Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 33
We wrote this description as an example of the extent to which one cult leader went to
discredit the parents of one of her members (Goldberg and Goldberg, 1989). We were used
to parents telling us that their cult member children were exaggerating and distorting
problems and issues from their past (minimizing the good memories and maximizing the
bad ones), but had never before encountered parents who said that their child had, with the
―help‖ of a cult leader, completely fabricated a past.
It would be unfairly biased to totally discount the idea that this young man might be telling
the truth. However, we were dismayed to learn that all of this therapist‘s patients had
memories of abuse and that this therapist appeared to be using narcissistically her patients
for her own dog-and-pony show and encouraging her patients to break all ties with family
members. Therefore, we hypothesized that this young man was likely to have responded to
this therapist‘s suggestion that he had been abused.
Since that incident the author has heard the same story from many parents. Their adult son
or, more commonly, daughter, announces to the family that with the help of a therapist she
has recovered previously repressed memories of being sexually abused, sometimes while
she was an infant, sometimes over many years, usually by her father. She presents the
accusation as a fact and states that if her father denies the ―fact‖ or gets angry, she will
leave and the family will never hear from her again. Having been pre-empted from any kind
of natural response, the parents are left speechless. Eventually, and almost inevitably, she
does cut off ties with the parents, because it has been suggested to her by her therapist
that this is an act of empowerment and growth. Contact with siblings is usually also stopped
unless the brothers and sisters acknowledge the validity of the accuser‘s claims. Thus, the
daughter (or, sometimes, son) simultaneously ensures the fact that she will hear only one
version of her supposed past and cuts herself off from the very people who would be most
likely to support her through a difficult period of her life. The author had no idea at the time
that she first heard this story of the young man and his publicity-seeking therapist that
these were the early signs of a new phenomenon and that it would be so widespread as to
be given a clinical title, the False Memory Syndrome, by some clinicians and family
members.
In my chapter on ―Guidelines for Therapists,‖ in the book, Recovery from Cults (Langone,
1994), I described a twenty-eight year old woman who came to see me one year after she
had left her cult. When this woman was a teenager in the cult she had been seduced by the
group‘s leader, who told her that it was G-d‘s will that they have sex. Believing him to be
speaking for G-d, the woman entered into an ongoing secret sexual relationship with him,
only to discover, many years later, that he was having a similar relationship with at least
twelve of the women in the cult. This discovery propelled her to leave the cult. The young
woman was filled with self-loathing and shame when she left and she sought out therapy
with a woman who claimed to be an expert in the area of sexual abuse. Either being
ignorant of the powerful effect of persuasion and mind control in cults or ignoring the
literature on it (Lifton, 1961, Ofshe and Singer, 1986, Hassan, 1988), this previous therapist
told the young woman that it was clear that she was reenacting a situation from her
childhood, otherwise she would not have permitted the cult leader to abuse her in this way.
She told her that, in all probability, her father had been the original perpetrator and that her
memories of a happy childhood were the result of denial and repression of childhood sexual
abuse. Although the patient was unable to recall any such abuse, she was placed in a group
for incest survivors and was told to participate in group guided imagery exercises to help
her recall the abuse that the therapist surmised was there. At first, she recollected feeling
uncomfortable when an alcoholic uncle bugged her after he had been drinking. She was
convinced that more memories would come in time. It was only after she attended a
seminar on cults and came to understand the phenomenon of mind control (intense power
of influence by a charismatic anti-social and/or narcissistic leader in a closed environment)
We wrote this description as an example of the extent to which one cult leader went to
discredit the parents of one of her members (Goldberg and Goldberg, 1989). We were used
to parents telling us that their cult member children were exaggerating and distorting
problems and issues from their past (minimizing the good memories and maximizing the
bad ones), but had never before encountered parents who said that their child had, with the
―help‖ of a cult leader, completely fabricated a past.
It would be unfairly biased to totally discount the idea that this young man might be telling
the truth. However, we were dismayed to learn that all of this therapist‘s patients had
memories of abuse and that this therapist appeared to be using narcissistically her patients
for her own dog-and-pony show and encouraging her patients to break all ties with family
members. Therefore, we hypothesized that this young man was likely to have responded to
this therapist‘s suggestion that he had been abused.
Since that incident the author has heard the same story from many parents. Their adult son
or, more commonly, daughter, announces to the family that with the help of a therapist she
has recovered previously repressed memories of being sexually abused, sometimes while
she was an infant, sometimes over many years, usually by her father. She presents the
accusation as a fact and states that if her father denies the ―fact‖ or gets angry, she will
leave and the family will never hear from her again. Having been pre-empted from any kind
of natural response, the parents are left speechless. Eventually, and almost inevitably, she
does cut off ties with the parents, because it has been suggested to her by her therapist
that this is an act of empowerment and growth. Contact with siblings is usually also stopped
unless the brothers and sisters acknowledge the validity of the accuser‘s claims. Thus, the
daughter (or, sometimes, son) simultaneously ensures the fact that she will hear only one
version of her supposed past and cuts herself off from the very people who would be most
likely to support her through a difficult period of her life. The author had no idea at the time
that she first heard this story of the young man and his publicity-seeking therapist that
these were the early signs of a new phenomenon and that it would be so widespread as to
be given a clinical title, the False Memory Syndrome, by some clinicians and family
members.
In my chapter on ―Guidelines for Therapists,‖ in the book, Recovery from Cults (Langone,
1994), I described a twenty-eight year old woman who came to see me one year after she
had left her cult. When this woman was a teenager in the cult she had been seduced by the
group‘s leader, who told her that it was G-d‘s will that they have sex. Believing him to be
speaking for G-d, the woman entered into an ongoing secret sexual relationship with him,
only to discover, many years later, that he was having a similar relationship with at least
twelve of the women in the cult. This discovery propelled her to leave the cult. The young
woman was filled with self-loathing and shame when she left and she sought out therapy
with a woman who claimed to be an expert in the area of sexual abuse. Either being
ignorant of the powerful effect of persuasion and mind control in cults or ignoring the
literature on it (Lifton, 1961, Ofshe and Singer, 1986, Hassan, 1988), this previous therapist
told the young woman that it was clear that she was reenacting a situation from her
childhood, otherwise she would not have permitted the cult leader to abuse her in this way.
She told her that, in all probability, her father had been the original perpetrator and that her
memories of a happy childhood were the result of denial and repression of childhood sexual
abuse. Although the patient was unable to recall any such abuse, she was placed in a group
for incest survivors and was told to participate in group guided imagery exercises to help
her recall the abuse that the therapist surmised was there. At first, she recollected feeling
uncomfortable when an alcoholic uncle bugged her after he had been drinking. She was
convinced that more memories would come in time. It was only after she attended a
seminar on cults and came to understand the phenomenon of mind control (intense power
of influence by a charismatic anti-social and/or narcissistic leader in a closed environment)
