14 ICSA TODAY
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss some useful
mediation methodologies to settle conflicts among religious/
spiritual groups, families, and society. This paper draws on nearly
eighteen years of experience in this field and gives an overall
evaluation of my experience in attempting to mediate among
both conflicting groups and individuals.
First I will share some of my experience with the mediation
process in three different contexts. Second, I will speak about
studies by the scholars Kelman, Burton, and Doob, whose
work has dealt with conflict-resolution theory, controlled
communication, and face-to-face communication. Finally, I will
comment about whether these studies can be applied to the
context of a cult-related conflict in which parents and children,
members and former members, and religious movements and
groups that support victims (or groups that are critical of cults)
are involved.
My Experience
I started to work as a volunteer with a Catholic association
in 1993. From 2000 to the present, I have been involved in a
support and counseling center in Rome, Italy, the Counseling
Online Center (dimarzio.it), for those troubled directly or
indirectly by experiences associated with new religious
movements (NRMs) or cults.1
At the beginning of this process, I received requests for
information and help only from families, members of religious
groups, former members going through a crisis, or journalists
and law-enforcement authorities. Over time, I began to receive
requests for information and help from people affiliated with
religious and spiritual movements when these people became
the target of attacks from various sources.
Role Played by Groups That Support Victims
In Italy, many volunteers driven by altruism and a sincere wish
to help others keep cult-victim support associations alive. The
volunteers’ role is to reassure people, to offer help to those who
are recovering, and to help former members reestablish social
relationships.
However, the effectiveness of these organizations is often limited
by methodological errors. I wish to elucidate those errors to
improve the level of care these volunteer organizations can
provide. The errors are
• unreliability of data concerning the extent of the cult
phenomenon
• inadequate volunteer training
• oversimplification
• use of unilateral sources and
• brainwashing of the “brainwashed.”
The length of this paper does not allow a thorough discussion
of each mistake, so I will address the one I think is the most
important: oversimplification.
Oversimplification
Oversimplification means simplifying something so much
that the result is a distorted impression. An example is when
professionals do not deal with the problem of the individual and
his family in the complex context of the individual’s personality
and family dynamics. Instead, they extrapolate the situation and
deal with it as if it were a problem of its own, as if it is possible
to understand the person’s entry into or departure from the so-
called cult without taking into account the person as a whole
and his interpersonal relationships. With such oversimplification,
no one attempts to understand what may have failed to work in
the groups of reference for that individual before his affiliation
with a cultic group, or what it was that he may not have found
in his family or in the church he belonged to that may have
encouraged him to seek fulfillment elsewhere.
Oversimplification also overlooks the fact that situations
and conflicts may have different and overlapping causes.
For example, it is unlikely that a relationship problem can be
Based on a paper presented at the CESNUR 2012 International Conference in El Jadida, Morocco, September 20–22.
by Raffaella Di Marzio
Mediating to Settle
Conflicts in Cultic Groups:
Some Useful Methodologies
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss some useful
mediation methodologies to settle conflicts among religious/
spiritual groups, families, and society. This paper draws on nearly
eighteen years of experience in this field and gives an overall
evaluation of my experience in attempting to mediate among
both conflicting groups and individuals.
First I will share some of my experience with the mediation
process in three different contexts. Second, I will speak about
studies by the scholars Kelman, Burton, and Doob, whose
work has dealt with conflict-resolution theory, controlled
communication, and face-to-face communication. Finally, I will
comment about whether these studies can be applied to the
context of a cult-related conflict in which parents and children,
members and former members, and religious movements and
groups that support victims (or groups that are critical of cults)
are involved.
My Experience
I started to work as a volunteer with a Catholic association
in 1993. From 2000 to the present, I have been involved in a
support and counseling center in Rome, Italy, the Counseling
Online Center (dimarzio.it), for those troubled directly or
indirectly by experiences associated with new religious
movements (NRMs) or cults.1
At the beginning of this process, I received requests for
information and help only from families, members of religious
groups, former members going through a crisis, or journalists
and law-enforcement authorities. Over time, I began to receive
requests for information and help from people affiliated with
religious and spiritual movements when these people became
the target of attacks from various sources.
Role Played by Groups That Support Victims
In Italy, many volunteers driven by altruism and a sincere wish
to help others keep cult-victim support associations alive. The
volunteers’ role is to reassure people, to offer help to those who
are recovering, and to help former members reestablish social
relationships.
However, the effectiveness of these organizations is often limited
by methodological errors. I wish to elucidate those errors to
improve the level of care these volunteer organizations can
provide. The errors are
• unreliability of data concerning the extent of the cult
phenomenon
• inadequate volunteer training
• oversimplification
• use of unilateral sources and
• brainwashing of the “brainwashed.”
The length of this paper does not allow a thorough discussion
of each mistake, so I will address the one I think is the most
important: oversimplification.
Oversimplification
Oversimplification means simplifying something so much
that the result is a distorted impression. An example is when
professionals do not deal with the problem of the individual and
his family in the complex context of the individual’s personality
and family dynamics. Instead, they extrapolate the situation and
deal with it as if it were a problem of its own, as if it is possible
to understand the person’s entry into or departure from the so-
called cult without taking into account the person as a whole
and his interpersonal relationships. With such oversimplification,
no one attempts to understand what may have failed to work in
the groups of reference for that individual before his affiliation
with a cultic group, or what it was that he may not have found
in his family or in the church he belonged to that may have
encouraged him to seek fulfillment elsewhere.
Oversimplification also overlooks the fact that situations
and conflicts may have different and overlapping causes.
For example, it is unlikely that a relationship problem can be
Based on a paper presented at the CESNUR 2012 International Conference in El Jadida, Morocco, September 20–22.
by Raffaella Di Marzio
Mediating to Settle
Conflicts in Cultic Groups:
Some Useful Methodologies
