by Janja Lalich | Sep 14, 2016 | Cults: The Basics, Essays
Cultic Techniques for Changing Someone In present-day thought-reform programs, there is an attack on the core self, the person’s central self-image. Attacking the inner person, the self, makes the person feel defective at his or her very core. In groups that use...
by Janja Lalich | Sep 14, 2016 | Cults: The Basics, Essays
Eight Psychological Criteria for a Thought-Reform System This list is based on the work of Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., author of Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism (W.W. Norton, 1961). MILIEU CONTROL: The group controls all communication and information, which...
by Janja Lalich | Sep 14, 2016 | Cults: The Basics, Essays
How Cults Manipulate a Person’s Thinking and Behavior Many people who have been subjected to psychological manipulation and control selectively deny aspects of their experience. Some become angry and resistant at the mention of mind control, thought reform, or...
by Janja Lalich | Sep 14, 2016 | Cults: The Basics, Essays
Definition of “Cult”: A cult can be either a sharply-bounded social group or a diffusely-bounded social movement held together through shared commitment to a charismatic leader. It upholds a transcendent belief system (often but not always religious in...
