Psychotherapeutic Work with Ex-Cult/Cult Members in 3 Steps

An Account of Psychotherapeutic Work with Ex-Cult/Cult Members using the 'Three-Step-Model' devised by Dieter Rohmann and originally published in Germany in Report Psychologie 5/6/2000).

See linked to article above for details.

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The following symptoms are as a rule immediately connected with leaving a cult and therefore also primarily considered the focus of attention:

depression
sense of purposelessness
guilt
anger
alienation
isolation
distrust
fear of going crazy
tendency to think in terms of black and white
inability to make decisions
low self-esteem
embarrassment
dissociation
floating
nightmares
inability to concentrate
family and dependency issues etc.

In order to provide an adequate form of assistance to the ex-cult/cult member the following three steps should be conducted in sequence after the formation of a thorough anamnesis and diagnosis.

Step I: predominately concerns itself with the background information of the respective movement such as the cult ideology the cult hierarchy and the everyday life of the cult including the exchange of spiritual religious philosophical but also political themes etc. Most cults argue in the frame of absolute and dichotomous thinking in the sense of either-or, black-white, good-angry, inside-outside.

In Step II: the Theory of Mind Control according to Lifton (1963) should be explained and further detail into various theories of social-psychology and perceptional psychology should be included.

In addition these theories should be applied to the relevant cult. Of particular significance are for example the Theories of Conformity after Asch (1956), the Locus of Control (Rotter 1966), the Attribution Theories (Weiner 1974), the Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger et al. 1956), the Forced Compliance (Festinger & Carlsmith 1959), the Helplessness (Seligman 1975), Obedience to Authority (Milgram 1974), the Deindividuation (Zimbardo 1969), the Self-Fulfilling-Prophecy (Merton 1948) and the Selective Attention (Hernandez-Peon 1966).

The explanation and portrayal of these theories assist in helping the client to become aware - independent of the respective context - of the extent to which we all decide perceive become deceived or manipulated or allow ourselves to become deceived or manipulated.

This step could be introduced by following questions:

• What sort of wishes dreams and yearnings did you experience before joining your cult?
• What sort of fear hurtings and disappointments did you experience then?
• Why do you believe you have been so susceptible to the ideology etc. of your cult?
• Why do you believe that you needed to have this ideological framework?
• What have you actually looked for?
• Have you found what you were originally searching for?
• Why have you waited for so long to leave the cult?
• What finally enabled you to leave your cult?
• Could you say, "No" before you joined the cult?

In Step III: the motives and predisposing factors which could have been responsible for the confluence of the respective cult shall be analysed.

Step III is about thematic topics which were significant to the clients before they had joined the cult. These thematic topics include; earlier hurtings, experiences of loss, fear, family issues, partnership, friendships, emotions, loneliness, sexuality, communication, frustration, self-worth, feelings of alienation, insecurity, foresight, dependency, autonomy, attitudes, expectations etc.