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Compartmentalization is a defense mechanism that typically involves a very circumscribed
aspect of the psychic structure, employed for the duration of a stressor (as when an
otherwise honest worker cheats without guilt on income taxes). Or it is a more general
defensive style closely associated with an overall personality pattern that is not very
amenable to change, even with intensive psychotherapy. Doubling, on the other hand,
involves a massive psychic restructuring, yet it can be relatively temporary and relatively
easily reversed. In and of itself, doubling is neither good nor bad.
In general terms, the adaptive potential for doubling is integral to the human psyche and
can, at times, be lifesaving: for a soldier in combat, for instance or for the victim of
brutality such as an Auschwitz inmate, who must undergo a form of doubling in order to
survive. But the “opposing self” can become dangerously unrestrained, as it did in the Nazi
doctors. (Lifton, 1986, p. 420.)
Doubling may be the process that some cultists experience during and following their
“conversions.” Deprogramming may be an “undoing” of doubling. Doubling also helps
explain the behavior of some cult leaders, especially within those cults that, like ISKCON,
have reputations for being especially violent and antisocial. In detailing the processes that
facilitate doubling, Lifton (1986) employed some of the same terminology he originally
introduced in Thought reform and the Psychology of Totalism (Lifton, 1961). Thus, doubling
may provide an alternative conceptual framework for synthesizing what sometimes appears
to be the “voluntary” nature of cult participation with the anecdotal evidence of covert social
manipulation and sudden personality change. Lifton (1986, p. 330) himself alluded to the
possible “comparison between violent contemporary cults…and the Nazi Auschwitz
structure” in facilitating doubling among leaders and followers alike.
Doubling can explain the ease with which a formerly law0abiding college student can
commit crimes: Following exposure to the thought-reform mechanisms of loading the
language and dispensing of existence, the cult “double” can behave antisocially. Lifton
(1986) found that nazi doctors avoided guilt not by eliminating conscience but by
“transferring” it to the double – the “Auschwitz self” with an inverted criterion for “good”
that included duty to the Nazi regime, “improving” concentration camp conditions,
accelerating the efficient operation of crematoriums, etc.
The doubled self “does the dirty work” for the entire self by rendering that
work “proper” and in that way protects the entire self from awareness of its
own guilt…”(p.421)
In doubling, one part of the self “disavows” another part. What is repudiated is not reality
itself…but the meaning of that reality. The Nazi doctor knew that he selected, but did not
interpret selections as murder. One level of disavowal, then, was the Auschwitz self‟s
altering the meaning of murder and on another, the repudiation by the original self of
anything done by the Auschwitz self (p. 422).
Thus, the Krishna devotee can commit fraud and “transcendental trickery” and his cult-self
will not feel guilty because the nature of “right” and “wrong” has been redefined. In fact,
doubling explains the irony of the cultist who feels guilty for not carrying out the cult
leader‟s insistence on committing crimes.
Among the psychological themes central to doubling in nazi doctors – and by extension, I
believe, to cultism – were (Lifton, 1986, pp. 439-475): (a) Deadly Logic and Sacred Science
– the ethos of reason that, given the “fact” that Jews were disease agents that polluted the
Aryan race, demanded eradication as the only “logical” solution (b) nature‟s Engine – the
individual doctor was merely a “tool” in a cosmically ordained and ultimately “natural” order
of life (c) the vision of Total Cure – the Nazis were motivated by a vision of ultimate evil to
their country, perpetrated by a demonic race (d) the Dispensing of Existence (e) the

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1989, Page 15
Quest for Transcendence – “part of the cure is the experience of transcendence…in that
experience of ecstasy, one may be ready to kill, or at least to sanction killing…Hitler became
an agent of this transcendence…”the will of the Fuhrer” [became] a “cosmic law” because
his message of revitalization could invoke the experience of transcendence and place that
experience within a structure of thought and a program of action” (p.474) (f) the
Continuous “High State” – romantic nationalism “combined with specific Nazi ideological
omnipotence to contribute to a sense of being those particular “children of the gods” who
had the right to kill, in a spirit described by one as “If you will not be my brother, your head
will be dropped off your shoulders” …that pattern was exemplified by the “oath-bound
community” entered into by SS members” (p.475).
Social-psychological Models
Social-psychological models of conversion range from those that attempt an integration with
other models of coercive persuasion (e.g., Cialdini, 1984 Galanti, 1984 Singer, 1982
Zimbardo, Ebbesen &Maslach, 1977) to those that deny coercive persuasion (e.g., Balch,
1980 Bromley &Shupe, 1979 Kim, 1979).
Balch (1980) studies a millennial UFO cult (admittedly not meeting the criteria of a
destructive cult) and suggested that role-taking theory provided a parsimonious explanation
for the behavior of cultists. He concluded that “when people join a religious cult they first
change their behavior by adopting a new role ...the boundless faith of the true believer
usually develops only after lengthy involvement in the cult‟s day-to-day activities” (p.143).
In contrast, Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues (Zimbardo, Ebbesen &
Maslach, 1977, pp. 1840185) place their social-psychological explanation of conversion
alongside the other models, seeking an integrated model of what they termed “persuasive
conversion.” In delineating the “Principles of Persuasive Conversion” they noted that cultists
are “submerged in the group and encouraged toward deindividuated actions and
feelings…the individual is made to feel the group‟s power, which he or she can share in.”
Recruits are told to listen uncritically with a “nonevaluative vulnerable mind-set of
acceptance” to repetitious lectures and other “information inputs” while “attractive, similar
peers model sincerity, happiness, vitality and the unconditional acceptance of the cult‟s
ideas.” Attitude and behavior change is aided by “potent social reinforcers” that “are
dispensed freely.” These reinforcers include “smiles, approval, acceptance, praise, physical
contact, and apparent love.” Non acceptable behaviors on a recruit‟s part, however, “elicit
an immediate uniform reaction from all members of the group they are all saddened, never
angered, by deviant acts or thoughts.” Cult indoctrination centers typically mimic a “guest-
host [i.e., cult member – cult recruit] role relationship,” and guilt – a powerful behavior
modifier – results when the recruit upsets his or her “host.”
Information Processing Models
Chris Edwards (1982), a former Unification Church member who has written both about his
own experiences as a Moonist and about cult conversion in general, stated that conversion
is accomplished through manipulation of information. The cult, as a group, presents a
unified set of interactions between group and initiates (the group “persona”). On a more
microscopic level, the cult controls or attempts to control all environmental inputs,
especially the flow of information (Edwards, 1982). Edwards described the techniques
employed by successful cult recruiters, which begin with the recruiter‟s soliciting self-
disclosures from the initiate (and providing self-disclosures of his or her own) in order to
establish rapport. The recruiter‟s own self-disclosures may not always be true to facilitate
rapport, for example, he or she may claim an interest in country-western music that is not
really there. Once an invitation to a cult function has been accepted and the initiate is
secured in a milieu engineered by the cult, the cult trainers proceed to manipulate the
initiate‟s attention, increasing suggestibility and inducing the initiate to modify or dismantle