Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 42
Characteristically, the adolescents resort to spiritualism and occultism in order to deal with
existing in an America that has been depopulated by a virus that escaped from a laboratory
for bacteriological warfare.
For King‟s protagonists, the occult exists as a means of ordering an environment in which the
reigning principle remains Nyarlathotep, the messenger of crawling chaos.
The Stand‟s casual description of Armageddon illustrates the extent to which the popular
culture of our society has become inured to the sense that we are living in “End Time.”
Indeed, with his description of a depopulated world and an almost Edenic portrayal of a
“natural” antiparadise, King confronts us with the extent to which so much of the literature
directed toward adolescents views the adult world as the enemy. This literature summons up
the occult as the modus operandi for creating a clean slate--a tabula rasa--on which the
adolescent will write a new world compounded of simplicities and magic(k).
References
Dinnage, R. (1989, October 12). White magic. New York Review of Books, pp. 3B6.
Halperin, D.A. (1983). Gnosticism in high tech: Science fiction and cult formation. In D.
Halperin (Ed.), Psychodynamic perspectives on religion, sect, and cult. Boston: John
Wright PSG.
Halperin, D.A. (1987). Arthur Rimbaud: The poet as adolescent. In S. C. Feinstein (Ed.),
Adolescent Psychiatry, 14:63B82. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
LaVey, A. (1969). Satanic Bible. New York: Avon Books.
Machen, A. (1973). The white people. In D. Knight (Ed.), The golden road (pp. 79B118). New
York: Simon &Schuster.
Necronomicon. (1977). New York: Avon Books.
Wills, G. (1992, December 17). Athena‟s magic. New York Review of Books, 47B52.
Acknowledgment
An earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Association of Suicidology in April 1991.
*******************
David A. Halperin, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of
Medicine, is a fellow of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and the American Group
Psychotherapy Association. He maintains a private practice in Manhattan, is a Consulting
Psychiatrist to the Custody Panel of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, and is
Director of Group Psychotherapy at Roosevelt Hospital. Dr. Halperin has lectured extensively
and his publications include Psychodynamic Perspectives on Religion, Sect, and Cult.
This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1992, Volume 9,
Number 2, pages 190-205. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the
bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1992, Page 43
Psychological Abuse
Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.
American Family Foundation
Abstract
Psychological abuse refers to situations in which techniques of persuasion and
control are used to exploit and/or otherwise mistreat people. Its opposite,
respect, has four aspects: the honoring of mind, autonomy, identity, and
dignity (MAID). At heart, psychological abuse and respect are ethical
concepts. In treating victims of psychological abuse, it is important to address
the ethical dimension, for recognizing that they have been wronged is crucial
to victims‟ recovery of mind, autonomy, identity, and dignity. Affirmation of
the ethical dimension in individual cases of abuse also contributes to a
strengthening of the unwritten ethical rules that undergird pluralistic
societies.
According to dictionaries, “abuse” is at heart an ethical concept because it suggests wrongly
using someone. “Psychological abuse” refers to situations in which psychological techniques
of persuasion and control are used to exploit and/or mistreat people. Although aspects of
psychological abuse can be studied scientifically, the phenomenon cannot be properly
understood without analyzing its ethical dimension. This paper examines psychological
abuse and its implications for the treatment of victims and for the strengthening of
pluralistic societies. The paper does not describe the psychological techniques and behaviors
that result in abuse (for a description of the “how” of psychological abuse in the extreme
cases of cults, see Ofshe &Singer, 1986 Singer &Langone, 1990).
The range of phenomena falling under the category “psychological abuse” is broad.
Consider the following case sketches:
Case One. Lucy, a seemingly normal 18-year-old sitting on her front porch in a rural
Vermont town, is persuaded by two odd people to come away with them on the spot. Two
weeks later her parents receive a postcard from her. She says that she has joined a
nomadic religious group and is devoting her life to God. For two years her parents search
unsuccessfully for Lucy. Then one day Lucy calls home from a bus station. She had fled her
group in the middle of the night because she didn‟t think she would be able to resist their
pressure if she tried to leave openly. She is terrified that God will punish her with a horrible
death.
Case Two. Peter, a 24-year-old real estate salesman who has never exhibited any
interest in religion, agrees to attend a weekend “transformational training” strongly
recommended by a friend. During the training the trainer viciously attacks the trainees
because they don‟t have the courage to make their lives work. The trainer tears them down
and then builds them up according to his image of the New Humanity. Near the end of the
training Peter has a profound religious experience in which he becomes convinced that he is
God. Two days later the police pick him up in a subway where he is harassing passengers
because they will not bow down to him.
Case Three. Robert, a reformed alcoholic, is questioned by police following the murder
of a woman who lived across the street. During the interrogation, police deviously extract a
confession from Robert, who is persuaded that he must have murdered the woman during