Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 9
delusion of perfection to him as does the mirror to the Evil Queen in the tale of Snow White.
One of the ways in which this perversion of dependency is often enacted can be observed
when the cult leader claims that because he needs nothing, he is entitled to everything.
Thus, cult leaders claiming to be pure and perfect, without any need or attachment, use
manic defenses to rationalize and justify their dependence on extravagant and grandiose
trappings such as thrones, fleets of Rolls Royces, and the trust funds of their wealthy
followers.
For the cult leader, his ability to induce total dependence in followers serves to sustain and
enhance a desperately needed delusion of perfect, omnipotent control. With many cult
leaders, (e.g., Shoko Asahara [Lifton, 1999]), the dissolution of their delusion of
omnipotence exposes an underlying core of psychosis. Sustaining a delusion of omnipotence
and perfection is, for the cult leader, a manic effort to ward off psychic fragmentation.
Again it is useful to consider that this kind of pathological narcissism and defensive mania is
often seen in persons whose childhood development was controlled by extremely
dominating, often sadistic caregivers, or whose developmental years were characterized by
traumatic experiences of intense humiliation. Cult leaders then create elaborate
rationalizations for their abusive systems, while unconsciously patterning those systems
from the templates of their own experiences of being abused.
Cult leaders succeed in dominating their followers because they have mastered the cruel art
of exploiting universal human dependency and attachment needs in others. The lengthy
period of dependency in human development, the power that parents have, as God-like
figures, to literally give life and sustain the lives of their children, leaves each human being
with the memory, however distant or unconscious, of total dependency. Cult leaders tap
into and re-activate this piece of the human psyche. Followers are encouraged to become
regressed and infantilized, to believe that their life depends on pleasing the cult leader. Cult
leaders depend on their ability to attract people, often at critically vulnerable points in their
lives, who are confused, hungry, dissatisfied, searching. With such people, cult leaders
typically find numerous ways to undermine their followers‘ independence and their capacity
to think critically.
In a religious cult, the leader is perceived as a deity who is always divinely right, and the
devotee, always on the verge of being sinfully wrong, comes to live for the sole purpose of
pleasing and avoiding displeasing the guru/god. The leader‘s displeasure comes to mean for
the member that he is unworthy, monstrously defective, and, therefore, dispensable. The
member has been conditioned to believe that loss of the leader‘s ―grace‖ is equivalent to
loss of any value, goodness, or rightness of the self. As the member becomes more deeply
involved, his anxiety about remaining a member in good standing increases. This anxiety is
akin to the intense fear, helplessness, loss of control and threat of annihilation that Herman,
in her discussion of psychological domination, describes as induced in victims of both
terrorists and battering husbands:
The ultimate effect of these techniques is to convince the victim that the
perpetrator is omnipotent, that resistance is futile, and that her life depends
upon winning his indulgence through absolute compliance. The goal of the
perpetrator is to instill in his victim not only fear of death but also gratitude
for being allowed to live [Herman, 1992, p. 77].
Extending this formulation to cult leaders and followers, the cult leader can be understood
as needing to disavow her dependency and expel her dread of psychic dissolution, which
she succeeds in doing insofar as she is able to induce that dependency and fear in the
follower. The bliss that cult members often display masks their terror of losing the leader‘s
interest in them, which is equivalent for the follower to ―a fate worse than death.‖
delusion of perfection to him as does the mirror to the Evil Queen in the tale of Snow White.
One of the ways in which this perversion of dependency is often enacted can be observed
when the cult leader claims that because he needs nothing, he is entitled to everything.
Thus, cult leaders claiming to be pure and perfect, without any need or attachment, use
manic defenses to rationalize and justify their dependence on extravagant and grandiose
trappings such as thrones, fleets of Rolls Royces, and the trust funds of their wealthy
followers.
For the cult leader, his ability to induce total dependence in followers serves to sustain and
enhance a desperately needed delusion of perfect, omnipotent control. With many cult
leaders, (e.g., Shoko Asahara [Lifton, 1999]), the dissolution of their delusion of
omnipotence exposes an underlying core of psychosis. Sustaining a delusion of omnipotence
and perfection is, for the cult leader, a manic effort to ward off psychic fragmentation.
Again it is useful to consider that this kind of pathological narcissism and defensive mania is
often seen in persons whose childhood development was controlled by extremely
dominating, often sadistic caregivers, or whose developmental years were characterized by
traumatic experiences of intense humiliation. Cult leaders then create elaborate
rationalizations for their abusive systems, while unconsciously patterning those systems
from the templates of their own experiences of being abused.
Cult leaders succeed in dominating their followers because they have mastered the cruel art
of exploiting universal human dependency and attachment needs in others. The lengthy
period of dependency in human development, the power that parents have, as God-like
figures, to literally give life and sustain the lives of their children, leaves each human being
with the memory, however distant or unconscious, of total dependency. Cult leaders tap
into and re-activate this piece of the human psyche. Followers are encouraged to become
regressed and infantilized, to believe that their life depends on pleasing the cult leader. Cult
leaders depend on their ability to attract people, often at critically vulnerable points in their
lives, who are confused, hungry, dissatisfied, searching. With such people, cult leaders
typically find numerous ways to undermine their followers‘ independence and their capacity
to think critically.
In a religious cult, the leader is perceived as a deity who is always divinely right, and the
devotee, always on the verge of being sinfully wrong, comes to live for the sole purpose of
pleasing and avoiding displeasing the guru/god. The leader‘s displeasure comes to mean for
the member that he is unworthy, monstrously defective, and, therefore, dispensable. The
member has been conditioned to believe that loss of the leader‘s ―grace‖ is equivalent to
loss of any value, goodness, or rightness of the self. As the member becomes more deeply
involved, his anxiety about remaining a member in good standing increases. This anxiety is
akin to the intense fear, helplessness, loss of control and threat of annihilation that Herman,
in her discussion of psychological domination, describes as induced in victims of both
terrorists and battering husbands:
The ultimate effect of these techniques is to convince the victim that the
perpetrator is omnipotent, that resistance is futile, and that her life depends
upon winning his indulgence through absolute compliance. The goal of the
perpetrator is to instill in his victim not only fear of death but also gratitude
for being allowed to live [Herman, 1992, p. 77].
Extending this formulation to cult leaders and followers, the cult leader can be understood
as needing to disavow her dependency and expel her dread of psychic dissolution, which
she succeeds in doing insofar as she is able to induce that dependency and fear in the
follower. The bliss that cult members often display masks their terror of losing the leader‘s
interest in them, which is equivalent for the follower to ―a fate worse than death.‖
