Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 35
Table 1: Domestic Violence and Cultic Abuse
Domestic Violence Cultic Abuse
Environmental Control
Perpetrators control who the woman sees,
talks to, what she reads and where she
goes limits outside involvement
Environmental Control
Cults control whom the individual is allowed
to see and associate with. Cults control
reading matter, living arrangements, and
lifestyle.
Economic Abuse
Perpetrators can prevent the woman from
getting a job, make her ask for money,
take her money, forbid access to family
income.
Economic Abuse
Cults often expect a large proportion of an
individual‘s income, including signing over
assets, getting money from family,
moneymaking activities.
Using Children
Perpetrators can use the children to make
the woman feel guilty, threaten harm to
children, alienate children from Mother.
Using Children
Cults can emotionally, spiritually and
physically abuse children. They can threaten
to harm children to control the parents.
Coercion &Threats
Perpetrators threaten to hurt and can use
guilt and fear and other emotional
manipulations to control the woman.
Coercion &Threats
Cults regularly use fear, guilt, and other
emotional manipulations to control members.
Minimizing/Blaming
Perpetrators refuse to take responsibility
for abusive behavior they say it is the
woman‘s fault or ignore or make light of
abuse.
Minimizing/Blaming
Cults make sure if something is wrong, it‘s
the individual‘s fault no critical thinking
about the group is allowed.
Powerlessness/Helplessness
Perpetrators ensure that the woman is
dependent on the male a learned
helplessness is established.
Powerlessness/Helplessness
Cults systematically create a sense of
powerlessness through a system of rewards
and punishments.
Attack on Self
The result of DV can be a shattered self a
―hollow shell‖: ―I no longer feel like a
person.‖
Attack on Self
Cults destabilize the sense of self, reinterpret
reality according to the group, and create a
cult identity.
Performance Orientated
―As long as you do what you‘re told, it‘ll be
ok‖. ―I‘ll try not to upset him tonight.‖
Performance Orientated
―Happiness‖ and commitment are measured
through performance measure up or suffer
the consequences.
Residual Effects
Many battered women exhibit symptoms
consistent with Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) (Walker 1993)
Residual Effects
One of the most common psychiatric
disorders experienced by ex-cult members is
PTSD (Giambalvo 1993)
A central technique common to cults is the systematic severing of ties with those outside
the group. This severing can take numerous forms such as:
 Discouraging contact with non-cult family members.
 No contact with ex-members.
 No reading materials critical of the group allowed.
 The discouraging of certain trades or professions that would increase contact with non-
members.

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 36
 The expectation that a large proportion of personal time will be allocated to cult related
activities.
Environmental control also characterizes abusive political systems, such as that found in
Communist China in the 1950s (Lifton, 1961 Schein, Schneier, &Barker, 1961). Although
Lifton's notion of ―thought reform‖ referred to high-control processes used on Chinese
civilians as well as on American POWs, the term ―brainwashing‖ is sometimes used only to
describe what American pilots experienced upon capture by the Communists. The term is
used somewhat flippantly these days to describe almost any process of coercion or control.
However, the ―original‖ brainwashing involved severe physical deprivation and torture.
While there are some parallels between domestic violence and brainwashing such as
intermittent psychological and physical abuse, Romero (1985) lists some important
distinctions:
 An unknown enemy abused POWs. Victims of domestic violence share an intimate
relationship with their partner, and as such, sexual abuse is common, whereas there
was none reported in the former.
 The Chinese Communists had a specific goal, namely, ideological change. Domestic
violence perpetrators have no goal per se in the control of their partners.
 Because the Communists' goal was ideological change, there was a system of rewards
for right belief. For the battered woman, there is no reward she cannot accept a new
ideology and then be set free.
Upon release, a number of POWs held on to the enforced political beliefs, though only for a
time. In a new environment where critical thinking was allowed, any residue of political
belief gradually dissipated. This mirrors domestic violence and present-day cultic systems,
in that once the individual leaves the immediate environment, the traumatic effects
gradually weaken. In other words, the behavioral and attitude changes that cult members
experience are environment-dependent:
Once removed from such an environment, the person is able to interact with
others who permit and encourage the expression of criticisms and doubts,
which were previously stifled because of the normative rules of the reform
environment. (Ofshe, 1992, p.214).
Similarly, those women who can leave the abusive partner tend to be able to reverse their
learned helplessness, in contrast to those who stay and try to change the partner (Walker
1978). This highlights the importance of watching for a ―window of opportunity‖ when
dealing with a current victim of domestic violence or a current member of a toxic group.
The Sense of Self is Broken
Another parallel process that the author has noted is the thought-reforming environment's
effect on the sense of self. Ex-members of destructive groups and survivors of violence have
described the experience as a ―rape of the soul,‖ which leaves them feeling like an ―empty
shell with nothing inside.‖ Given that abusive systems attempt to mold central elements of
self, such as worldview, ego, and basic defenses (Ofshe &Singer, 1986), it should come as
no surprise to hear experiences of self-fragmentation. Schein et al. (1961) described a
tripartite process in their work with POWs:
Unfreezing – refers to the initial destabilizing of self through sleep deprivation, poor diet,
threats, degradation, etc. Before the POW could confess allegiance to Communist ideology,
previous alliances had to be severed or reinterpreted. As a violation of one‘s beliefs and the
desire to maintain internal consistency and integration collided, the sense of identity
fragmented.