![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I don't know why, but I seem to do much better at staying on top of research if I can talk to someone about what I'm finding out while I do the research. I guess it just keeps me interested if I can bounce my thoughts and ideas off of other people and get some feedback.
I'm back to researching the cult phenomena... I had started doing that a while ago, but just couldn't stay motivated last time... now I've learned quite a bit more and I think it will be much harder for me to get unmotivated, given the realizations that I am coming to. The more I look into cults, the more that I see that the things which make cults what they are happen to all be factors of abuse. Controlling individual finances of members? That's something called financial abuse. In interpersonal relationships it often takes the form of someone demanding that you hand over all your money and accounts to them, and they'll give you back what they feel you need to have to get by. It's fairly common in abusive relationships, and is a method of gaining control over a person.
Another example would be the way cults often try to isolate members from their loved ones and friends... this is the exact same phenomena of an abusive partner who demands that you not see certain friends. It's an attempt to isolate you from outside support, and increase that person's control over you.
Because of all this, I think that mind control models of cult operation do have some validity, but that they have missed the point: people subjected to emotional abuse often see things as being rather distorted from the way they really are. How many people who have been told, over and over again, that they are worthless and scum haven't at some point wondered if the person abusing them verbally wasn't right? How many people who have even been physically abused will steadfastly remain with the abuser and insist that nothing is really wrong, that things would get better if they could just not make that person mad so often? The psyche seems like it distorts easily under emotional abuse, until the abused person really does believe what the abuser tells them about reality, and even about themselves, is true. Completely disregarding their own judgment.
Suddenly, viewing cults from that standpoint, the idea that they can only be found in certain areas of society or with certain goals seems to completely crumble. Suddenly you can lump Heaven's Gate together with high school cliques that verbally harass those they consider different from them, or with fraternities that practice hazing. Suddenly there is no need for a cult to be a large organization... it could be the small coven you've put together, or even your own family. Because the phenomena isn't cultishness. It's abuse, plain and simple. And abuse is always a method which people use to attempt to control. Cults are just one manifestation of the phenomenon of abuse. And if we want to stop cults from wrecking peoples lives, we need to deal with the root cause, abuse, which is wrecking the lives of a great many more than anything that could strictly be defined as a cult is.
I'm back to researching the cult phenomena... I had started doing that a while ago, but just couldn't stay motivated last time... now I've learned quite a bit more and I think it will be much harder for me to get unmotivated, given the realizations that I am coming to. The more I look into cults, the more that I see that the things which make cults what they are happen to all be factors of abuse. Controlling individual finances of members? That's something called financial abuse. In interpersonal relationships it often takes the form of someone demanding that you hand over all your money and accounts to them, and they'll give you back what they feel you need to have to get by. It's fairly common in abusive relationships, and is a method of gaining control over a person.
Another example would be the way cults often try to isolate members from their loved ones and friends... this is the exact same phenomena of an abusive partner who demands that you not see certain friends. It's an attempt to isolate you from outside support, and increase that person's control over you.
Because of all this, I think that mind control models of cult operation do have some validity, but that they have missed the point: people subjected to emotional abuse often see things as being rather distorted from the way they really are. How many people who have been told, over and over again, that they are worthless and scum haven't at some point wondered if the person abusing them verbally wasn't right? How many people who have even been physically abused will steadfastly remain with the abuser and insist that nothing is really wrong, that things would get better if they could just not make that person mad so often? The psyche seems like it distorts easily under emotional abuse, until the abused person really does believe what the abuser tells them about reality, and even about themselves, is true. Completely disregarding their own judgment.
Suddenly, viewing cults from that standpoint, the idea that they can only be found in certain areas of society or with certain goals seems to completely crumble. Suddenly you can lump Heaven's Gate together with high school cliques that verbally harass those they consider different from them, or with fraternities that practice hazing. Suddenly there is no need for a cult to be a large organization... it could be the small coven you've put together, or even your own family. Because the phenomena isn't cultishness. It's abuse, plain and simple. And abuse is always a method which people use to attempt to control. Cults are just one manifestation of the phenomenon of abuse. And if we want to stop cults from wrecking peoples lives, we need to deal with the root cause, abuse, which is wrecking the lives of a great many more than anything that could strictly be defined as a cult is.