Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 18
the group‟s leaders, to the possible or actual detriment of members, their families or
the community.1
This definition focuses on three elements: (1) excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment
to the identity and leaders of the group by the members (2) exploitative manipulation of
members and (3) harm or the danger of harm.* Therefore, totalist cults can be distinguished
from unorthodox, but relatively benign, groups by their actual practices rather than by their
beliefs. The definition is meant to acknowledge that groups may change their characteristics,
becoming more or less cult-like over time, so that each of the three foregoing elements may
exist to varying degrees at any one time.
Cults
West‟s interest in cults evolved naturally out of three life-long pursuits--studies of the physiol-
ogy of emotions,5-9 studies of how human interactions impact on physiological reactions and
lead toward health or illness, and his sense of social responsibility as a physician.
His work on cults represents a confluence of his scientific inquiry into dissociation and
hypnosis,10-14 sleep deprivation,15-18 mind-altering drugs and hallucinations,19-24 military
survival training,25-33 and the psychological sequelae of social movements.34-38 This earlier
work has led him in his studies of totalistic groups to analyze the effects of cults on individuals
and on society as public health problems.
West‟s interest in psychosociopolitical issues (e.g., racism, the counterculture, cults, violence,
drugs, terrorism and torture) has always had a two- pronged focus--on the affected individual
and on society as a whole. He believes strongly that psychiatry should play a leading role in
breaking through the bonds of human suffering (a recurrent theme in his writings). In 1969,
in “Ethical Psychiatry and Biosocial Humanism,”39 he wrote:
If human misery is termed “bad,” and health “good,” then slavery is unethical --it is
“logical and fitting that [psychiatry), growing out of man‟s decision to care for his
most tormented brothers, should ...provide a matrix for the development of a new,
more comprehensive ethical system, for which [I propose] the term “biosocial
humanism.”
His studies of the counterculture of the 1960s and of the civil rights movement of that same
decade explained both the individual‟s needs to participate in what West and Allen termed the
“Three Rebellions: Red [the New Left], Black [“Negro” revolt], and Green [Hippies]”36 and also
society‟s reaction to them. West and Allen noted, “While many hippies are highly intelligent, it
is not an intellectual movement ...it is a spiritual movement.”36 Many of the same issues
West highlighted in the 1960s are relevant to our understanding today of the rise and ex-
pansion of totalistic groups.
In another series of articles,25-33 West almost single-handedly undertook to educate first the
military establishment and then mental health professionals and the general public about the
psychological and sociological implications of “brainwashing.” In his efforts to expose the
myth that American soldiers were not tough,32 West tackled squarely a national movement
that scapegoated American soldiers by using studies of prisoners of war behavior to create
anticommunist hysteria. That process led him to integrate his own findings with the
observations of others** and, with colleagues, to add his own analysis of the key elements in
controlling the behavior of others--debility, dependency, and dread (the DDD syndrome).27
*The preceding definition owes much of its heritage to Robert J. Lifton and Edgar H. Schein, whose seminal reports
of thought reform and coercive persuasion in China2,3 helped us explicate the social and psychological processes used
in modern destructive cults. In fact, Lifton has applied his concept of ideological totalism to some cult situations.4
**The body of literature from the 1950s and 1960s on the effects of thought reform programs on civilian and
the group‟s leaders, to the possible or actual detriment of members, their families or
the community.1
This definition focuses on three elements: (1) excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment
to the identity and leaders of the group by the members (2) exploitative manipulation of
members and (3) harm or the danger of harm.* Therefore, totalist cults can be distinguished
from unorthodox, but relatively benign, groups by their actual practices rather than by their
beliefs. The definition is meant to acknowledge that groups may change their characteristics,
becoming more or less cult-like over time, so that each of the three foregoing elements may
exist to varying degrees at any one time.
Cults
West‟s interest in cults evolved naturally out of three life-long pursuits--studies of the physiol-
ogy of emotions,5-9 studies of how human interactions impact on physiological reactions and
lead toward health or illness, and his sense of social responsibility as a physician.
His work on cults represents a confluence of his scientific inquiry into dissociation and
hypnosis,10-14 sleep deprivation,15-18 mind-altering drugs and hallucinations,19-24 military
survival training,25-33 and the psychological sequelae of social movements.34-38 This earlier
work has led him in his studies of totalistic groups to analyze the effects of cults on individuals
and on society as public health problems.
West‟s interest in psychosociopolitical issues (e.g., racism, the counterculture, cults, violence,
drugs, terrorism and torture) has always had a two- pronged focus--on the affected individual
and on society as a whole. He believes strongly that psychiatry should play a leading role in
breaking through the bonds of human suffering (a recurrent theme in his writings). In 1969,
in “Ethical Psychiatry and Biosocial Humanism,”39 he wrote:
If human misery is termed “bad,” and health “good,” then slavery is unethical --it is
“logical and fitting that [psychiatry), growing out of man‟s decision to care for his
most tormented brothers, should ...provide a matrix for the development of a new,
more comprehensive ethical system, for which [I propose] the term “biosocial
humanism.”
His studies of the counterculture of the 1960s and of the civil rights movement of that same
decade explained both the individual‟s needs to participate in what West and Allen termed the
“Three Rebellions: Red [the New Left], Black [“Negro” revolt], and Green [Hippies]”36 and also
society‟s reaction to them. West and Allen noted, “While many hippies are highly intelligent, it
is not an intellectual movement ...it is a spiritual movement.”36 Many of the same issues
West highlighted in the 1960s are relevant to our understanding today of the rise and ex-
pansion of totalistic groups.
In another series of articles,25-33 West almost single-handedly undertook to educate first the
military establishment and then mental health professionals and the general public about the
psychological and sociological implications of “brainwashing.” In his efforts to expose the
myth that American soldiers were not tough,32 West tackled squarely a national movement
that scapegoated American soldiers by using studies of prisoners of war behavior to create
anticommunist hysteria. That process led him to integrate his own findings with the
observations of others** and, with colleagues, to add his own analysis of the key elements in
controlling the behavior of others--debility, dependency, and dread (the DDD syndrome).27
*The preceding definition owes much of its heritage to Robert J. Lifton and Edgar H. Schein, whose seminal reports
of thought reform and coercive persuasion in China2,3 helped us explicate the social and psychological processes used
in modern destructive cults. In fact, Lifton has applied his concept of ideological totalism to some cult situations.4
**The body of literature from the 1950s and 1960s on the effects of thought reform programs on civilian and
