Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 1988 Page 87
Litigating the Cult-Related Child Custody Case
Randy Frances Kandel, J. D., Ph. D.
Mayerson, Zorn, Perez &Kandel
Abstract
Successful litigation of child custody cases involving a cult group depends on
several factors: showing that cult practices harm the child and that the cult leader
is a surrogate parent keeping multiple cases before the same judge and
consolidating multiple actions for hearings and trial making special use of expert
witnesses and getting the help and support of ex-members.
Successful litigation of child custody cases in which one parent is a member of a destructive cult
requires strategies and techniques that focus the court's attention on the fact that the hierarchical
totalitarian structure of the cult controls both parent and child. The cult leaders substantially
usurp the parenting function their dictates replace the decision-making usually exercised by
custodial parents and the parent-child interaction is embedded in and inseparable from cult
practices and relationships.
Child custody litigation between a cult member parent and an independent parent can involve a
broader judicial inquiry into the techniques of mind, lifestyle, and environmental control practiced
by destructive cults than virtually any other type of cult-related litigation. In cases involving
adults, the courts have been generally reluctant to recognize causes of action grounded in
psychological manipulation (such as ―coercive persuasion‖ or ―mind control‖) because of the law's
strong presumption that adults act autonomously and voluntarily. But no comparable presumption
attaches to children when custody is at issue. To the contrary, the very purpose of child custody
litigation is to decide on an environment (human and otherwise) which will be ―in the best
interests of the child.‖ The court may evaluate the rules and relationships to which the child will
be exposed commonsensically and qualitatively (if not judgmentally) precisely with regard to the
formative effect they may have on the child's developing psyche.
The statutory recitation of the factors to be considered in determining child custody varies slightly
from state to state, but it universally involves broad, sweeping inquiry into the relative ―fitness‖ of
the parents emotionally, financially, and otherwise. Testimony on the daily ritual and minutiae of
cult life, including how and with whom the child spends time, the extent and nature of parental
interaction, the methods of child discipline, the child's education, and the non-parental adults who
will interact with the child, is relevant to the determination.
The Sullivanians: Beliefs and Practices
In the past several years, our firm and others have represented in child custody matters several
former members of the so-called ―psychotherapeutic community‖ known as the Sullivan Institute
for Research in Psychoanalysis/Fourth Wall Repertory Company. This entity, located on New York
City's Upper West Side, has approximately 250 members, most of whom are well-educated
professionals in their late twenties to early forties.
The core of the Sullivanian theory is that the nuclear family and all strong dyadic relationships are
psychologically destructive, and that parent-child bonds in particular are the root of all evil and
the mainspring of psychological maladjustment.
Members must break off contact with parents and friends ―outside‖ and learn to loathe them
avoid forming intense dyadic relationships and maintain ongoing sexual relationships with other
group members. Marriages, although permitted for reasons of convenience, financial and the like,
Litigating the Cult-Related Child Custody Case
Randy Frances Kandel, J. D., Ph. D.
Mayerson, Zorn, Perez &Kandel
Abstract
Successful litigation of child custody cases involving a cult group depends on
several factors: showing that cult practices harm the child and that the cult leader
is a surrogate parent keeping multiple cases before the same judge and
consolidating multiple actions for hearings and trial making special use of expert
witnesses and getting the help and support of ex-members.
Successful litigation of child custody cases in which one parent is a member of a destructive cult
requires strategies and techniques that focus the court's attention on the fact that the hierarchical
totalitarian structure of the cult controls both parent and child. The cult leaders substantially
usurp the parenting function their dictates replace the decision-making usually exercised by
custodial parents and the parent-child interaction is embedded in and inseparable from cult
practices and relationships.
Child custody litigation between a cult member parent and an independent parent can involve a
broader judicial inquiry into the techniques of mind, lifestyle, and environmental control practiced
by destructive cults than virtually any other type of cult-related litigation. In cases involving
adults, the courts have been generally reluctant to recognize causes of action grounded in
psychological manipulation (such as ―coercive persuasion‖ or ―mind control‖) because of the law's
strong presumption that adults act autonomously and voluntarily. But no comparable presumption
attaches to children when custody is at issue. To the contrary, the very purpose of child custody
litigation is to decide on an environment (human and otherwise) which will be ―in the best
interests of the child.‖ The court may evaluate the rules and relationships to which the child will
be exposed commonsensically and qualitatively (if not judgmentally) precisely with regard to the
formative effect they may have on the child's developing psyche.
The statutory recitation of the factors to be considered in determining child custody varies slightly
from state to state, but it universally involves broad, sweeping inquiry into the relative ―fitness‖ of
the parents emotionally, financially, and otherwise. Testimony on the daily ritual and minutiae of
cult life, including how and with whom the child spends time, the extent and nature of parental
interaction, the methods of child discipline, the child's education, and the non-parental adults who
will interact with the child, is relevant to the determination.
The Sullivanians: Beliefs and Practices
In the past several years, our firm and others have represented in child custody matters several
former members of the so-called ―psychotherapeutic community‖ known as the Sullivan Institute
for Research in Psychoanalysis/Fourth Wall Repertory Company. This entity, located on New York
City's Upper West Side, has approximately 250 members, most of whom are well-educated
professionals in their late twenties to early forties.
The core of the Sullivanian theory is that the nuclear family and all strong dyadic relationships are
psychologically destructive, and that parent-child bonds in particular are the root of all evil and
the mainspring of psychological maladjustment.
Members must break off contact with parents and friends ―outside‖ and learn to loathe them
avoid forming intense dyadic relationships and maintain ongoing sexual relationships with other
group members. Marriages, although permitted for reasons of convenience, financial and the like,
