As with many new religious movements, their enthusiasm and unconventional convictions have the potential to lead to problems associated with 'cults'.

An article by a prominent Western Buddhist, investigating the unusual emphasis placed by Triratna on Sangharakshita, with its attendant dangers.

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.