Introduction to Traumatic Narcissism Issue
Daniel Shaw
Psychoanalyst, Private Practice, New York City and Nyack, NY Faculty and Clinical Supervisor,
The National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP)
For many years, I have sought to bring the
subject of trauma and abuse in cults to the
attention of the professional mental-health
community. My own affiliation has long been
with The National Institute for the
Psychotherapies (NIP), where I was trained in
psychoanalysis, and where I currently teach and
supervise psychoanalytic trainees. In the past
few years, I have been developing a
psychoanalytic conceptualization of the cult
leader/follower relationship, and I began to see
an opportunity. I proposed a program, Post-Cult
Trauma and the Relational System of the
Traumatizing Narcissist, to Michael Langone,
which he green-lighted but I didn’t have an
available venue in New York City, where I
work. I approached the NIP, who it turned out
was happy to cosponsor the program with ICSA.
The NIP graciously provided its conference
space and many of the amenities we needed to
make the program work.
The program was well attended, with both
former cultists and mental-health professionals
in the audience. Structuring the program to have
both a psychological theoretical component and
an experiential component, I asked Shelly Rosen
to lend her vast expertise in trauma theory to the
program, and I was lucky that she consented.
Between my work on traumatic narcissism,
which represents an effort to form a
psychological profile of the cult leader, and
Shelly’s understanding of postcult trauma, I felt
we had a good, solid, theoretical foundation.
For illustration of the theoretical ideas, I asked
Ann Stamler, William Yenner, and Amy Siskind
to share with the audience their personal
experiences of being in the groups they
eventually thought of as cultic, and fortunately,
they too willingly agreed. Chris Carlson
provided a brief introduction to and moderated
the program. The resulting program offered
both clinical theory and compelling personal
stories.
It is my hope that readers who find this material
and this format compelling will consider using
this program as a model for presenting the issue
of cults to mental-health workers in their own
communities. The mental-health profession can
play a meaningful role in being a resource for
those suffering from postcult trauma only to the
extent that the professionals are well-informed.
It is my hope that these collected papers can be a
beginning contribution to the goal of widely
educating and informing mental-health
professionals throughout the world.
2 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014
Daniel Shaw
Psychoanalyst, Private Practice, New York City and Nyack, NY Faculty and Clinical Supervisor,
The National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP)
For many years, I have sought to bring the
subject of trauma and abuse in cults to the
attention of the professional mental-health
community. My own affiliation has long been
with The National Institute for the
Psychotherapies (NIP), where I was trained in
psychoanalysis, and where I currently teach and
supervise psychoanalytic trainees. In the past
few years, I have been developing a
psychoanalytic conceptualization of the cult
leader/follower relationship, and I began to see
an opportunity. I proposed a program, Post-Cult
Trauma and the Relational System of the
Traumatizing Narcissist, to Michael Langone,
which he green-lighted but I didn’t have an
available venue in New York City, where I
work. I approached the NIP, who it turned out
was happy to cosponsor the program with ICSA.
The NIP graciously provided its conference
space and many of the amenities we needed to
make the program work.
The program was well attended, with both
former cultists and mental-health professionals
in the audience. Structuring the program to have
both a psychological theoretical component and
an experiential component, I asked Shelly Rosen
to lend her vast expertise in trauma theory to the
program, and I was lucky that she consented.
Between my work on traumatic narcissism,
which represents an effort to form a
psychological profile of the cult leader, and
Shelly’s understanding of postcult trauma, I felt
we had a good, solid, theoretical foundation.
For illustration of the theoretical ideas, I asked
Ann Stamler, William Yenner, and Amy Siskind
to share with the audience their personal
experiences of being in the groups they
eventually thought of as cultic, and fortunately,
they too willingly agreed. Chris Carlson
provided a brief introduction to and moderated
the program. The resulting program offered
both clinical theory and compelling personal
stories.
It is my hope that readers who find this material
and this format compelling will consider using
this program as a model for presenting the issue
of cults to mental-health workers in their own
communities. The mental-health profession can
play a meaningful role in being a resource for
those suffering from postcult trauma only to the
extent that the professionals are well-informed.
It is my hope that these collected papers can be a
beginning contribution to the goal of widely
educating and informing mental-health
professionals throughout the world.
2 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014
