Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2006, Page 101
in their professions, and several quite famous. At the group‘s peak in the 1970's and ‗80's,
Siskind describes how hundreds of patients lived communally in large apartments and saw
their therapists several times a week. The second-tier therapists were current and former
patients of Newton‘s and the other founding leaders. The patients saw the senior and junior
therapists not just for therapy, but also at meetings, classes, legendary parties in the
Hamptons with plenty of drugs and alcohol, and in bed. Patients were told to spend as little
time as possible with anyone not in the group and to carefully schedule every minute of
their time to be with other group members. They were encouraged to never sleep alone, to
experiment and sleep with anyone and everyone in the group. They were taught that
families, and especially mothers, are toxic. Pressured to cut off contact with families of
origin, they were told that if they did not, they would likely become hopelessly mentally ill
and end in suicide. Patients were discouraged from marriage, and some mothers in the
group were persuaded to have their children raised by others in the group. In the 70s,
parents were expected to send their children to boarding school as soon as they could afford
to, so as to have as little contact with their own children as possible, and thus not poison
their child‘s development.
Much of the above was justified on the theoretical premise, derived from Sullivan‘s work,
that infants react to their mother‘s anxiety, viewed as being cultural in origin, by restricting
their own development, by splitting up the self into good me, bad me, and not me parts.
Children raised by unconscious, overly anxious parents, according to Newton and Pearce,
contributed to the endless perpetuation of a sick society, a culture of convention and
malaise. Up to this point, many of us might, to some extent, agree. What made Newton and
Pearce‘s execution of their theory particularly destructive was the quality of disavowed
hatred and contempt in their scapegoating of parents, which they insisted their patients
share, and which they effectively disguised, even from themselves, as zeal for therapeutic
transformation and social reform. Disavowing their hatred and rage, they were blinded by it,
dissociatively unaware of the obvious: that planning to reform and liberate society at large
by psychologically enslaving a group of people, calling them patients, exploiting them
financially, emotionally, and sexually, and controlling and directing every move they make,
is sheer madness, plain and simple.
As the group grew in size, Siskind chronicles how it became ever more paranoid and
coercive. A former actress named Joan Harvey became Newton‘s wife after he divorced
Pearce, and Harvey created a political theater group called the Fourth Wall, which became
the chief activity of the group in its latter years. Now community members not only had to
support the therapists, but to support a theater as well, and demands on members for
contributing money and participating in group activities increased to the point that members
barely had four hours a night for sleep. The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor crisis, and
then the advent of AIDS, became flash points for further panic, demands, and restrictions.
Siskind‘s portrayal of the group‘s reactions to these events is particularly chilling, as she
describes how the typical dynamics of an apocalyptic cult came into play.i As with
apocalyptic groups in general, the failure of Newton‘s and Harvey‘s dire predictions about
nuclear devastation and germ warfare triggered a deepening of their paranoia and the
florescence of their underlying psychosis. By the time it all started winding down for the
Sullivanians, Newton was alleged to have attempted to seduce several children, including
his own daughters. Splits among the leaders, now numbering even more ex-husbands and
ex-wives, and finally Newton‘s death, were the last nails in the group‘s coffin.
In the space permitted, I have been able only to scratch the surface in describing the
innumerable abuses perpetrated on the followers of this group. Siskind‘s book is valuable
not just for clarifying the nature of these abuses, but for many reasons, not the least of
which is that the accounts of followers whom she quotes puts a human face on the suffering
caused by these abuses. Their testimony should be heard. As is often the case, it is all too
in their professions, and several quite famous. At the group‘s peak in the 1970's and ‗80's,
Siskind describes how hundreds of patients lived communally in large apartments and saw
their therapists several times a week. The second-tier therapists were current and former
patients of Newton‘s and the other founding leaders. The patients saw the senior and junior
therapists not just for therapy, but also at meetings, classes, legendary parties in the
Hamptons with plenty of drugs and alcohol, and in bed. Patients were told to spend as little
time as possible with anyone not in the group and to carefully schedule every minute of
their time to be with other group members. They were encouraged to never sleep alone, to
experiment and sleep with anyone and everyone in the group. They were taught that
families, and especially mothers, are toxic. Pressured to cut off contact with families of
origin, they were told that if they did not, they would likely become hopelessly mentally ill
and end in suicide. Patients were discouraged from marriage, and some mothers in the
group were persuaded to have their children raised by others in the group. In the 70s,
parents were expected to send their children to boarding school as soon as they could afford
to, so as to have as little contact with their own children as possible, and thus not poison
their child‘s development.
Much of the above was justified on the theoretical premise, derived from Sullivan‘s work,
that infants react to their mother‘s anxiety, viewed as being cultural in origin, by restricting
their own development, by splitting up the self into good me, bad me, and not me parts.
Children raised by unconscious, overly anxious parents, according to Newton and Pearce,
contributed to the endless perpetuation of a sick society, a culture of convention and
malaise. Up to this point, many of us might, to some extent, agree. What made Newton and
Pearce‘s execution of their theory particularly destructive was the quality of disavowed
hatred and contempt in their scapegoating of parents, which they insisted their patients
share, and which they effectively disguised, even from themselves, as zeal for therapeutic
transformation and social reform. Disavowing their hatred and rage, they were blinded by it,
dissociatively unaware of the obvious: that planning to reform and liberate society at large
by psychologically enslaving a group of people, calling them patients, exploiting them
financially, emotionally, and sexually, and controlling and directing every move they make,
is sheer madness, plain and simple.
As the group grew in size, Siskind chronicles how it became ever more paranoid and
coercive. A former actress named Joan Harvey became Newton‘s wife after he divorced
Pearce, and Harvey created a political theater group called the Fourth Wall, which became
the chief activity of the group in its latter years. Now community members not only had to
support the therapists, but to support a theater as well, and demands on members for
contributing money and participating in group activities increased to the point that members
barely had four hours a night for sleep. The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor crisis, and
then the advent of AIDS, became flash points for further panic, demands, and restrictions.
Siskind‘s portrayal of the group‘s reactions to these events is particularly chilling, as she
describes how the typical dynamics of an apocalyptic cult came into play.i As with
apocalyptic groups in general, the failure of Newton‘s and Harvey‘s dire predictions about
nuclear devastation and germ warfare triggered a deepening of their paranoia and the
florescence of their underlying psychosis. By the time it all started winding down for the
Sullivanians, Newton was alleged to have attempted to seduce several children, including
his own daughters. Splits among the leaders, now numbering even more ex-husbands and
ex-wives, and finally Newton‘s death, were the last nails in the group‘s coffin.
In the space permitted, I have been able only to scratch the surface in describing the
innumerable abuses perpetrated on the followers of this group. Siskind‘s book is valuable
not just for clarifying the nature of these abuses, but for many reasons, not the least of
which is that the accounts of followers whom she quotes puts a human face on the suffering
caused by these abuses. Their testimony should be heard. As is often the case, it is all too
