10 ICSA TODAY
About the Author
Greg Jemsek, MA,
is a narrative therapist, author, educator, and group facilitator. His work in three
different countries over the course of the past 38 years includes the publication
of Quiet Horizon: Releasing Ideology and Embracing Self-Knowledge, an award-
winning book using Greg’s own involvement working at world headquarters in
a 1970’s cult as the foundation for deconstructing psychological, narrative, and
transpersonal dimensions of the cult experience. greg@quiethorizon.com ■
Notes
[1] Narrative therapy is a postmodern therapy that
originated in New Zealand and Australia, initially
through the efforts of David Epston and Michael
White.
[2] My experiences in the Ananda Marga cult in the
mid-1970s are detailed in my book Quiet Horizon:
Releasing Ideology and Embracing Self-Knowledge.
[3] Robert Jay Lifton’s (p. 419–437) concepts of milieu
control, doctrine over person, and language loading
explain in detail the way stories—and information
generally—are distorted for maximum persuasive
power in totalitarian environments.
[4] Leon Festinger, who first coined the term cognitive
dissonance, described it this way: “The holding of
two or more inconsistent cognitions arouses a state
of cognitive dissonance, which is experienced as
uncomfortable tension. This tension has drive-like
qualities and must be reduced.”
[5] Psychiatrist Chris Nowakowski points out that
strong emotional investments guide behavior more
powerfully than weak ones.
[6] When a scientist employs the experimental method,
he begins by proposing a hypothesis that seeks to
explain why something behaves as it does. A
hypothesis is nothing other than a story. It’s a story
in which the ending is predicted based on past
observations combined with reasoning. What
differentiates a hypothesis from the stories told in
cults, however, is the willingness of the scientist to
have his story change if experiments yield data
indicating that his hypothesis is incorrect. A good
scientist is a good storyteller he’s just not a
dogmatic storyteller. He utilizes rather than
abandons his critical thinking, experiments, puts
together a story about how things work, presents
his findings, and then exposes those findings to the
viewpoints of others.
[7] There are many good starting points to learn more
about the relationship between power and story:
American anthropologists Clifford Gertz, Barbara
Myerhoff, and Victor Turner psychologists Jerome
Bruner and Ken Gergen French philosopher Michel
Foucault and Australian narrative therapist Michael
White.
[8] For those interested in film, Kurosawa’s Rashomon
illustrates this point beautifully.
[9] White, 1988.
[10] Lerner/Tetlock, 2003.
[11] This is problematic for many SGAs (second-
generation adults born into a cult) because their
early efforts at self-discovery are more likely to be
filtered by their parents through the cult’s
ideological prism.
References
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Erickson, E. (1950). Childhood and society. New York,
NY: W.W. Norton.
Foucault, M. (1983). The subject and power. In H.
Dreyfus and P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault:
Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics (2nd ed., pp.
208–228). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Foucault, M. (1997). The politics of truth. (S.
Lotringer, Ed.).Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures.
New York, NY: Basic Books.
Gergen, K. (2009). Relational being: Beyond self and
community. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Lifton, Robert J. (1989). Thought reform and the
psychology of totalism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of
North Carolina Press.
Hotchkiss, Sandra (2002). Why is it always about
you? New York, NY: Free Press.
Jemsek, G. (2011). Quiet horizon: Releasing ideology
and embracing self-knowledge. Bloomington, IN:
Trafford Press.
Lerner, J. S., &Tetlock, P. E. (2003). Bridging
individual, interpersonal, and institutional approaches
to judgment and decision making: The impact of
accountability on cognitive bias. In S. L. Schneider
and J. Shanteau (Eds.), Emerging perspectives on
judgment and decision research (pp. 431–57).
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Levine, S. (1979). The role of psychiatry in the
phenomenon of cults. Canadian Journal of
Psychiatry, 24(7), 593–603.
