8 ICSA TODAY
Sometimes, I may be induced to feel what any therapist
might feel. For example, if clients are reporting in a
detached manner on a hurtful life event, I might begin
to feel the sadness or anger that they have defended
themselves against. Cautiously, when the time seems
right, I might suggest that, even though my clients need
to protect themselves from the pain of this experience, a
part of them might want me to experience it. In this way,
I can help clients understand how they might defend
against their painful emotions by projecting those
feelings into others.
In recent years, more information has become available
about trauma and dissociation, and this has been helpful
to my work. Members of cultic groups often have learned
to dissociate—that is, disconnect. It is the therapist’s
role to serve as a bridge to those dissociated feelings,
sometimes in response to a client’s manner of talking and
sometimes in response to somatic behavior, such as the
display of a distant look.
Sometimes, the dissociative response is an aftereffect
of the hypnotic techniques the cult used. However,
especially for those who have
dealt with cultic or childhood
abuse, I believe that we can
understand the dissociative
response as a way of protecting
themselves in the face of trauma.
It is helpful for the therapist
to identify and delineate each
of these types of dissociative
responses. The therapist can play
a crucial role in recognizing the client’s disorientation,
confirming the significance of an experience that the
client has dissociated or devalued.
Some former cult members often wonder whether
their personal experience deserves so much attention,
whether it happened as they remember it. This
questioning can serve as a defensive function, keeping
the pain of their experience at bay, continuing to
foster the dissociation. The questioning also might
be an aftereffect of cultic pressure to deny their true
feelings. Without validation, these individuals frequently
experience confusion and doubt about the significance
of the experience. One example of the value of validation
is when it allows a former cult member to acknowledge
that for her to receive “wisdom” or “the knowledge seed”
through the cult leader’s ejaculation of sperm actually
was sexual abuse.
Without acknowledgment, the client runs the risk of
playing out undermining or painful experiences again
and again. Freud defined this pattern as the repetition
compulsion.3 That is, if we can’t acknowledge powerful
experiences in our lives, we tend to repeat them with
new participants, and thus we might be undermining
our present relationships. The psychoanalytic therapist
is working to bring all these aspects into the room with
the patient, where she can think about, understand, and
work through them.
What I Learned From Former Cult Members
When we began a support group for former cult members,
Bill and I learned about the loneliness and sense of loss
and alienation many individuals experience after they
leave the intense cult-group experience. We learned how
relieving and comforting it was to finally find an accepting
community who shared aspects of their unique experience
and understood how this had changed them. However,
while there were commonalities, the group also became a
place where diverse opinions were welcome and people
were free to come and go. Sitting with former cult members
each month gave us tremendous insight into the numerous
ways in which they need to make
adjustments to postcult life. We also
learned how to be most helpful to
former members by listening to the
wisdom former members offer to one
another.
In the early years, I discovered
that mental-health professionals
frequently failed to show empathy
for cult members. Although today there is more awareness
of cult dynamics and an appreciation of trauma’s powerful
impact on personality at any stage of life, these concepts
were not as available 40 years ago. Both the public at large
and most mental-health professionals tended to blame the
victim, viewing former cultists as emotionally disturbed.
This view was based upon cult members’ strange behaviors
or strange notions, their dissociative reactions, or the wide
array of emotional difficulties that they struggled with when
they came into clinicians’ offices after they had left the cult.
It would be many years before we began to understand
that former cultists could be suffering from a wide variety
of aftereffects, sometimes including symptoms related
to post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, we had no
understanding that, as part of the mind-control process,
they were induced to believe their cult leader’s bizarre ideas,
and that they would continue to carry most of those ideas
with them when they left. As Steve Hassan has pointed out,
former cult members likely were dealing with numerous
fears after the phobia induction from the cult.4 That is, they
believed both the cult leader’s message that they would
I learned that, for
clients to grow, they
needed to rescue
themselves.
Sometimes, I may be induced to feel what any therapist
might feel. For example, if clients are reporting in a
detached manner on a hurtful life event, I might begin
to feel the sadness or anger that they have defended
themselves against. Cautiously, when the time seems
right, I might suggest that, even though my clients need
to protect themselves from the pain of this experience, a
part of them might want me to experience it. In this way,
I can help clients understand how they might defend
against their painful emotions by projecting those
feelings into others.
In recent years, more information has become available
about trauma and dissociation, and this has been helpful
to my work. Members of cultic groups often have learned
to dissociate—that is, disconnect. It is the therapist’s
role to serve as a bridge to those dissociated feelings,
sometimes in response to a client’s manner of talking and
sometimes in response to somatic behavior, such as the
display of a distant look.
Sometimes, the dissociative response is an aftereffect
of the hypnotic techniques the cult used. However,
especially for those who have
dealt with cultic or childhood
abuse, I believe that we can
understand the dissociative
response as a way of protecting
themselves in the face of trauma.
It is helpful for the therapist
to identify and delineate each
of these types of dissociative
responses. The therapist can play
a crucial role in recognizing the client’s disorientation,
confirming the significance of an experience that the
client has dissociated or devalued.
Some former cult members often wonder whether
their personal experience deserves so much attention,
whether it happened as they remember it. This
questioning can serve as a defensive function, keeping
the pain of their experience at bay, continuing to
foster the dissociation. The questioning also might
be an aftereffect of cultic pressure to deny their true
feelings. Without validation, these individuals frequently
experience confusion and doubt about the significance
of the experience. One example of the value of validation
is when it allows a former cult member to acknowledge
that for her to receive “wisdom” or “the knowledge seed”
through the cult leader’s ejaculation of sperm actually
was sexual abuse.
Without acknowledgment, the client runs the risk of
playing out undermining or painful experiences again
and again. Freud defined this pattern as the repetition
compulsion.3 That is, if we can’t acknowledge powerful
experiences in our lives, we tend to repeat them with
new participants, and thus we might be undermining
our present relationships. The psychoanalytic therapist
is working to bring all these aspects into the room with
the patient, where she can think about, understand, and
work through them.
What I Learned From Former Cult Members
When we began a support group for former cult members,
Bill and I learned about the loneliness and sense of loss
and alienation many individuals experience after they
leave the intense cult-group experience. We learned how
relieving and comforting it was to finally find an accepting
community who shared aspects of their unique experience
and understood how this had changed them. However,
while there were commonalities, the group also became a
place where diverse opinions were welcome and people
were free to come and go. Sitting with former cult members
each month gave us tremendous insight into the numerous
ways in which they need to make
adjustments to postcult life. We also
learned how to be most helpful to
former members by listening to the
wisdom former members offer to one
another.
In the early years, I discovered
that mental-health professionals
frequently failed to show empathy
for cult members. Although today there is more awareness
of cult dynamics and an appreciation of trauma’s powerful
impact on personality at any stage of life, these concepts
were not as available 40 years ago. Both the public at large
and most mental-health professionals tended to blame the
victim, viewing former cultists as emotionally disturbed.
This view was based upon cult members’ strange behaviors
or strange notions, their dissociative reactions, or the wide
array of emotional difficulties that they struggled with when
they came into clinicians’ offices after they had left the cult.
It would be many years before we began to understand
that former cultists could be suffering from a wide variety
of aftereffects, sometimes including symptoms related
to post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, we had no
understanding that, as part of the mind-control process,
they were induced to believe their cult leader’s bizarre ideas,
and that they would continue to carry most of those ideas
with them when they left. As Steve Hassan has pointed out,
former cult members likely were dealing with numerous
fears after the phobia induction from the cult.4 That is, they
believed both the cult leader’s message that they would
I learned that, for
clients to grow, they
needed to rescue
themselves.
