From Pine View Farm

The Call of the Cult 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Darcia F. Narvaez explores the psychology of cults and how they maintain control over their adherents.

(She uses what I consider an absurd term, “totalist,” in the piece, in order to differentiate from the term “totalitarian”; I think she does so in order to include non-governmental entities. But it’s still absurd.)

Here’s a bit:

To work, totalist structures require an isolating environment, which serves the purpose of coercive persuasion, keeping group members away from other influences. To determine whether or not an ideology or belief system is totalist depends on structure and function. The structure is exclusive, allowing no other truths, affiliations, or interpretations. No dissension is allowed against the leader’s word. The function of the belief system is multiple: to maintain the leader’s absolute control, to establish rigid boundaries between group members and the outside world, to justify loyalty, and to prevent escape.

Mind control occurs thorough an alternation of fear and love within the isolating environment. Followers are threatened by the leader at the same time they are promised love. They are entrapped within the group, glued in anxious dependency to the group, in a constant state of fear arousal but seeking proximity to the group in a failed attempt for comfort.

I commend the rest to your attention.

Three words: Fox. News. Bubble.

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