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David Ward is a social worker at a community-based counseling center that regularly sees
victims of domestic violence. He is also a volunteer counselor for the Cult Information
Service, which offers counseling and educational resources for those who have had
involvement with cults.
This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 2000, Volume 17,
pages 42-55. 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, Volume 17, 2000, Page 41
Brainwashing and Re-Indoctrination Programs in the
Children of God/The Family
Stephen A. Kent
Deana Hall
Department of Sociology
University of Alberta
Abstract
Most contemporary debates about the applicability of ―brainwashing‖ as a
social scientific concept involve arguments over what (if any) utility it has
when discussing conversion to some high-demand, alternative religions.
Some sociologists of religion use the term ―brainwashing‖ to apply to
extreme social influences. Others restrict use of the term to situations
involving forcible confinement and physical coercion, presumably amidst a
group-indoctrination process. Since few such conversion situations exist,
these sociologists avoid utilizing brainwashing within social scientific
discourse. What they have overlooked, however, is the conceptual utility of
the brainwashing concept, even with their restrictive definition, for analyzing
some groups‘ efforts at retaining or reconverting members. This study
examines an example of a brainwashing programthe camps and programs
that the Children of God\The Family developed for its teen members. These
programs included intense re-education programs in the context of physical,
psychological, and socio-emotional punishments, often in confined or
guarded camps. As a social scientific concept, ―brainwashing‖ has
explanatory usefulness for understanding The Family‘s harsh efforts to
increase the intensity of teens‘ commitment to the organization and to foster
compliance to leadership.
Central to the lives of preteen and teenage members of The Family (formerly the Children of
God [COG]) in the late 1980s was their involvement in organizationally run teen training
and re-indoctrination camps and programs in various parts of the world. Hundreds of young
people passed through programs that operated in Brazil, Denmark, England, Italy, Japan,
Macao, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Scotland, Switzerland, Thailand, South America,
and probably other locations (for a partial list, see Ward, 1995: 135, 167). Some of these
young people remained in these programs for years. It is not possible either to establish
exact numbers of young people who went through them or to know what was the average
length of time that they stayed in them. Likewise, thus far it has proven impossible to
obtain detailed information about the imposition of these programs on adults (see
COUNTERCOG, n.d.). Nevertheless, we are able to identify many of the activities that
routinely occurred as part of the re-indoctrination processes that young detainees
experienced in different programs around the world.
COG leadership started these programs and camps in an attempt to heighten commitment
to founder, David Berg, and his directives among the children of the initial converts (often
called ‗the second generation‘). By operating these programs, The Family was attempting to
address the classic problem that confronts sects, which involves the cultivation of
commitment and devotion among a second generation born to parents who are members
already. By the early 1980s it seems that a number of teens in The Family were having
grave doubts about following in their parents‘ footsteps, even as others considered
themselves committed adherents to Berg‘s instructions. Teen camps and programs,
therefore, were attempts to instill a deep commitment among young people whose faith