
urgent and hysterical the culture becomes.
The leadership of the group becomes more
shameless and without boundaries,
demanding more and more time, money, and
energy of the followers defining enemies of
the group to eventually include anyone not
in the group and becoming increasingly
punitive of deviance within the ranks.
As followers discover that no effort they
make is ever good enough to earn the
leader’s full recognition, or to make them
exempt from the leader’s destructive attacks,
they become more and more desperate to
please the leader, becoming willing to let
down their own boundaries, and to violate
the boundaries of others at the leader’s
behest.
Ultimately, followers act on the belief that
only the leader’s thoughts and feelings
matter and have validity, and the follower
must exist only to serve the leader’s aims.
The follower actively seeks to negate any
aspect of his own subjectivity which the
leader might disapprove of.
To most outside observers, the leader’s aims
are clearly nothing more than self-
aggrandizement. Insiders, however, in spite
of little or no evidence on which to base
their assertions, cling stubbornly to the
belief that the leader is actually pursuing
lofty and noble aims. Asked to do anything
to enrich the leader, including, in the case of
some notorious groups, prostituting
themselves, followers obey and find a way
to believe that whatever they do is righteous.
By remaining loyal to the leader, the
followers persuade themselves that their
own existence is given meaning and validity
by their support of the leader’s mission.
We can readily understand a cult, then, as a
variant of the traumatizing narcissist’s relational
system, in which the leader presents herself as
the living embodiment and ultimate master of
the principles of her own ideology. Her mission
and her ideology are formalized in ways that
will vary in the details from one group to
another. The group’s goals frequently shift, are
proclaimed to the followers with grandiose
pomposity, and are often connected to a demand
for payment for the privilege of being granted
access to the esoteric wisdom. The unstated
actual goal of any group led by a traumatizing
narcissist, always disavowed, is for the leader to
keep herself in a state of narcissistic
hyperinflation and the actual job of the follower
is to do whatever it takes to help the leader to
achieve that aim.
Followers in cults are traumatized in various
ways by the different kinds of abuses they are
exposed to as they accept the leader’s control
over them these abuses typically include
intimidation, belittling, and humiliation, and,
more concretely, severe overwork and
deprivation of sleep and proper nutrition. The
follower’s rewards, which are recognition from
the leader and the ensuing prestige the followers
gain within their group, are bestowed and
rescinded at the leader’s whim, keeping the
follower in a state of instability and fear about
displeasing the leader and thereby losing status
and favor.
What is often most traumatic for followers who
leave cults is the realization that what led them
to blind themselves to the sadistic cruelty and
the selfishness of the traumatizing narcissist
leader was how desperately hungry they became
—how willing they became to abandon their
own subjectivity and allow themselves to be
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014 9
