Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1997, page 19
and optimistic as a way of maintaining a positive and cooperative stance in the world. For
the most part, this kind of education leads to collaborative, successful outcomes. But those
of us who value honesty, straightforwardness, and fairness have a kind of narcissism that
can get us into trouble --that is, many of us believe that others think just like us. Without
training in how to discern deception, many of us, like Pam, will believe the words of con
artists and manipulators.
Both men and women in our culture are thus susceptible to the manipulation of cult
recruiters and cult leaders. Once they are involved in cultic groups, people begin to have
reactions similar to Pam‟s. They become anxious, depressed, confused, dissociated. They
feel that something is not “right,” but they are unable to clarify for themselves what the
problem is. They continue to feel distressed --or, in psychiatric terminology, they are
“symptomatic.” In the following sections I will elucidate compelling cultural factors that
draw women to cults, how gender binds make it particularly difficult for women to see when
they are being manipulated, and how these gender binds contribute to women having
difficulty leaving destructive cults.
What Women Consciously Want and What Cults Advertise
Because of the rapid changes in our culture, modern women are in powerful, conflictual role
binds. Women want to be successful in their own right, while still valuing relationship and
nurturance. They want to be given guidance about how to manage in a rapidly changing
world, while still maintaining their independence. They want to have romantic relationships
with relative freedom from the pain of gender inequities. How do you succeed in a
competitive economy and maintain a feminine identity? Where can you get guidance on how
to live in a society so different from the one your mother grew up in? How can you cope
with maturing into womanhood in a culture with ubiquitous gender inequities?
What cults advertise as their missions and what they seem to embody are congruent with
these conflicting wishes. They are communities that appear to include values of cooperation
and nurturance while expressing power and success, and they appear to offer “the answers”
about how to cope in today‟s world.
Power and Relationship
In many cases, women are led to believe that they can join a powerful community without
the threat of social rejection or loss of femininity. Here‟s one example:
“Julia” was recruited into a small Hebrew-Christian group led by a charismatic woman
who successfully recruited people out of a large reform synagogue. Julia was interested
in the group because it offered more intimacy than the services she had been
attending. “Elizabeth,” the leader, also proclaimed grand goals for the group and its
impact on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Julia was particularly drawn to the group‟s
supposed democratic style. Elizabeth said they would all work together to change the
world, that it would be a joint project.
Years after leaving the cult, Julia rose to the top of a large corporation. Despite the fact
that she was a top manager of hundreds of employees, she still signed her name to
letters and memos without printing her title underneath her name. She ran meetings in
an ultrademocratic fashion and struggled over making final decisions and claiming them
as her own. She was in constant fear that she would appear too “bossy” or as a “power-
hungry bitch.” She actually liked being in charge, but was frightened of others‟
reactions to her taking that role. Julia still dreamed of a group situation where she
might feel and identify with the power of the group without standing out too much. She
had originally entered the cult with the conscious hope that the group would satisfy her
need for making an impact without feeling like a tyrant.

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1997, page 20
Almost all the female former cult members I have seen in my practice reported that they
had originally regarded their cult as a way to gain power and influence while maintaining
deeply held values of caring for others. All of them had options to go into traditional male
jobs or professions, but they wanted to make an impact in a noncompetitive community.
Mattina Horner (1972) used Thematic Aptitude Tests (TAT) to investigate women‟s attitudes
concerning success and competition. She found that “women appeared to have a problem
with competitive achievement, and that problem seemed to emanate from a perceived
conflict between femininity and success” (pp.157-175).
Cultic groups do not admit to internal competition at the same time, they clearly announce
that their group is the one and only, most powerful, most realized, only one to be saved, to
change the world, and so on. For contemporary women, this idealized view looks like a
wonderful environment in which they can feel powerful while avoiding day-to-day
experiences of competition.
Mentorship
For countless generations, human cultures either have been static in form and practice or
have changed very slowly over time. Families and family groups valued elders as wise
leaders who had wisdom to pass on. A child, an adolescent, or an adult could always turn to
a text of laws and rules or to an older relative for answers to or insight about a particular
problem. During the last few hundred years, however, cultural and industrial changes have
been rapidly accelerating, and adults no longer feel that there are people in their community
to whom they can turn to help them cope with problems unique to their generation. Women
in particular have been faced with dramatic changes in their roles. But today, most people
tend to think of elders and their knowledge as obsolete, silly, useless.
That humans evolved in clans allows us to postulate that there is a ubiquitous need for
mentorship as one matures. Even if this is not so, it does appear that many people today
are craving mentorship in various forms. The popularity of self-improvement programs,
psychotherapy, self-help books, all varieties of cults, and New Age magical practices is a
testament to this apparent overarching human need and concomitant search for guidance
from people and texts.
“Leila” began working as a masseuse in a New Age health organization run by a
physician. The doctor portrayed the business as a communal effort to live well, to teach
others to live well, for everyone involved to reach their highest personal goals. Under
the leader‟s tutelage, Leila became vegetarian, and exercised and meditated daily. Leila
later reflected that these new habits would have been wonderful to learn if then she
had been able to lead a free life. However, Leila was pressed to do hours of cooking,
cleaning, and recruiting for the group, so that instead of leaving the group to lead a full
life with better habits, she became a full-time slave, embroiled in permanent inequity
with the leader.
Leila had dreams of becoming a physical therapist. The leader consistently proclaimed
that if the members followed the tenets of the group, then “all good things would come
to them.” Leila was unsure about how to reach her career goals, but believed in her
guru. She chanted and meditated and followed his instructions with the hope that “it
would come to her.” Although the leader had proclaimed that under his guidance each
member would reach his or her full potential, the “guidance” was disabling. Instead of
being taught practical skills and wisdom, group members were involved in a process of
submission that kept them in a position of permanent inequity with the leader. Years
later in psychotherapy, Leila came to understand that she was in need of some concrete
guidance about the steps she needed to take to apply to a graduate program in physical
therapy.