Cult Members example essay topic

CULTS. Introduction Thesis: The forces that draw individuals into cults can be explained by psychological doctrine. II. What is a cultA. Brief description B. Types of cults 1. religious 2. psychotherapy or personal growth 3. political 4. popular or faddist.

Popular cult groups A. People's Temple. David Koresh. Heaven's GateD. The Family IV. Charismatic group. Brief desciptionB.

Characterization. Sigmund Freud's beliefs. Belonging to a group. Super-egoV I. Thought ReformA. Brief description.

How thought reform works VII. Effects of a cultA. Stress. Isolation C. New lifestyle. Dissociative E. Anxiety. Personality disorders V. Conclusion IX.

References CULTS What makes a person join a cult? What happens in a person's life to make them completely change they way they used to talk and act? Many are puzzled about the mysterious happenings in a cult member's life. They wonder how one could become involved in such a group.

The forces that draw individuals into cults can be explained by psychological doctrine. Many in the psychology field have sought to provide answers to the various questions that society has. A cult is a structured group, most of whose members demonstrate unquestionable loyalty to a dynamic leader. The cult leader governs most, if not all, aspects of the lives of his or her followers, often insisting that they break all ties with the world outside of the cult.

A definition that is standard of all cults is that they consist of a 'group of persons who share in a special interest differing from the established majority or current religious, social, or cultural values, who meet regularly to continue and extend their purpose or mission independent of previous relationships with family, friends, religion, school or career, with beliefs, practices and rituals which reinforce cult values and norms' (MacHovec, 1989, p. 10). One category that cults fall into is known as a destructive cult. 'A destructive cult is a rigidly structured absolutist group usually under an authoritarian, charismatic leader which isolates itself from established societal traditions, values, and norms, recruits members deceptively without informed consent, and retains them by continually reinforced direct and indirect manipulative techniques which cause personality and behavior change, deny freedom of choice, and interrupt and obstruct optimal personality development' (MacHovec, 1989, p. 10). Such groups are usually thought of in terms of religion, although other types of cults can and do exist. 'Cults can be described by their major focus or function: religious, psychotherapy or personal growth, political, or popular or faddist' (MacHovec, 1989, p. 10). Cults require strict adherence to a set of beliefs and, in turn, provide a sense of meaning and purpose to their followers.

Many well-known groups with these qualities have emerged throughout history. The People's Temple, a Christian destructive, doomsday cult was founded by James Jones. Followers of this cult left the U.S. and went to a jungle in South America. While there, Jones persuaded members of his People's Temple group to commit a massive suicide by drinking poison. David Koresh, led people to their death when he refused to be served with a search warrant in Waco, Texas. Koresh's followers believed that he was the Messiah.

A 51-day stand-off occurred between federal agents and Koresh and his followers. When agents launched a tear gas attack to end the siege, a fire burned the compound and killed the followers, probably in a deliberate mass suicide. Bodies of similarly dressed men and women were found in San Diego, after a mass suicide led by Marshall Apple white, cult leader of Heaven's Gate. The deaths were triggered by the cult's belief that a flying saucer would take them home to a place above human level. Members of this group were recruited via the Internet.

Charles Manson is a person with an unusual ability to dominate others. He assembled a destructive cult around himself, which the media later called The Family. Manson was referred to both as 'God' and 'Satan' by his followers. As the family's guru, he claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

The police and DA argue that Manson found sections within the Beatles's ong Helter Skelter and within the last book in the Christian Bible, Revelation which he felt referred to a devastating future race war between blacks and whites. Although Manson is not believed to have killed anyone directly, he ordered his followers to commit the famous Tate, La Bianca and other murders. Because cultic behavior underlies more than extremist religious sects, many psychologists refer to these groups as charismatic groups. 'A charismatic group consists of a dozen or more members, even hundreds or thousands.

It is characterized by the following psychological elements: members (1) have a shared belief system, (2) sustain a high level of social cohesiveness, (3) are strongly influenced by the group's behavioral norms, and (4) impute charismatic (or sometimes divine) power to the group or its leadership' (Galanter, 1989, p. 5). Most psychologists would probably acknowledge that there exists a deep human need to belong to a group. Often, this need leads people to form what might be viewed as unhealthy allegiances to a person or group who, ultimately, does not truly have the person's interest at heart. Sigmund Freud also believed wanting to belong to a group is a strong force in a person's life. Freud believed that 'groups of people will turn to a leader and hand over their super-ego judgments to him before introjecting his standards into themselves' (Young-Bruehl, 1997, p. 186). Freud also believed that the super-ego represented influence in the past, essentially, of what is taken over from other people (Young-Bruehl, 1997).

He expressed this belief of why people do the things that they do in his book, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. The topic of discussion was that individuals want to remain in harmony with the group (Galanter, 1989). In this book Freud stated 'If an individual gives up his distinctness in a group and lets its other members influence him by suggestion, it gives one the impression that he does it because he feels the need of being in harmony with them rather than in opposition to them' (qt d. In Roth, 1998). This statement explained Freud's belief that love brought groups together despite people's obvious antagonism towards one another. This is a love - hate relationship with the underlying need to be part of the greater whole.

Another way people are drawn to cults is by thought reform. Cult leaders manipulate their members in a way that they are unaware that they are being controlled. Psychological mind games are played. Thought reform is organized to 'destabilize a person's sense of self, get the person to drastically reinterpret his or her life's history and radically alter his or her worldview and accept a new version of reality and causality, and develop in the person a dependence on the organization, and thereby turn the person into a deployable agent of the organization' (Lifton, 1995).

Brainwashing allows one to change an unsuspecting individual's mind and shape and mold it as they see fit. Cults are capable of having considerable influence over their members. Being a member of a group can help one feel protected and secure to know that they are part of something bigger than their selves. Cult members are given emotional support and approval from other members.

Most neurotic needs are met as well. However, involvement in a cult can directly and indirectly place significant stress on the individual by the dramatic change in environment, sudden isolation from previous support systems, and a new lifestyle, beliefs and values, and rigorous daily routine. The more commonly reported diagnoses associated with cult involvement are dissociative, anxiety, and personality disorders (MacHovec, 1989). Cults entice people whom by nature want to belong to a group and make it hard for them to leave by altering their thought processes. Those in the psychology field have defined what makes up a cult, have determined what draws individuals in and have recognized the effects that a cult can have on one's life. These attempts have been made to enlighten society about a taboo topic that is rapidly forcing itself into the lives of all.

Bibliography

Galanter, M. (1989).
Cults Faith, Healing, and Coercion. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. Lifton, R., foreword, Cults In Our Midst, by Margaret Thaler Singer & La lich (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995).
MacHovec, F. (1989) Cults and Personality.
Springfield: Charles C Thomas. Roth, M. (1998).
Freud Conflict and Culture. New York: Alfred A, Knopf, Inc. Young-Bruehl, foreword, What Freud Really Said, by David Stafford-Clark (London: McDonald & Co., 1965).