Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2010, Page 57
accept the gap, the not knowing, and even becoming able to relate
oneself to it.‖ (p. 9)
Winnicott (1971), Lacan (1973), Searles (Bromberg, 1998), Stern (2003), and others
place uncertainty at the core of creativity. Slipping messages—miscommunications—
are characteristic of being alive and often form the basis of the highest art and
wittiest humor (Lacan, 1973). Cult members often have a dread of uncertainty and a
fear of public humiliation by the leader, as well as shunning, depriving of privileges,
and demotion of rank for questioning and doubt, which brings me to the fourth
hypothesis, which addresses spontaneity and tolerance of uncertainty as intrinsic to
creativity.
4. Tolerance of Uncertainty. There will be a difference in individual creativity
between open environments where predictability and unpredictability of a leader is
unrelated to reward and punishment, thus allowing for the spontaneity that is
intrinsic to creativity, and in cults characterized by unpredictability of rewards and
punishments by the leader resulting in the member‘s lack of spontaneity. The
member‘s anxiety related to uncertainty as to whether the leader will approve or
abuse limits the member‘s willingness to take the types of risks that are integral to
creativity. When free to embrace uncertainty as part of the joy of creating, the
subject‘s spontaneous symbolic language emerges from the unconscious through
flashes of humor, play, metaphor, and the like to creatively transform the
uncertainty of unlinked thoughts and feelings.
Characteristic of the functioning of the human mind originally described by Freud,
the member‘s unconscious has the capacity to form defenses to avoid unacceptable
feelings. When paradoxical or ambivalent feelings are overwhelming (such as the
simultaneous love and hate of the cult leader), the unconscious defends the psyche
by repressing or dissociating one aspect of the ambivalent feelings through the
defense of splitting. The type of uncertainty encouraged by the inconsistent reward
and punishment system cult leaders use needs to be defended against, while the
uncertainty that is possible within an open environment is fundamental to creative
expression.
A snippet from an individual session Perlado had with Alex highlights an instance of
spontaneous and momentary shift between total and trial projective identification. The in-
depth exploration of one of Alex‘s passing comments represents the type of ―listening with
the third ear‖ (Reik, 1948) that the psychoanalytic approach to cult recovery provides. I
suggest that Alex‘s ability in this moment to spontaneously play is significant as a sign of
emerging creativity. Says Alex, ―…I thought of leaving, but I also felt that something could
happen if I left. The leader spoke of somebody from the outside that wanted to harm
us…maybe that was me. I am just joking….‖
The shift in Alex‘s stance illustrates the potential of creativity emerging in open
environments like that provided by Perlado, as suggested by the four hypotheses. It
represents Alex‘s struggle with the dimensions of loss, opposition, gap/lack, and
uncertainty, and illustrates fluidity between total and trial projective identifications. Such
fluidity, as discussed by the late Klein (1946) and by Bion (1962), involves ―an on-going
oscillation between paranoid-schizoid fragmentation—breaking apart—and depressive re-
integration as a necessary part of creative living.‖ (Glover, 2009)
Cults often exploit the concept, as Poincare (1914) describes, that both fragmentation and
reconstruction are intrinsic to creativity. Similarly Deri notes that ―[the] arrangement of old
elements into new gestalts is the essence of all productive, creative thinking.‖ (Deri, 1984,
p. 37) In groups in which theater or music are vehicles for indoctrination and/or
proselytizing, such as the Fourth Wall Repertory Theater of the Sullivanians (Siskind, 2003)
accept the gap, the not knowing, and even becoming able to relate
oneself to it.‖ (p. 9)
Winnicott (1971), Lacan (1973), Searles (Bromberg, 1998), Stern (2003), and others
place uncertainty at the core of creativity. Slipping messages—miscommunications—
are characteristic of being alive and often form the basis of the highest art and
wittiest humor (Lacan, 1973). Cult members often have a dread of uncertainty and a
fear of public humiliation by the leader, as well as shunning, depriving of privileges,
and demotion of rank for questioning and doubt, which brings me to the fourth
hypothesis, which addresses spontaneity and tolerance of uncertainty as intrinsic to
creativity.
4. Tolerance of Uncertainty. There will be a difference in individual creativity
between open environments where predictability and unpredictability of a leader is
unrelated to reward and punishment, thus allowing for the spontaneity that is
intrinsic to creativity, and in cults characterized by unpredictability of rewards and
punishments by the leader resulting in the member‘s lack of spontaneity. The
member‘s anxiety related to uncertainty as to whether the leader will approve or
abuse limits the member‘s willingness to take the types of risks that are integral to
creativity. When free to embrace uncertainty as part of the joy of creating, the
subject‘s spontaneous symbolic language emerges from the unconscious through
flashes of humor, play, metaphor, and the like to creatively transform the
uncertainty of unlinked thoughts and feelings.
Characteristic of the functioning of the human mind originally described by Freud,
the member‘s unconscious has the capacity to form defenses to avoid unacceptable
feelings. When paradoxical or ambivalent feelings are overwhelming (such as the
simultaneous love and hate of the cult leader), the unconscious defends the psyche
by repressing or dissociating one aspect of the ambivalent feelings through the
defense of splitting. The type of uncertainty encouraged by the inconsistent reward
and punishment system cult leaders use needs to be defended against, while the
uncertainty that is possible within an open environment is fundamental to creative
expression.
A snippet from an individual session Perlado had with Alex highlights an instance of
spontaneous and momentary shift between total and trial projective identification. The in-
depth exploration of one of Alex‘s passing comments represents the type of ―listening with
the third ear‖ (Reik, 1948) that the psychoanalytic approach to cult recovery provides. I
suggest that Alex‘s ability in this moment to spontaneously play is significant as a sign of
emerging creativity. Says Alex, ―…I thought of leaving, but I also felt that something could
happen if I left. The leader spoke of somebody from the outside that wanted to harm
us…maybe that was me. I am just joking….‖
The shift in Alex‘s stance illustrates the potential of creativity emerging in open
environments like that provided by Perlado, as suggested by the four hypotheses. It
represents Alex‘s struggle with the dimensions of loss, opposition, gap/lack, and
uncertainty, and illustrates fluidity between total and trial projective identifications. Such
fluidity, as discussed by the late Klein (1946) and by Bion (1962), involves ―an on-going
oscillation between paranoid-schizoid fragmentation—breaking apart—and depressive re-
integration as a necessary part of creative living.‖ (Glover, 2009)
Cults often exploit the concept, as Poincare (1914) describes, that both fragmentation and
reconstruction are intrinsic to creativity. Similarly Deri notes that ―[the] arrangement of old
elements into new gestalts is the essence of all productive, creative thinking.‖ (Deri, 1984,
p. 37) In groups in which theater or music are vehicles for indoctrination and/or
proselytizing, such as the Fourth Wall Repertory Theater of the Sullivanians (Siskind, 2003)
