Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 2
CONTENTS
Articles
Psychotherapy Cults: And Ethical Analysis 3
Kim Boland
Gordon Lindbloom
Cults, Coercion, and Contumely 17
Margaret Thaler Singer
Marsha Emmer Addis
The Appeal of the Impossible and the Efflorescence of the
Unbelievable: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Cults and Occultism 34
David A. Halperin
Psychological Abuse 43
Michael D. Langone
Post-Cult Symptoms as Measured by the MCMI Before and After
Residential Treatment 51
Paul R. Martin
Michael D. Langone
Arthur A. Dole
Jeffrey Wiltrout
Book Reviews
The Gnostic Mystery 73
by Andrea Grace Diem
Walter Debold
Orthodoxy and Heresy: A Biblical Guide to Doctrinal Discernment 74
by R. M. Bowman
Frank J. MacHovec
Churches that Abuse 75
by Ronald Enroth
Maxine Pinson
Apologetics in the New Age: A Christian Critique of Pantheism 77
by David K. Clark &Norman L. Geisler
Richard L. Dowhower
Leaders and Followers: A Psychiatric Perspective on Religious Cults
by the Committee of Psychiatry and Religion, Group for the
Advancement of Psychiatry 78
John Hochman
Cults and Personality 79
by Frank J. MacHovec
Lita Linzer Schwartz
*Note: these pages referenced are different than the original published journal. Please check the end of each
article for the original pagination.

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 3
Psychotherapy Cults: An Ethical Analysis
Kim Boland
Lewis &Clark College
Portland, Oregon
Gordon Lindbloom, Ph.D.
Lewis &Clark College
Portland, Oregon
Abstract
A disparate literature on groups characterized as psychotherapy cults was analyzed.
The reported practices of these groups were examined as regards confidentiality and
privacy, dual relationships, informed consent, autonomy and dependency, therapist
competence and limitations, financial practices, professional education, and
separation and termination. The contraventions of standards of ethical conduct
reported by observers typically go far beyond commonly discussed violations of
ethical standards. They appear to create a new gestalt of practice and belief that
directly opposes the intended protections of privacy and autonomy that form the
basis of ethical codes in the mental health professions. Potential benefits of more
analyses of this kind are suggested.
Recent years have brought growing attention to issues of ethical conduct among mental
health practitioners. Most of the resulting literature has focused on defining and clarifying
consensus standards on salient problems in psychotherapy, such as the issues of sexual
contact between therapist and client. However, little systematic attention has been given to
more extreme situations where psychotherapy becomes a pretext for major intrusions in
clients‟ lives, and violations of common ethical standards are extensive and persistent.
This investigation offers an analysis of conduct associated with groups that have been loosely
characterized as psychotherapy cults. It summarizes practices that have been documented in
a scattered literature, and places them within the framework of ethical standards and
guidelines that are generally accepted in the mental health professions. This has been done in
the hope that it will provide a basis for analyzing the practices of such groups and will
stimulate more systematic inquiry. Descriptions of specific aspects of conduct in groups
labeled as psychotherapy cults are collated and evaluated. This analysis does not classify any
group, but does offer a first-level definition of criteria that might be used for defining the
status of groups under scrutiny. The emphasis chosen for this study was a first definition of
types of conduct and the extent to which they appear to contravene prevailing standards of
ethical practice in counseling and psychotherapy.
What Is a Psychotherapy Cult?
The concept of a cult has been associated in the public media with tightly knit, deviant
religious groups. Their practices have been analyzed in terms of Chinese thought-reform
techniques (Lifton, 1961 Singer &Ofshe, 1990), the physical alteration of the central nervous
system (Clark, 1979), the development of an “indoctrinee syndrome” (Barnes, 1978 Rambo,
1982 West &Singer, 1982), the effects of charisma (Newman, 1983), attachment to the
leader (Deutsch, 1980), a socialization process (Long &Hadden, 1983), group dynamics and
formation of group fantasies (Halperin, 1982), and mind control (Hassan, 1988). A spiritual
ideology has been commonly seen as a powerful binding force for participants. Cults are
described as using powerful and deceptive methods for bringing converts under their control,