Myerhoff, B. (1992). Remembered lives: The work of
ritual, storytelling, and growing older (M. Kaminsky,
Ed.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Nowakowski, C. (2012). The dynamics of belief.
Slideshow presented at the ICSA conference in
Montreal, Canada.
Turner, V. (1980). Social dramas and stories about
them. In W. J. T. Mitchell (Ed.), On narrative (pp.
137–164). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Watson, P. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate
hypothesis in a conceptual task. Quarterly Journal
of Experimental Psychology, 12, 129–40.
White, M. (1988). Selected papers. Adelaide, South
Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
White, M., &Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to
therapeutic ends. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
knowledge. If that impulse can be
reclaimed after he departs a cult, it
provides a connecting thread for the
leave-taker between various chapters
of his life.
Creating circumstances in which a
person who has left a cult can now
freely explore the stories that have
shaped his life in ways that support
his agency in directing where that life
will go in the future remains at the
core of this task. There are no
shortcuts to learning how to discover
identity, particularly when you’ve had
it handed to you with faulty
reassurances over an extended period
of time. It is always a task
characterized by fits and starts, with
the person occasionally securing bits
of self-knowledge through trial, error,
and feedback and maybe glimpsing
worlds bigger than the personality,
which, if he can manage it, can be
integrated on his own and in
nonmanipulative relationships in
which respectful contact is the norm.
There is, of course, no final version of
anyone’s stories. That is what makes
life so interesting. Anyone who has
been in a cult and then found a way
to leave it is still capable of shaping
his life story himself, and of
continuing to do so throughout the
course of his life. He doesn’t have to
turn to outside authorities to
accomplish this, although this may
not be clear at first. He can instead
seek out and find people who don’t
have ulterior motives, and whose
concern for him opens up the space
needed for him to explore
possibilities. This takes time, but it
also takes discrimination—about the
audience, and about how a person
spends his time after his leave-taking.
If he can find ways to undertake this
task using the guidelines mentioned
in this paper, he may be surprised at
the new chapters he can write in his
postcult life. ■
About the Author
Greg Jemsek, MA,
is a narrative therapist, author, educator, and group facilitator. His work in three
different countries over the course of the past 38 years includes the publication
of Quiet Horizon: Releasing Ideology and Embracing Self-Knowledge, an award-
winning book using Greg’s own involvement working at world headquarters in
a 1970’s cult as the foundation for deconstructing psychological, narrative, and
transpersonal dimensions of the cult experience. greg@quiethorizon.com ■
Notes
[1] Narrative therapy is a postmodern therapy that
originated in New Zealand and Australia, initially
through the efforts of David Epston and Michael
White.
[2] My experiences in the Ananda Marga cult in the
mid-1970s are detailed in my book Quiet Horizon:
Releasing Ideology and Embracing Self-Knowledge.
[3] Robert Jay Lifton’s (p. 419–437) concepts of milieu
control, doctrine over person, and language loading
explain in detail the way stories—and information
generally—are distorted for maximum persuasive
power in totalitarian environments.
[4] Leon Festinger, who first coined the term cognitive
dissonance, described it this way: “The holding of
two or more inconsistent cognitions arouses a state
of cognitive dissonance, which is experienced as
uncomfortable tension. This tension has drive-like
qualities and must be reduced.”
[5] Psychiatrist Chris Nowakowski points out that
strong emotional investments guide behavior more
powerfully than weak ones.
[6] When a scientist employs the experimental method,
he begins by proposing a hypothesis that seeks to
explain why something behaves as it does. A
hypothesis is nothing other than a story. It’s a story
in which the ending is predicted based on past
observations combined with reasoning. What
differentiates a hypothesis from the stories told in
cults, however, is the willingness of the scientist to
have his story change if experiments yield data
indicating that his hypothesis is incorrect. A good
scientist is a good storyteller he’s just not a
dogmatic storyteller. He utilizes rather than
abandons his critical thinking, experiments, puts
together a story about how things work, presents
his findings, and then exposes those findings to the
viewpoints of others.
