Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 22
mechanisms. West also clearly differentiated the group political indoctrination process known
as “thought reform” from forceful interrogation and torture, which was applied to certain
prisoners of war (POWs) (usually Air Force personnel) in order to secure propaganda state-
ments during the Korean War. In his 1963 article for The Encyclopedia of Mental Health,30
West explained:
The thought reform technique relies heavily upon small group dynamics, the group
structure, the relationship of the leader to the group, the relative initial psychological
isolation of each individual from the other members of the group as individuals, and
the evolution of a growing group identity and group pressure to bring the tardy or
errant members into line. ...Thought reform is defined by the word “indoctrination”
in which certain specific ideas and attitudes are inculcated deliberately and without
the merits of competitive doctrines being offered.
The theory of thought reform is based on accepted and decades-old material from the dis-
ciplines of clinical and social psychology. These general techniques of social and psychological
influence, ways of patterning and sequencing them, are verified in the scientific literature.49-57
Because the terms thought reform, coercive persuasion, and brainwashing have become so
intermingled in everyday language that their distinctions are an artifact of history, Ofshe and
Singer58 coined a new term “coordinated programs of coercive influence and behavior
control.” This term also avoids any erroneous historical connotation suggesting that a “gun at
the head” is necessary to control effectively a person‟s decisions, behavior, or expressed atti-
tudes.
Many situations include planned influence procedures (e.g., sales programs, recruitment
programs, political campaigns). However, there are specific differences between these and a
coordinated program of coercive influence and behavior control (or, as we have suggested
here, exploitative persuasion). In the latter:
1. Intense and frequent attempts and contrived environmental settings are employed to
undermine a person‟s confidence and judgment.
2. Intense and frequent attempts and environmental manipulation also are used to cause
people to reevaluate themselves, their values, and their prior conduct in negative ways.
3. Efforts are made to establish considerable control over a person‟s social environment and
sources of social support. Isolation from previous social contacts is promoted. Contact with
family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved
attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered.
4. Disconfirming information and nonsupporting opinions are prohibited in communication
within the group. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders.
Communication is tightly controlled.
5. Nonphysical punishments are used (e.g., humiliation, loss of privilege, social status
changes, guilt manipulation, and other techniques for creating aversive emotional arousals).
6. Social, psychological, and spiritual threats (real or implied) are present, the implications of
which are that failure to adopt the approved attitude will lead to severe punishment or dire
consequences (e.g., damnation, physical or mental illness, drug dependence, economic
collapse, divorce, failure to find a mate, rejection by the group, etc.).
Recovery of Damages
One of West‟s 12 “Rs”--recovery of damages--has provided the forum for controversy around
the meaning of thought reform. In recent years an increasing number of ex-cult members
have instigated legal suits against totalist groups, alleging harms they suffered as a result of
membership in those organizations. Many of these lawsuits have resulted in judgment for the

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 23
plaintiffs, although recovery of damages is slow because of extended appeals processes that
sometimes continue to the U.S. Supreme Court.*** Naturally, this has caused concern to the
organizations that must pay the damages. Consequently, a concerted effort appears to have
been undertaken to discredit the theoretical underpinnings of the explanation of how these
organizations entrap and hold their members by totally misrepresenting the literature on
social influence and thought reform. At the same time, apparent efforts to discredit experts
such as West, Singer, Ofshe, Clark, and others have taken the form of attacks on their
characters using distortions of truth and outright misrepresentations.
Contumely
Jolly West‟s career has been noteworthy for (among other things) his willingness to put
himself on the firing line by espousing well-reasoned views unpopular at the time (e.g., the
equality of all men and women regardless of race, creed, or color). At least some of these
views, however, have eventually become generally accepted by society. This is certainly true
in the area of cults and their abuses. In the process of educating fellow professionals and the
public about the techniques used by totalistic cults, West has been outspoken. As a result,
various campaigns to discredit him have been conducted over the years.**** These have
included false charges that he was an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), that
he advocated performing “psychosurgery” on prisoners, and that he was “antireligious.” All of
these charges have taken the form of vicious attacks on his personal and professional life and,
for a lesser person, would have been insulting and humiliating. But West‟s guiding principle is
contained in a framed quotation he keeps in his office:
Those who would carry on the great public schemes must be proof against the most
fatiguing delays, the most mortifying disappointments, the most shocking insults,
and worst of all, the presumptuous judgment of the ignorant upon their designs.
--Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Even outrageous lies can be believed, however. As Hitler said in Mein Kampf, “the great
masses of the people ...more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one.”64 Goebbels
elaborated when he wrote in January 1942, “Propaganda must ...always be essentially
simple and repetitive. In the long run, basic results in influencing public opinion will be
achieved only by the man who is able to reduce problems to the simplest terms and who has
the courage to keep forever repeating them in this simplified form, despite the objections of
the intellectuals.”65 In sum, if a lie is big enough, told loudly and often enough, people will
believe it. Because checking the facts often requires time and resources, it is easier to use
repetition of information as confirmation of fact.
Perhaps the best current example of the use of institutionalized propaganda to attempt to
suppress criticism is found in the Church of Scientology‟s codified principle that any “suppres-
sive person” (i.e., one who speaks out against the Church) is “fair game” to be vilified,
pilloried, or worse in an attempt to prevent that person‟s criticism in the future. Scientology‟s
“Ethics” course includes the following policy:
***Many of these cases are settled out of court in favor of the plaintiff. As a condition for payment of damages by the
defendant group to the plaintiff, groups often insist that the court records be sealed. Thus, the general public is unaware
of the extent to which ex-cult members have been awarded damages as compensation for harm they suffered from
their involvement in totalist groups.
****As noted in this chapter and elsewhere,59-63 others who have bravely spoken out about the dangers of totalistic
groups have also been recipients of deceptions, distortions of fact, and dissimulations, all designed to discredit them.