Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 18, 2001, Page 146
dialogue rationally with an irrational individual inevitably lead to frustration, an impasse,
and a string of unanswered ―why‘s.‖ Unfortunately, Waco was no exception.
The book concludes as it begins. Why Waco?
Maxine Pinson
Publisher/editor/freelance writer
Graduate Student, Union Theological Seminary/PSCE
Richmond, VA
Destroying the World to Save It. Robert Jay Lifton, M.D. Metropolitan Books,
New York, 374 pp. $26.00
The title of this, Robert Jay Lifton‘s latest book, will seem somewhat familiar since it recalls
the upside down logic that was used to bomb some villages during the war in Vietnam. Here
the title aptly captures the motivation of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that spread poisonous sarin
gas in the Tokyo subways in 1995.
Lifton who at the time of writing was a psychiatrist on the faculty of John Jay College in New
York (he has since moved to Harvard), has authored sixteen other books in his field and is
frequently called upon by the media as an expert capable of offering insights whenever
some new cultic tragedy makes the news. One of his early works, Thought Reform and the
Psychology of Totalism, became in the 1960‘s a basic book for comprehending the
techniques for the manipulation of minds, whether on the level of Stalin and Mao Tse Tung
or on the level of the local guru who is exploiting people susceptible to religious or
psychological persuasion.
Another of Lifton‘s best sellers is The Nazi Doctors, in which he investigated the
methodology that successfully gained the collaboration of so many German doctors, who
served Hitler‘s purposes in the internment camps during World War II.
Lifton long ago disciplined himself to be a good listener. With his objective approach to both
victims and perpetrators in cults like Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth) he is able to
gather many facts which can throw light on what appears simply absurd. All of his works
manifest a remarkable consistency along with a progressive deepening of understanding. In
Thought Reform he made clear that the emotional scope and power of ―brainwashing‖ is
achieved by a combination of external force or psychological coercion with an appeal to
inner enthusiasm through evangelistic exhortation. This results in a penetration of the inner
emotions of the individual person so that one‘s identity is undermined. In the Nazi doctors
he used the word ―doubling‖ to account for the fact that so many in the medical profession
who at home were good husbands and fathers could at work assign some prisoners to work
details and others to gas chambers. ―In doubling one part of the self disavows another
part… The requirements of conscience were transferred to the Auschwitz self which placed it
within its own criteria for good.‖
In March of 1995, there was shocking news from Tokyo. The nerve gas, sarin, had been
released in the subway system at five different points simultaneously during the morning
rush hour. The perpetrators, it was quickly established, were members of the Aum Shinrikyo
cult and ―they understood themselves to be acting on behalf of their guru, Shoko Asahara,
and his vast plan for human salvation.
Lifton reports:
Aum is about death in the nuclear age, about a distorted passion for survival,
and about an ever more desperate quest for immortality. It is also about
despising the world so much that one feels impelled to destroy it. In these
dialogue rationally with an irrational individual inevitably lead to frustration, an impasse,
and a string of unanswered ―why‘s.‖ Unfortunately, Waco was no exception.
The book concludes as it begins. Why Waco?
Maxine Pinson
Publisher/editor/freelance writer
Graduate Student, Union Theological Seminary/PSCE
Richmond, VA
Destroying the World to Save It. Robert Jay Lifton, M.D. Metropolitan Books,
New York, 374 pp. $26.00
The title of this, Robert Jay Lifton‘s latest book, will seem somewhat familiar since it recalls
the upside down logic that was used to bomb some villages during the war in Vietnam. Here
the title aptly captures the motivation of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that spread poisonous sarin
gas in the Tokyo subways in 1995.
Lifton who at the time of writing was a psychiatrist on the faculty of John Jay College in New
York (he has since moved to Harvard), has authored sixteen other books in his field and is
frequently called upon by the media as an expert capable of offering insights whenever
some new cultic tragedy makes the news. One of his early works, Thought Reform and the
Psychology of Totalism, became in the 1960‘s a basic book for comprehending the
techniques for the manipulation of minds, whether on the level of Stalin and Mao Tse Tung
or on the level of the local guru who is exploiting people susceptible to religious or
psychological persuasion.
Another of Lifton‘s best sellers is The Nazi Doctors, in which he investigated the
methodology that successfully gained the collaboration of so many German doctors, who
served Hitler‘s purposes in the internment camps during World War II.
Lifton long ago disciplined himself to be a good listener. With his objective approach to both
victims and perpetrators in cults like Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth) he is able to
gather many facts which can throw light on what appears simply absurd. All of his works
manifest a remarkable consistency along with a progressive deepening of understanding. In
Thought Reform he made clear that the emotional scope and power of ―brainwashing‖ is
achieved by a combination of external force or psychological coercion with an appeal to
inner enthusiasm through evangelistic exhortation. This results in a penetration of the inner
emotions of the individual person so that one‘s identity is undermined. In the Nazi doctors
he used the word ―doubling‖ to account for the fact that so many in the medical profession
who at home were good husbands and fathers could at work assign some prisoners to work
details and others to gas chambers. ―In doubling one part of the self disavows another
part… The requirements of conscience were transferred to the Auschwitz self which placed it
within its own criteria for good.‖
In March of 1995, there was shocking news from Tokyo. The nerve gas, sarin, had been
released in the subway system at five different points simultaneously during the morning
rush hour. The perpetrators, it was quickly established, were members of the Aum Shinrikyo
cult and ―they understood themselves to be acting on behalf of their guru, Shoko Asahara,
and his vast plan for human salvation.
Lifton reports:
Aum is about death in the nuclear age, about a distorted passion for survival,
and about an ever more desperate quest for immortality. It is also about
despising the world so much that one feels impelled to destroy it. In these
