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that she recognized another plausible explanation for why she had permitted herself to be
exploited by the cult leader.
The author worked with another woman who was involved with an isolationist
psychotherapy cult in the Northwest. The group preached hatred of men and, by extension,
of society. Through the use of group processes, every single member of this cult discovered
that she had been sexually abused by her father and cut herself off from the family.
Another patient, who had experienced a gang rape while in college, decided to attend a
group for rape survivors in New York City. After getting a brief history of this patient,
including a history of depression and of an eating disorder, the group therapist asked her if
she had been sexually abused in childhood. This patient had no memory of such abuse. The
therapist informed her that she had all the ―classic symptoms‖ of someone who was
sexually abused and that she probably had repressed those memories.
As Freud (Freud, 1921), Lifton (Lifton, 1961), Ofshe and Singer (Ofshe, R. and Singer, M.T.,
1986) and Hassan (Hassan, 1988) explain, an authority figure can have tremendous
influence over group members. The process whereby this influence can be attained will now
be examined.
Authority Figure Influence on Group Members
In 1921, upon publishing Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Freud was among
the first to study the powerful influence that group leaders can have over group members.
In his paper, Freud referred to the contagious and regressive nature of groups described by
LeBon and McDougall, but he added the dimension of intra-psychic cathartic shifts that
could occur in groups. Freud described the similarity of such groups as the Catholic Church
and the army with the hypnotic situation. In all of these situations, there is a leader and one
or more followers. The follower obeys the leader and gives up his own superego and ego
ideal as he identifies with the leader‘s superego. Freud also compared the psychological
changes occurring in group members to changes that occur to those who fall in love. In both
cases, the ego can disregard the previous standards of the superego, because it gains a
sufficient amount of narcissistic support and gratification of instinctual wishes elsewhere.
After the Korean War, under assignment by the U.S. Army, Lifton Singer, West, and others
studied the effects of mind control techniques on the returning POWs. They described how
these soldiers had been influenced to accept communist ideology while captive. They
explained how these techniques of coercive persuasion went beyond normal group
influences described by Freud through the use of deliberate manipulation processes that
increased guilt, shame, and anxiety in the POW‘s (Singer and Ofshe, 1990). These mental
health professionals were the first to describe the fact that some of the same mind control
dynamics are used in modern day cults. Today there is a recognized body of literature by
mental health professionals about mind control techniques used in cults.
Of course, in addition to examining the coercive techniques, the clinician must examine the
vulnerability of the cult recruit. Individuals become vulnerable to cults at times of stress,
particularly during periods of transition (e.g., when dealing with loss of a relationship or
employment). The large majority of people who join cults do so in late adolescence or early
adulthood. With puberty, there is an increase in the sexual and aggressive drives. Along
with this, there is a revival of oedipal feelings and, therefore, there is a need for distancing
from the oedipal objects of childhood. Parents are de-idealized and healthy young adults
attempt to develop a vision of the world that is different from their parent‘s view. Also,
during this time, there often is physical distance from the family. This distance and the
concomitant feelings of separateness it engenders may trigger pre-oedipal anxiety and/or
depression. Additionally, there are specific personality dynamics of late adolescence which
were first described by Anna Freud—intellectualization, asceticism and idealism—which
make adolescents vulnerable to cults (Freud 1966). Furthermore, the adolescent superego

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is highly susceptible to environmental influences as a result of parental de-identification.
Therefore, this is a time of life that the group or group leader can have a powerful influence.
Adolescents and young adults also are in a period of transition and may desire a sense of
community and acceptance at a time in their life when they are experiencing uncertainty
and/or anxiety about their identities and their futures. Therefore, this is a stage of
development wherein group membership and the new identifications made with group
members can be a progressive step of separation from the object, of childhood. As
mentioned previously, an adolescent becomes particularly vulnerable to cult recruitment at
a time when he or she is dealing with external and/or internal losses. Those who are
particularly susceptible to groups that turn out to be cults are typically those who are in
order to attack the recruits‘ identity and belief system and (6) pressuring recruits to meet a
new standard of perfection. These influence techniques attack the recruit‘s identity
structure, formed from identifications made with important figures in the recruit‘s life. That
is, without conscious awareness of this process, individuals are induced to let go of their
original identity and take on a new cultic identity and, by doing so, enter into a dissociative
state. This cultic identity enables the recruit to better cope with this recruitment process.
In viewing this situation psycho dynamically, it could be said that with the absence of an
anchor in the past, recruits defend against feeling anxious, overwhelmed, exhausted, and
confused by forming an identification with the cult leader—identification with the aggressor.
Anna Freud coined ―identification with the aggressor‖ in The Ego and the Mechanisms of
Defense, to describe how a child ―introjects some characteristic of an anxiety object and so
assimilates an anxiety experience which he has just undergone‖ (Freud, 1966, p. 113). This
defense was not only used to describe a process of childhood, but was seen as a defensive
maneuver used at later periods of life when the individual was undergoing high levels of
stress. For example, the defense of identification with the aggressor was later used to
understand how Jews imprisoned in concentration camps sought out discarded insignias and
torn shreds of SS uniforms with which to adorn their rags (West and Martin, 1994).
If this process is prolonged, the new cultic personality, initially formed as a role played in
response to stressful circumstances, will be superimposed upon the original personality
which, while not completely forgotten, will be enveloped within the shell of the new cultic
personality (West and Martin, 1994). This new cultic identification encapsulates the general
regression that occurs in recruits to cults. The pre-oedipal cult world is seen as black and
white and objects as good and evil. This view, which defines the cult world as the only true
path and the outside world (often including family and friends) as satanic, further binds the
recruit to the cult. This also has implications for memory of past relationships and events.
Typically, over time, life prior to the cult begins to be seen in a more negative light.
Furthermore, there is a sense of omnipotence gained by sharing with the all-powerful cult
leader (mother). This sense of omnipotence is experienced as euphoria by the recruit. The
boundaries have blurred and the recruit‘s sense of individuality is weakened.
Cult members become aware of the positive effect of belonging to a single-minded
community. Whitsett describes how this sense of belonging can be used as a powerful tool
to keep recruits in cults (Whitsett, pp. 363-375). However, the pressure for uniformity has a
regressive influence on the ego, precluding any type of critical assessment of this coercive
and highly suggestive experience. Recruits are actively discouraged from differentiating
their own thoughts and feelings from those of the group. This single-mindedness is
reinforced through a strict system of reward and punishment. There is constant pressure to
be obedient to the cult leader. If recruits have doubts or go against the cult leader‘s wishes,
they are humiliated or, worse, threatened with excommunication—which cult members
come to believe is being damned to Hell. Furthermore, their doubt is defined as a reflection
of their personal problems, not as reflection of deficiencies within the leader or the ideology,
Therefore, by punishing any expression of doubt, the leader induces cult members to