"Just a bit of Pagan fun"
...
Trauma Bond & Attachment Theory
What Happens When You Stop "Holding the Contradiction"?
Triratna is, behind all of the rhetoric and belief, a friendship club based on a shared belief system, and following particular behaviours and culture, none of which have...
Alexandra Stein Interview on Cults and the Trauma Bond
A fascinating in-depth conversation between Alexandra Stein and Chris Shelton on the subject of Steins academic paper, 'Love, Terror and Brainwashing'. Drawing on their personal experiences in different political or religious cults, they discuss the particular dynamics of what attracts, hoodwinks and binds people to high demand groups (or 'cults') and what can help people recover.
Terror and Love: A Study of Brainwashing - Alexandra Stein
"But beware—it may not be what it appears. An isolating group led by a charismatic authoritarian leader . . . can cause most of us to lose our minds."
What's behind the blowback you'll get when you engage cult members
Article by Matthew Remski explaining how and why all cult members are abuse victims to varying degrees
Attachment theory and post-cult recovery. Alexandra Stein
Attachment theory provides a key to understanding the emotional damage from growing up in a cult, explain Alexandra Stein and Mary Russell
There are various definitions of cults. We use one grounded in the work of psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton3 and Hannah Arendt:4 ‘A cultic system is formed and controlled by a charismatic authoritarian leader or leadership body. It is a rigidly bounded, steeply hierarchical, isolating social system, supported and represented by a total, exclusive ideology. The leader sets in motion processes of coercive persuasion (also known as “brainwashing”), designed to isolate and control followers.