Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2010, Page 27
1945, p.142, as cited in Sawyer, p. 62). I suggest that denial of loss and intolerance of the
unknown in cults enables the suppression of symbol formation and the psychic play
necessary for creativity.
My cult-recovery treatment approach—drawing on psychodynamic and postmodern
thinking—encourages the reemergence of fluid and original symbol formation and use in
language (verbal and nonverbal) through maintenance of the abstract idea of gap. This gap
allows for sliding within the symbolic systems of language, social relations, and society. In
language, sliding allows for creation of metaphor, analogy, and other forms of combining
processes directed toward communication in social relations sliding allows for mutuality and
the fluid reversal of roles when appropriate and within society sliding patterns within social
systems allow for a check on the type of hegemonic power dynamic within society that Boeri
and Pressley discuss in this issue. With an awareness of the suppression of creativity in
cults, I propose that an essential ingredient of cult recovery is the development of a new
relationship to the concept and experience of ―lack.‖ Because the implication in cults, and in
fact in our culture as well, is that ―lack‖ suggests failure, replacing this idea with a deep
valuing of unfilled psychic gap can support the movement and fluidity intrinsic to creative
processing.
Personal closure can be seen in the closure of gap when cult member language is used more
as a reactive ―sign‖ than a symbol of thought and feeling. Communication through symbolic
language requires room to slide, to take form, and to re-form. This is the basis of great
poetry, humor, dreams, fantasies, and such. ―Sign‖ is a response to something without first
conceptualizing it, such as a response to a green light. When members have come to the
point of not thinking or feeling for themselves and instead use ―loaded language,‖ this may
be seen as the use of sign rather than symbolic expression of experience and emotions. Cult
recovery treatment from a neo-Kleinian and postmodern perspective involves
encouragement of symbolic thinking as vehicle to express emotion and thought. A short
clinical vignette illustrates slippage within the gaps of language that allows for creation of
metaphor to capture emotion otherwise hard to articulate. Such subjective creation of
meaning, while always specific to the individual, is a goal of post-cult recovery.
A: Guess you noticed that I didn‘t name the topic directly today.
P: Yes I did, and I so appreciate it. [very sad pause] Guess I still need to be dancing around
it.
A: [pause] But at least you are on the dance floor.
P: [surprised, she looks up, nods, and smiles]
A: What‘s it like for you there?
P: Just you and me standing around, I guess. Guess I could ask you if you want to dance.
A. [I nod and smile] We are dancing. It‘s a formal dance.
P: I know. We‘re getting there. It‘s just so hard. I just don‘t feel like talking about it today.
Is that okay?
One way to understand how lack or gap in language manifests is by looking at Lifton‘s
―loaded language,‖ thought-terminating clichés. Jacques Derrida offers a useful way to
understand the opposite of this in free-flowing language, such as with the spontaneous use
of puns. He states:
…meaning ―slips‖ in the act of transmission. Words contain within themselves
traces of other meanings than their assumed primary one. It would probably
be better to talk of a field of meaning rather than a precise one-to-one
1945, p.142, as cited in Sawyer, p. 62). I suggest that denial of loss and intolerance of the
unknown in cults enables the suppression of symbol formation and the psychic play
necessary for creativity.
My cult-recovery treatment approach—drawing on psychodynamic and postmodern
thinking—encourages the reemergence of fluid and original symbol formation and use in
language (verbal and nonverbal) through maintenance of the abstract idea of gap. This gap
allows for sliding within the symbolic systems of language, social relations, and society. In
language, sliding allows for creation of metaphor, analogy, and other forms of combining
processes directed toward communication in social relations sliding allows for mutuality and
the fluid reversal of roles when appropriate and within society sliding patterns within social
systems allow for a check on the type of hegemonic power dynamic within society that Boeri
and Pressley discuss in this issue. With an awareness of the suppression of creativity in
cults, I propose that an essential ingredient of cult recovery is the development of a new
relationship to the concept and experience of ―lack.‖ Because the implication in cults, and in
fact in our culture as well, is that ―lack‖ suggests failure, replacing this idea with a deep
valuing of unfilled psychic gap can support the movement and fluidity intrinsic to creative
processing.
Personal closure can be seen in the closure of gap when cult member language is used more
as a reactive ―sign‖ than a symbol of thought and feeling. Communication through symbolic
language requires room to slide, to take form, and to re-form. This is the basis of great
poetry, humor, dreams, fantasies, and such. ―Sign‖ is a response to something without first
conceptualizing it, such as a response to a green light. When members have come to the
point of not thinking or feeling for themselves and instead use ―loaded language,‖ this may
be seen as the use of sign rather than symbolic expression of experience and emotions. Cult
recovery treatment from a neo-Kleinian and postmodern perspective involves
encouragement of symbolic thinking as vehicle to express emotion and thought. A short
clinical vignette illustrates slippage within the gaps of language that allows for creation of
metaphor to capture emotion otherwise hard to articulate. Such subjective creation of
meaning, while always specific to the individual, is a goal of post-cult recovery.
A: Guess you noticed that I didn‘t name the topic directly today.
P: Yes I did, and I so appreciate it. [very sad pause] Guess I still need to be dancing around
it.
A: [pause] But at least you are on the dance floor.
P: [surprised, she looks up, nods, and smiles]
A: What‘s it like for you there?
P: Just you and me standing around, I guess. Guess I could ask you if you want to dance.
A. [I nod and smile] We are dancing. It‘s a formal dance.
P: I know. We‘re getting there. It‘s just so hard. I just don‘t feel like talking about it today.
Is that okay?
One way to understand how lack or gap in language manifests is by looking at Lifton‘s
―loaded language,‖ thought-terminating clichés. Jacques Derrida offers a useful way to
understand the opposite of this in free-flowing language, such as with the spontaneous use
of puns. He states:
…meaning ―slips‖ in the act of transmission. Words contain within themselves
traces of other meanings than their assumed primary one. It would probably
be better to talk of a field of meaning rather than a precise one-to-one
