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Combating Cult Mind Control is a nonfiction book by Steven Hassan, first published in 1988.The book presents itself as a guide to resisting the mind control practices of destructive cults, and focuses on the research of Margaret Singer and Robert Lifton as well as the cognitive dissonance theory of Leon Festinger.
Brainwashing [a] is the controversial idea that the human mind can be altered or controlled against a person's will by manipulative psychological techniques. [1] Brainwashing is said to reduce its subject's ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, [2] as well as to change their attitudes, values, and beliefs.
The academic study of new religious movements has been noted to be unusually hostile, with scholars holding strong opinions as to the influence of cults on society. [1] [2] A 1998 article in the magazine Lingua Franca reported on the acrimony of the scholarly debate on the topic; in the "cult-anticult debate", [3] scholars have been described as exhibiting a "toxic level" of suspicion toward ...
Bromley has written about the rise of an anti-cult movement in the 1970s and 1980s, and the accompanying controversies involving allegations of brainwashing and deprogramming. He defined the anti-cult movement in 1981 as the amalgam of groups who embrace the brainwashing theory. [4] [5] Bromley has also written about apostasy, cults and ...
She later came to realize that the group was a cult. Lalich recalls that during her time in the group she stored questions and doubts in the back of her mind, unable to express them. [4] Lalich became a high-ranking member of the group working long hours with little contact outside the immediate members.
The review in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease observes that the book "looks at cults from the perspective of ex-cultists and the mental health specialists who help them to break away and, equally difficult, to pick up and integrate the threads of normal living once again." It notes that the work begins "with an introduction and ...
Theodore "Ted" Roosevelt Patrick, Jr. (born 1930) is an American deprogrammer and author. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of deprogramming." [1] [2]In the 1970s, Patrick and other anti-cult activists founded the Citizens' Freedom Foundation (which later became known as the Cult Awareness Network) and began offering what they called "deprogramming" services to people who wanted a ...
Eichel is the child of survivors of the Holocaust; his parents spent time in Nazi concentration camps. [1] His parents only recounted to him, "anecdotes here and there"; Eichel explained to The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Most of what I thought I knew about their experiences was my own fantasy that filled in the enormous gaps."