Saturday, February 28, 2004

More on Nader's cult allies

Also via the Orcinus link mentioned in the last post, I read this excellent description by a therapist who described the Newman cult's efforts to recruit her.

It's unusually good in a number of ways. It gives an excellent description of a particularly sophisticated cult recruiting technique. It's a good reminder that cults today recruit not only spaced-out college students. It shows the cult's "niche marketing" technique, that succeeds in recruiting even people well-trained in psychological techniques. It's a reminder that cults are not necessarily religious at all; this particular cult is a political cult that also uses psychology and theater to recruit members. And it shows how cults have a particular focus on recruiting - and they're good at it.

The whole piece is well worth reading. This paragraph is a good sample (my emphasis):

Anyone who is seriously working with these people or doing therapy with them should read the materials available on the web, read about other similar groups on various cult web sites, and get a second opinion.  If something happening with your therapist doesn't feel right, then it probably isn't.  What I learned from this, as a smart, critical adult woman, however, is that anyone can be duped.  If you find an instant community, with wonderful new friends who care about you, and "speak the same language," take a second look at who you are dealing with.  Friends and community take time to build, and anyone who thinks they have the "right way" may not be quite so pleasing once they have your heart and soul.

She uses the psychological theories of Robert Jay Lifton in her explanation, and she mentions him by name.

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