From a TA perspective, each person is in charge of his/her own thoughts, feelings, and actions, yet a substantial body of evidence suggests that victims can be processed without their knowledge by the systematic manipulation of social psychological influence in controlled setting (brainwashing). This has implications for us as behavioral change technicians, as citizens, and as human beings. This author discusses those implications from the standpoint both of TA theory and of current data concerning how people get caught up in cults.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and statistic manual of mental disorders (third edition), Washington, D.C., 1980.
2.
AndersonS.M., & ZimbardoP.G., Resisting mind control, USA today, Psychology Department, Nov. 1980.
3.
BatesonG., JacksonD.D., HaleyJ., & WeaklandJ.H.Toward a theory of schizophrenia. Behavioral Science, 1956, 1 (4) 251–64.
4.
BerneE.Sex in human loving. New York: Pocket Books, 1971, 182–6.
5.
ClarkJ.G.Jr., LangoneM.D., SchechterR.E., & DalyR.C.B., Destructive cult conversion: Theory, research, and treatment, 1981. American Family Foundation Center on Destructive Cultism, P.O. Box 336, Weston, MA 01293.
6.
ConwayF. & SieglemanJ.Information disease: Have cults created a new mental illness?Science Digest, Jan. 1982.
7.
EnglishF.Talk on receiving the Eric Berne memorial scientific award for the concept of rackets as substitute feelings. Transactional Analysis Journal, 1979, 9 (2), 90–97.
8.
HunterE.Brainwashing. New York: Pyramid Books, 1958.
9.
LaingR.D.The politics of the family and other essays. New York: Vintage Books, 1972.
10.
OttenbergD.J., Therapeutic community and the danger of a cult phenomenon, in Cults and the family, & SussmanM.D., (Eds.) New York: The Haworth Press, 1982, 151–173.
11.
RudinA.J., & RudinM.R.Prison or paradise? The new religious cults. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980.
12.
SklarD.Gods, beasts, and nazis, and the occult. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1977.
13.
ZerinM.F., The pied piper phenomenon: Family systems and vulnerability to cults. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Santa Barbara: The Fielding Institue, 1982.