[7] There are many good starting points to learn more
about the relationship between power and story:
American anthropologists Clifford Gertz, Barbara
Myerhoff, and Victor Turner psychologists Jerome
Bruner and Ken Gergen French philosopher Michel
Foucault and Australian narrative therapist Michael
White.
[8] For those interested in film, Kurosawa’s Rashomon
illustrates this point beautifully.
[9] White, 1988.
[10] Lerner/Tetlock, 2003.
[11] This is problematic for many SGAs (second-
generation adults born into a cult) because their
early efforts at self-discovery are more likely to be
filtered by their parents through the cult’s
ideological prism.
References
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Erickson, E. (1950). Childhood and society. New York,
NY: W.W. Norton.
Foucault, M. (1983). The subject and power. In H.
Dreyfus and P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault:
Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics (2nd ed., pp.
208–228). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Foucault, M. (1997). The politics of truth. (S.
Lotringer, Ed.).Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures.
New York, NY: Basic Books.
Gergen, K. (2009). Relational being: Beyond self and
community. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Lifton, Robert J. (1989). Thought reform and the
psychology of totalism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of
North Carolina Press.
Hotchkiss, Sandra (2002). Why is it always about
you? New York, NY: Free Press.
Jemsek, G. (2011). Quiet horizon: Releasing ideology
and embracing self-knowledge. Bloomington, IN:
Trafford Press.
Lerner, J. S., &Tetlock, P. E. (2003). Bridging
individual, interpersonal, and institutional approaches
to judgment and decision making: The impact of
accountability on cognitive bias. In S. L. Schneider
and J. Shanteau (Eds.), Emerging perspectives on
judgment and decision research (pp. 431–57).
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Levine, S. (1979). The role of psychiatry in the
phenomenon of cults. Canadian Journal of
Psychiatry, 24(7), 593–603.
Myerhoff, B. (1992). Remembered lives: The work of
ritual, storytelling, and growing older (M. Kaminsky,
Ed.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Nowakowski, C. (2012). The dynamics of belief.
Slideshow presented at the ICSA conference in
Montreal, Canada.
Turner, V. (1980). Social dramas and stories about
them. In W. J. T. Mitchell (Ed.), On narrative (pp.
137–164). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Watson, P. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate
hypothesis in a conceptual task. Quarterly Journal
of Experimental Psychology, 12, 129–40.
White, M. (1988). Selected papers. Adelaide, South
Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications.
White, M., &Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to
therapeutic ends. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
knowledge. If that impulse can be
reclaimed after he departs a cult, it
provides a connecting thread for the
leave-taker between various chapters
of his life.
Creating circumstances in which a
person who has left a cult can now
freely explore the stories that have
shaped his life in ways that support
his agency in directing where that life
will go in the future remains at the
core of this task. There are no
shortcuts to learning how to discover
identity, particularly when you’ve had
it handed to you with faulty
reassurances over an extended period
of time. It is always a task
characterized by fits and starts, with
the person occasionally securing bits
of self-knowledge through trial, error,
and feedback and maybe glimpsing
worlds bigger than the personality,
which, if he can manage it, can be
integrated on his own and in
nonmanipulative relationships in
which respectful contact is the norm.
There is, of course, no final version of
anyone’s stories. That is what makes
life so interesting. Anyone who has
been in a cult and then found a way
to leave it is still capable of shaping
his life story himself, and of
continuing to do so throughout the
course of his life. He doesn’t have to
turn to outside authorities to
accomplish this, although this may
not be clear at first. He can instead
seek out and find people who don’t
have ulterior motives, and whose
concern for him opens up the space
needed for him to explore
possibilities. This takes time, but it
also takes discrimination—about the
audience, and about how a person
spends his time after his leave-taking.
If he can find ways to undertake this
task using the guidelines mentioned
in this paper, he may be surprised at
the new chapters he can write in his
postcult life. ■
