Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 48
Second Thoughts on Cultic Involvement and Addictive
Relationships
Miguel Perlado
Psychologist, Psychotherapist
Attention and Research on Socio-addictions (AIS)
Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
In this article, certain analogies between drug addiction and cultic
involvement are reviewed. From clinical experiences, we propose that in some
cases cultic commitment involves a similar symptomatic profile as that
observed in other addictive attachments. Moreover, we aim to include cultic
addiction within the category of addictive relationships without drugs, thus
reviewing some considerations about them.
Key Words
Cult, addictive relationships, pathological attachment, behavioural addiction,
cultic addiction, social addiction
Since it was founded in 1977, Attention and Research on Socio-Addictions (AIS), a pioneer
organization in Spain that provides information and advice on cults, has focused its
therapeutic activity on cultic involvement, although we also treat cases related to unethical
influence in ―groups of two‖ (therapeutic or emotional abuses without the existence of a
group). Two peculiarities of these types of cases are that they allow us to better appreciate
the dynamics of how unethical influence affects an individual also, a certain component of
pathological attachment and manipulation can be isolated in all of them.
In our clinical experience, these types of cases have slowly opened up the therapeutic field
to other demands for help (addictive behaviour related to sexuality, to the Internet,
manipulation through Internet or chats, etc.). In these cases, it is possible to observe a
significant number of symptoms similar to those witnessed in situations regarding cults. Part
of these cases appear as an evolution of a cultic problem (i.e. addictive sexual behaviour in
people who leave a cultic religious group), while in other cases the attachment
aforementioned seems to constitute the primary problem without any existence of a
manipulating source.
In a previous article (Perlado, 2003) we indicated that in a considerable number of cases
treated in our unit, the symptoms manifested by cult followers were comparable clinically to
those observed among drug addicts. We indicated that, beyond the dissociative model and
along with thought reform processes, the symptomatic profile of the follower could be
compared to addictive disorders.
In fact, this comparison is neither metaphorical nor new, given that other specialists on
cults have suggested links between both phenomena, either based on empirical verification
of how organizations that seek to help drug addicts tend to establish a form of
compensatory dependence (Galanter, 1980 Halperin &Markowitz, 1991 Rebhun, 1983) or
based on the hypothesis that certain cultic ritual practices are supposed to trigger the same
brain mechanisms as drugs in regards to dopamine and certain endorphin secretions
(Galanter, 1980).

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 49
In more general terms, the idea that cults tend to promote an intense dependency is
implicit in a widely accepted definition of ―cult‖: ―group or movement that exhibits a great
or excessive dedication or devotion to some person, idea or thing and employing unethical
manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (isolation from former friends and
family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience,
powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical
judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it, etc.),
designed to advance the goals of the group‘s leaders, to the actual or possible detriment of
members, their families, or the community‖ (Rosedale &Langone, 1985) (italics added).
The progressive appearance of such clinical situations—seemingly different from cultism—
has led the AIS therapeutic staff to a re-evaluate the assistance it offers. The field of work
has widened to include in our unit complementary services and professionals that could
attend to addictive situations without drugs.
In what follows, I will review some analogies between drug addiction and addictions without
drugs, as well as the links between them, and a description of some of the addictive
relationships that are witnessed among some followers of cults in comparison with non
chemical addictions.
Drug addiction and cultic involvement
The model of addiction is one of the possible paths to approach the clinical suffering of the
cult follower, especially current members. In Spanish, the term addiction designates an
―appointment, devotion or joining‖ (Real Academia, 1992) also, the term addict refers to
―enthusiast, prone or follower‖ (Casares, 1959).
On the other hand, phonetic similarities exist between ―follower” and ―addict” in Spanish (in
Spanish there are two words, ―adepto” and ―adicto” that address the link of a person to a
cult or to a drug).
But, there is another series of clinical phenomena that invite to this reflection: (a) drug
addicts often abandon addiction within the framework of a cult (b) some rehabilitation
groups present cultic factors (c) similarities in the discomfort felt once the drug (or group)
is abandoned (d) states of de-personalization that both addicts and cult followers
experience (e) links between emotional and cultic experience that ex-followers point to
and (f) the exchangeability of certain addictions.
In their study of cultic characteristics of organizations that seek to help drug addicts,
Rodríguez &González (1989) have clearly exposed other interesting parallelisms between
chemical addictions and cultic involvement. For these authors, both cases involve: (1)
previous phenomena that resurfaced with new elements in the second half of the 20th
Century (2) harmful effects on health (3) no specific predictive profile that would permit
determining who will become an addict or a cult follower and (4) adolescence and
childhood as the periods of greater vulnerability for being recruited emotional crisis
(mourning, frequently) can act as a vulnerability factor.
Although numerous coincidences between drug addiction and cultism exist, one of the main
distinctions—apart from the lack of a chemical substance—is that in the case of cult
dynamics a thought reform process unfolds and alters internal and external relations,
generating a state of pathological attachment in the follower (Perlado, 2002).
Addictive Relationships without Drugs
Despite the diversity of definitions of ―addiction,‖ there seems to exist some consensus that
addiction produces, in variable degrees, loss of control, a pathological dependency,
obsessive rumination in respect to the object of addiction, loss of interest in other activities