Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1992, Page 84
between the need to espouse conceptual absolutes and the need to apply these absolutes to
situations that fall on a continuum. He argues that the extreme forms of manipulation seen in
some cult conversions demand an explicit acknowledgment of the social values implicitly
underlying legal judgments and, therefore, challenge the legal system to become more
explicit in its condemnation of behaviors in which, as Gozzano says, “the relationship of
dependency can reach diverse levels until it arrives at that state of suggestibility which the
Penal Code defines as the crime of plagio.” If the law demands an absolute, an either-or, it
runs into the problem the Italians faced when they declared plagio unconstitutional: what
constitutes total psychological domination? If the law doesn’t demand an absolute, it runs into
the problem of experts disagreeing about which point on the continuum is severe enough to
warrant the appellation “crime.”
As with experts in the U.S., the Italian experts at this conference disagreed about this issue.
However, unlike any conference or book that I know of in the U.S., Dr. DiFiorino’s book
addresses the full range of phenomena associated with the continuum of psychological
manipulation. In addition to a number of chapters specifically dealing with plagio (the extreme
pole that draws attention to the continuum), this book includes chapters on the following
subjects: exploitation of the legally incompetent the relationship of magic, suggestion, and
plagio the use of the Rorschach test to investigate cases of plagio case studies of induced
psychosis and plagio psychological and psychopathological aspects of seduction philosophy
of the “new age” and psychopathology psychiatry and brainwashing insidious aspects of
psychological manipulation in a therapeutic community practical, clinical observation and
critical consideration of plagio, fraud, and seduction Mesmerism formation, information, and
persuasion in psychiatry membership in emerging cults: conversion and/or plagio and the
problem of manipulation in controversial religious movements.
My understanding of Italian is not sophisticated enough to provide detailed summaries of the
many chapters. Thus, I have focused on what I believe is the heart of the book: the notion of
plagio. I hope that this modest and inadequate review gives some readers a better
appreciation of two facts: (1) cult-related problems observed in the U.S. exist throughout the
developed world and (2) many thoughtful people have pondered these problems in
languages other than English. This places English-only speakers at a disadvantage. Due to
different standards of education and the demands of internationalism, our counterparts in
other countries usually have some knowledge of our work, while we rarely know anything
about what they are experiencing and doing. A noble goal would be for us to learn foreign
languages. More realistic, perhaps, is to realize that we will only come to learn about the
theories, studies, and accomplishments of our counterparts around the world if their work is
translated into English. As editor of this journal, I will do my best to facilitate this international
flow of ideas.
Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.
Editor, Cultic Studies Journal
The Satanism Scare. Edited by James T. Richardson, Joel Best, &David Bromley.
Aldine de Gruyter, New York, 1991, 320 pages.
To date, “politically correct” propagandizing among aging academics left over from the 1960s
has been confined, for the most part, to the conventional fields of literature, art history,
anthropology, and psychology.
But now this peculiar intellectual pathology seems to have wormed its way into provisionally
defined, and historically marginal, fields such as sociology of religion with its alleged
“empirical” and “scientific” strategies of inquiry and reflection. Although the charge of “PC”
has been overused, and frequently abused, within the mounting popular polemics against the
between the need to espouse conceptual absolutes and the need to apply these absolutes to
situations that fall on a continuum. He argues that the extreme forms of manipulation seen in
some cult conversions demand an explicit acknowledgment of the social values implicitly
underlying legal judgments and, therefore, challenge the legal system to become more
explicit in its condemnation of behaviors in which, as Gozzano says, “the relationship of
dependency can reach diverse levels until it arrives at that state of suggestibility which the
Penal Code defines as the crime of plagio.” If the law demands an absolute, an either-or, it
runs into the problem the Italians faced when they declared plagio unconstitutional: what
constitutes total psychological domination? If the law doesn’t demand an absolute, it runs into
the problem of experts disagreeing about which point on the continuum is severe enough to
warrant the appellation “crime.”
As with experts in the U.S., the Italian experts at this conference disagreed about this issue.
However, unlike any conference or book that I know of in the U.S., Dr. DiFiorino’s book
addresses the full range of phenomena associated with the continuum of psychological
manipulation. In addition to a number of chapters specifically dealing with plagio (the extreme
pole that draws attention to the continuum), this book includes chapters on the following
subjects: exploitation of the legally incompetent the relationship of magic, suggestion, and
plagio the use of the Rorschach test to investigate cases of plagio case studies of induced
psychosis and plagio psychological and psychopathological aspects of seduction philosophy
of the “new age” and psychopathology psychiatry and brainwashing insidious aspects of
psychological manipulation in a therapeutic community practical, clinical observation and
critical consideration of plagio, fraud, and seduction Mesmerism formation, information, and
persuasion in psychiatry membership in emerging cults: conversion and/or plagio and the
problem of manipulation in controversial religious movements.
My understanding of Italian is not sophisticated enough to provide detailed summaries of the
many chapters. Thus, I have focused on what I believe is the heart of the book: the notion of
plagio. I hope that this modest and inadequate review gives some readers a better
appreciation of two facts: (1) cult-related problems observed in the U.S. exist throughout the
developed world and (2) many thoughtful people have pondered these problems in
languages other than English. This places English-only speakers at a disadvantage. Due to
different standards of education and the demands of internationalism, our counterparts in
other countries usually have some knowledge of our work, while we rarely know anything
about what they are experiencing and doing. A noble goal would be for us to learn foreign
languages. More realistic, perhaps, is to realize that we will only come to learn about the
theories, studies, and accomplishments of our counterparts around the world if their work is
translated into English. As editor of this journal, I will do my best to facilitate this international
flow of ideas.
Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.
Editor, Cultic Studies Journal
The Satanism Scare. Edited by James T. Richardson, Joel Best, &David Bromley.
Aldine de Gruyter, New York, 1991, 320 pages.
To date, “politically correct” propagandizing among aging academics left over from the 1960s
has been confined, for the most part, to the conventional fields of literature, art history,
anthropology, and psychology.
But now this peculiar intellectual pathology seems to have wormed its way into provisionally
defined, and historically marginal, fields such as sociology of religion with its alleged
“empirical” and “scientific” strategies of inquiry and reflection. Although the charge of “PC”
has been overused, and frequently abused, within the mounting popular polemics against the
