Destructive cult

   

A destructive cult is a group (often called cult) with strange beliefs (especially religious ones) and which exploits or destroys its own members or others. Note that this term is often applied in hindsight when the exploitation and destruction has become clear to everyone. There is no reliable, generally accepted way to tell which groups will become destructive. To assess whether a group will become destructive popular but unscientific cult checklists have been developed.

Brochure of the People's temple portraying cult leader Jim Jones as the loving father of the "Rainbow Family".
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Brochure of the People's temple portraying cult leader Jim Jones as the loving father of the "Rainbow Family".

In English-speaking countries since about the 1960s, especially in North America, these groups were widely believed to exploit their members psychologically and financially and were accused of group-based persuasion techniques such as "brainwashing", "love bombing" or the controversial concept of "mind control").

The quintessential destructive cult is thought to be religion taken to the extreme, usually characterized by high levels of dependency and obedience to the cult's leadership, by separation from family and non-believers, and by the infiltration of religion into nearly every aspect of daily life.

Anti-cult activists have tended to blur the distinction between cults which they genuinely fear are destructive, and those which are just weird or time-consuming. It should be noted that some ex-members consider their former group harmful though they did not belong to a destructive cult.

Two of the several existing definitions formulated by anti-cult activists use the term cult rather than destructive cult:

Cults are groups that often exploit members psychologically and/or financially, typically by making members comply with leadership's demands through certain types of psychological manipulation, popularly called mind control, and through the inculcation of deep-seated anxious dependency on the group and its leaders [1]
Cult: A group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control . . . designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community. [8]



Historical examples

Some examples of seemingly religious groups whose adherents killed themselves or others include:

  • In 1997, 39 followers of the Heaven's Gate cult died in a mass suicide. Some male members of the cult underwent voluntary castration in preparation for the suicide.

See also

External links

References

  • 1 William Chambers, Michael Langone, Arthur Dole & James Grice, "The Group Psychological Abuse Scale: A Measure of the Varieties of Cultic Abuse", Cultic Studies Journal, 11(1), 1994. The definition of a cult given above is based on a study of 308 former members of 101 groups.
  • 2 Barker, E. "The Ones Who Got Away: People Who Attend Unification Church Workshops and Do Not Become Moonies". In: Barker E, ed. Of Gods and Men: New Religious Movements in the West. Macon, Ga. : Mercer University Press; 1983.
  • 3 Barker, E. (1989) "New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction", London, HMSO
  • 4 Galanter M. "Unification Church ('Moonie') dropouts: psychological readjustment after leaving a charismatic religious group". Am J Psychiatry. 1983;140(8):984-989.
  • 5 Enroth, Ronald. Churches that Abuse
  • 6 Singer, M with Lalich, J (1995). Cults in Our Midst, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • 7 Aronoff, Jodi; Lynn, Steven Jay; Malinosky, Peter. "Are cultic environments psychologically harmful?" Clinical Psychology Review, 2000, Vol. 20 #1 pp. 91-111
  • 8 West, L. J., & Langone, M. D. (1985). Cultism: A conference for scholars and policy makers. Summary of proceedings of the Wingspread conference on cultism, September 9–11. Weston, MA: American Family Foundation.
  • 9 Barrett, D. V. The New Believers - A survey of sects, cults and alternative religions 2001 UK, Cassell & Co [2] (http://www.thenewbelievers.com/)



Cult | Destructive cult | Purported cults | Cult checklists
Cult of personality | Propaganda | Charismatic authority | Communal reinforcement | Faith | Mind control
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