Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2010, Page 39
members and friends in a process designed to build bridges of dialogue with the affected
person.
Network therapy involves joint work with a specialist who helps family members and friends
coordinate their attempts to get closer to the affected person, so they can arrange an
intense meeting with the person, with the goal of accessing areas of doubt in that person.
The goal here is to counter the malignant effect of certain group dynamics via the concerted
efforts of another group that seeks to generate critical thinking.
In addition to multifamily interviews, I conducted interviews with each family. We developed
a family network strategy and created a virtual communication system to allow the families
to talk with each other and share ideas and details of their approaches to their children.
Having the Teacher‘s family involved gave us the advantage of knowing some of his
movements.
Teacher Background
As noted, members of the leader‘s family were part of the multifamily group. Because of
this, we learned considerable background information about the teacher. Naturally, in the
interest of confidentiality, I will present only some of this information.
Regarding this family, the Teacher‘s paternal grandfather had been a member of a closed
religious community, which suggests to me that it might have been cultic. The Teacher‘s
father was a dominant person, and the teacher himself attended a religious seminar in his
adolescence. The mother was a fragile woman who felt victimized by her husband. Mother
and son became close when the parents broke up. She got her son a musical instrument to
deal with the depressive environment at home, and showed him off in a narcissistic manner,
publicly displaying her pride. He began playing music with various groups at the age of 14
and was considered a virtuoso.
During his adolescence, he played with different musicians outside his country, returning at
the age of 33 with a plan to form ―a different kind of group,‖ which he intended to lead. Five
years later, his partner had two pregnancies that did not come to term the Teacher
consoled himself each time by talking to stuffed animals he kept in his bedroom. After one
year, his father died, leaving him feeling both sad and guilty. Following this series of
traumas, he spent months locked alone in his apartment. One year later he emerged
reporting he was ―transformed,‖ and he spoke more actively about forming a new music
group. He formed the new group from some of his private pupils.
He started to draw his students closer to him, talking about retiring to an isolated house so
that he could experiment with ―the total experience of the music.‖ These students, who
were between 20 and 25 years old, felt privileged to live an experience of musical creation.
Soon after getting established in the new house, which had belonged to the Teacher‘s late
father, he dug a big hole in the ground, searching without success for a treasure he was
convinced his father had hidden underground. Increasingly, he introduced certain
―novelties‖ to the group‘s practice of music. Hand movements and meditation were
combined to ―improve the music‘s quality,‖ all of it dense with new-age ideas (energies, the
movement of the sea and the music, the connection with the cosmos, an internal music-
man, hand-reading and music, etc.).
Feeling everyone misunderstood him musically and failed him emotionally, the Teacher‘s
speech became increasingly idiosyncratic. He talked about the ―state of the verb,‖ saying his
Method could lead to the state of ―music-man‖ and the ―verb‘s grade,‖ that could then
speak with a ―mystical connection.‖ In addition, he became more imposing and threatening,
saying, ―you will become mediocre if you leave,‖ or ―if you are not with me, you are against
me.‖ In what can be seen as a projection, he explained that other musicians didn‘t
recognize him because ―they envy me.‖ He displayed frequent mood changes and when
members and friends in a process designed to build bridges of dialogue with the affected
person.
Network therapy involves joint work with a specialist who helps family members and friends
coordinate their attempts to get closer to the affected person, so they can arrange an
intense meeting with the person, with the goal of accessing areas of doubt in that person.
The goal here is to counter the malignant effect of certain group dynamics via the concerted
efforts of another group that seeks to generate critical thinking.
In addition to multifamily interviews, I conducted interviews with each family. We developed
a family network strategy and created a virtual communication system to allow the families
to talk with each other and share ideas and details of their approaches to their children.
Having the Teacher‘s family involved gave us the advantage of knowing some of his
movements.
Teacher Background
As noted, members of the leader‘s family were part of the multifamily group. Because of
this, we learned considerable background information about the teacher. Naturally, in the
interest of confidentiality, I will present only some of this information.
Regarding this family, the Teacher‘s paternal grandfather had been a member of a closed
religious community, which suggests to me that it might have been cultic. The Teacher‘s
father was a dominant person, and the teacher himself attended a religious seminar in his
adolescence. The mother was a fragile woman who felt victimized by her husband. Mother
and son became close when the parents broke up. She got her son a musical instrument to
deal with the depressive environment at home, and showed him off in a narcissistic manner,
publicly displaying her pride. He began playing music with various groups at the age of 14
and was considered a virtuoso.
During his adolescence, he played with different musicians outside his country, returning at
the age of 33 with a plan to form ―a different kind of group,‖ which he intended to lead. Five
years later, his partner had two pregnancies that did not come to term the Teacher
consoled himself each time by talking to stuffed animals he kept in his bedroom. After one
year, his father died, leaving him feeling both sad and guilty. Following this series of
traumas, he spent months locked alone in his apartment. One year later he emerged
reporting he was ―transformed,‖ and he spoke more actively about forming a new music
group. He formed the new group from some of his private pupils.
He started to draw his students closer to him, talking about retiring to an isolated house so
that he could experiment with ―the total experience of the music.‖ These students, who
were between 20 and 25 years old, felt privileged to live an experience of musical creation.
Soon after getting established in the new house, which had belonged to the Teacher‘s late
father, he dug a big hole in the ground, searching without success for a treasure he was
convinced his father had hidden underground. Increasingly, he introduced certain
―novelties‖ to the group‘s practice of music. Hand movements and meditation were
combined to ―improve the music‘s quality,‖ all of it dense with new-age ideas (energies, the
movement of the sea and the music, the connection with the cosmos, an internal music-
man, hand-reading and music, etc.).
Feeling everyone misunderstood him musically and failed him emotionally, the Teacher‘s
speech became increasingly idiosyncratic. He talked about the ―state of the verb,‖ saying his
Method could lead to the state of ―music-man‖ and the ―verb‘s grade,‖ that could then
speak with a ―mystical connection.‖ In addition, he became more imposing and threatening,
saying, ―you will become mediocre if you leave,‖ or ―if you are not with me, you are against
me.‖ In what can be seen as a projection, he explained that other musicians didn‘t
recognize him because ―they envy me.‖ He displayed frequent mood changes and when
