VOLUME 2 |NUMBER 1 |2011 3 2 ICSA TODAY
The Impact of a
Modern-Day
Polygamy
Group on
Women
and
Children
by
Larry Beall, Ph.D.
T
he professional literature on mod-
ern-day polygamy is in its early stages.
This paper is the outgrowth of my work
as a psychologist/clinician with former
members of a specific polygamous
group termed the Fundamentalist Latter
Day Saints (FLDS). To my knowledge,
there is no other report of clinical find-
ings with former members of the FLDS
available in the professional research.
For that reason, I cannot make refer-
ences to other practitioners who have
researched the subject based on clinical
information. The information presented
here represents information furnished to
me in a therapeutic setting by mothers
and their children who fled the FLDS
community it summarizes some of the
characteristics of the FLDS religious
community. Specifically, I derived the
information in this paper from 21 sur-
vivors who fled the FLDS community: 6
mothers (ages 17, 27, 27, 29, 33, 42) and
their children, and 15 “lost boys,” young
men between the ages of 16 and early
20s who had to leave the community.
ICSA_volume3_proof6 5/10/11 12:14 PM Page 4
The Impact of a
Modern-Day
Polygamy
Group on
Women
and
Children
by
Larry Beall, Ph.D.
T
he professional literature on mod-
ern-day polygamy is in its early stages.
This paper is the outgrowth of my work
as a psychologist/clinician with former
members of a specific polygamous
group termed the Fundamentalist Latter
Day Saints (FLDS). To my knowledge,
there is no other report of clinical find-
ings with former members of the FLDS
available in the professional research.
For that reason, I cannot make refer-
ences to other practitioners who have
researched the subject based on clinical
information. The information presented
here represents information furnished to
me in a therapeutic setting by mothers
and their children who fled the FLDS
community it summarizes some of the
characteristics of the FLDS religious
community. Specifically, I derived the
information in this paper from 21 sur-
vivors who fled the FLDS community: 6
mothers (ages 17, 27, 27, 29, 33, 42) and
their children, and 15 “lost boys,” young
men between the ages of 16 and early
20s who had to leave the community.
ICSA_volume3_proof6 5/10/11 12:14 PM Page 4
