Psychoanalysts discuss 'Life after a Cult': radio programme

Two psychoanalysts, specialist in cult recovery, discuss "Life after a Cult", a radio programme. Lorna Goldberg and her partner William are clinical social workers who started one of the first support groups for cult members and their friends and family.

A cult is an organization which has a leader who claims to have special knowledge, or unique view of the world, which caused rapid changes in individuals behaviour.

Lorna highlights the amount of deception and secrecy involved in such groups and points out most people don't know what they are getting into and the struggles adherents experience during their time with the cult and how they push their doubts away using the techniques of the cults. Especially relating to children growing up in the cult, she talks of their abuse and neglect. Bill also mentions "therapy cults" and the rule of fear (e.g. the leader's wrath, exclusion etc).

From ABC News

What happens to people who have left 'high demand' groups, as cults have been dubbed in the academic literature, and ventured to live 'on the outside'? Fear, shame, and a high degree of dependence can make maintaining relationships and a job very difficult. Lorna Goldberg is president of the International Cultic Studies Association and, together with her husband William, counsels ex-cult members in a support group they have run since 1976.

Regardless of size, cults can have dire effects on followers ...

Here are some rough notes:

Almost all of the people we see had tremendous doubts whilst in the cult but learnt to suppress them through mediation, chanting etc ... some of the people they see left 10 or 20 years ago, and are just coming to terms with having beem in a cult.

The trauma of psychological manipulation ... One of the big questions is "why did they subjugate themselves to powerful leaders?"

First of all there is often feeling of shame ... got involved in a group which is completely hypocritical ... mystified how it happened ...

It is necessary to deconstruct their cultic experiences ... step by step ... to see how they became further and further involved ... talking about each stage and what was done very carefully ... Then to talk about their lives that made them willing to join a group that was a cult ... what made them vulnerable ... something in their early life which made them vulnerable to search for some kind of group or family organization.

How could the "most correct" decision they made be so wrong? Ex-members often feel they cannot trust their instincts ...

No, someone manipulated them ... in 99 out of 100 cases, someone broken the social bond ... they lied to you. Under the same circumstances most people would go along ...

Ex-members are upset at having lost that period of life ... not their fault, it was the best decision that they could have made at that time.

It is not helpful for a therapist to set themselves up as an expert ... therapy is a collaborative process ... takes time for all the factors to come together.

How important is it to have a therapist who has a specific knowledge of cults? Helpful but not essential ... just a good listening therapist who is willing to accept they don't have all the answers.

Far more often in our experience ... followers where manipulated ... often for ex-cult members will educate their therapist ... the key is whether the therapist is willing to learn from them. It is not helpful for the therapist to specialize in 'cult only' cases. Better to have a generic approach to therapy.

Many people go into a dissociative state ... to turn themselves off ... to get through the experiences (of abuse).

Very common when during having sex for ex-members to shut themselves off. Disassociation is a survival mechanism ... shutting themselves down ...

Key element in the control of who you mate with, or whether you mate at all, and who you relate to on an intimate basis regularly even non-sexually.

Do marriages of couples who escape from a cult survive? It is incredibly challenging ... projection in relationships is not just of their parents but their also cult leader's personality onto the partners ... a misreading of signals causing stress.

Sometimes couples get together secretly within the cult, form alliance and rebellions ...

Children ... one person leaves the cult, extra-ordindary difficult to have relationships with people in cults, sometimes that means their own children.

Cult leaders don't want followers to have relationship with someone who has left cult ... this is usually because they were told in the cult you will have horrible life, always be miserable etc ... it is very threatening for the people in cult ... it gives them the idea that they can leave ...

Cult leaders cut followers off, members even cut themselves off ... the real reason is it is something very attractive ... the leaders don't want to face the thought they could leave and have a good life.

How many people survive all their shame etc? ... Hard to know ... many sad stories of suicide ... people going for years with their lives not working ... don't quite understand why they are not succeeding in life, jobs, relationships etc ... not able to move on ... takes many, many years to begin to reflect.

Possible some people leave with minimal problems ... but their guess is not a lot ... there are many factors to recovery, e.g. did they keep up relationships during the cult, who they were before went in ...

The likelihood of recovery is down to support systems ... good support systems necessary ... people who join a cult which changes their personality to a greater degree often do much better after leaving than in a cult where there is not that great a change because they can recognise the pre-cult self. Where the cult is not that different, people have more of a difficulty to recognize how much of their problems were cultic and how much were their own problems?

Has the ex-cult profile changed?

In old days, it was people in their early 20s ... now, 35 years later, it is people in their 50s an 60s.

Have cults dropped off people's radar?

Many more smaller cults. The Knowledge cults experts has picked up with the larger groups has helped people from smaller cults to recognize coercive persuasion and undue influences ... concepts that we did not have words for before, e.g. parental alienation syndrome, false memory syndrome ... people are now recognizing dynamics.

There are many therapy cults ... Almost any philosophy can be used in a cultic manner ... it is not the philosphy, it is the manipulation ... narrowing of vision.

Families are usually the first ones to see there is something unacceptable going on ... families are the first to know ...

There are a lot of charismatic individuals who present themselves offering instantaneous cures ... instant solutions ...

There are people ready to give them instant solutions ... but change is not instantaneous.