Part of my practice through the years has been to treat people who have been indoctrinated into cults.
There is a "playbook" for cults, how they are built, their leaders' behavior and indoctrination of the followers.
The following excepts come from The National Catholic Register.
4 SIGNS OF CULT LIKE BEHAVIOR
1) Cult behavior conspires to cover up and hide away anything that tarnishes the glossy image of that “wonderful community” that all the members want so much to believe in. This is the first sign of a cult: everything is too wonderful and everyone is ready to tell you how wonderful it all is.
The cult will invariably have an amazingly good public relations operation. They will present a glossy front with 100% participation of all involved. This being the case, if your leader is a man whose faults are obvious, maybe you should be grateful. He’s real. He’s not trying to con you.
2)The leadership of a cult will invariably be selective and exclusive. There will be a public faces of the leadership, and they will unfailingly present the nice, glossy and polished face of the organization. They will tell the public that things are squeaky clean and wonderful.
Their will be "victims" of the leader. The leader may take action against the victims. They will call this something nice like “a confidentiality agreement.” This means they cannot discuss what goes on behind those closed doors.
The decisions for the cult are all taken in private. The leadership will be tightly controlled and it will be by invitation only. If you encounter non-transparent leadership in this way, don’t be surprised. Be suspicious.
3) A third trait of a cult is that complete loyalty is demanded of the followers. Dissent and criticism are not permitted. Those who dissent will be marginalized, excluded from decision-making and demonized. If the leaders cannot get rid of the dissenters they will be isolated and given a name. They will be “the troublemakers” or “the grumblers”.
In extreme cases the dissenters will become scapegoats and all the negativities of the group will be projected on to them.
4) A fourth characteristic of a group that has become a cult or is behaving in a cult-like manner is that there will be a persecution complex. A group of outside forces will be identified who are “the enemy”. A little fortress will be built in which all those on the inside are the “faithful ones” while all those on the outside will increasingly be demonized and feared. There will be no real effort to build bridges or get to know those on the outside. There will be no real effort to treat the outsiders as real people. Instead they are the enemy to be kept at arms’ length and against whom the faithful will usually project their fears and suspicions. At worst the enemy will have all the sins and fears and dark negativities projected on them.
A little fortress will be built in which all those on the inside are the “faithful ones” while all those on the outside will increasingly be demonized and feared. There will be no real effort to build bridges or get to know those on the outside. There will be no real effort to treat the outsiders as real people. Instead they are the enemy to be kept at arms’ length and against whom the faithful will usually project their fears and suspicions. At worst the enemy will have all the sins and fears and dark negativities projected on them.. A group of outside forces will be identified who are “the enemy”.
The faithful will set the leader up on a pedestal and declare him to be wonderful, and the leader (who needs and likes the adulation) will encourage their hero-worship. Those who object or suspect what is happening will be automatically excluded or marginalized by those who wish to perpetuate the super-wonderful world they are setting up for themselves.
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