-Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults And Beliefs-

A new book by Steven Hassan as discussed by Pierre S. Freeman

The Failure Of Deprogramming

In many ways, Steven Hassan has been one of my strongest influences and a new book by him (even though it is a somewhat revised edition of “Releasing the Bonds”) is a breath of fresh air. It shows you how far the anti-cult movement has progressed in its methodologies.  Here I am referring to the methodologies of interactions and interventions rather than the kind of self-liberation and self-analysis that composed the majority of my effort to escape AMORC and its relentless undermining of my authentic self.

            I availed myself of counseling a few times. This was helpful but is not really a subject of this discussion- because it was not the mainstay of my liberation- as were the writings of Steven Hassan and others. I can tell you without the help of people like Steven Hassan, Margaret Thatcher and Robert Jay Lifton, I never would have discovered the keys to my own liberation nor been able to describe it in words as in my books, AMORC Unmasked and The Prisoner of San Jose. But I knew them mostly as writers. Still, their writing was helpful because their experienced was gained in the trenches of actually working with and counseling a multitude of cult members.

            Nonetheless, as someone dedicated to the liberation of all cult members, I am aware of the potential value of having outside help and, therefore, follow various trained counselors and the trends for cult liberation with great interest.

            Years ago, when the cult liberation movement started, the basic technique was deprogramming. As Hassan points out in this book, which more or less centers around his new Strategic Interactive Approach (SIA), deprogramming was primarily based on cornering a cult member by force and taking him away to an undisclosed location, safe from cult prying or some form of outside intervention by the cult. In this safe place, the cult member would be introduced to a person called a deprogrammer, an authoritarian figure who would question him relentlessly about the cult, all the while providing the member with facts, figures and anecdotes about the organization, which has claimed his allegiance. The information and the need to respond to difficult questions that would point to some of the more objectionable practices of cult would, theoretically, at least, serve to undermine his respect and loyalty to the cult. This type of programming was admirably depicted in the Canadian film, Ticket to Heaven.

            In his new book, which analyzes various of the older methodologies of cult liberation, Hassan points out that deprogramming has various downsides- one of which is the trauma of being kidnapped and imprisoned, often by strangers. In my experience, having had severe problems of disassociation because of my “cult personality,” I know the tenaciousness of a cult member clinging to his or her cult, a stubbornness to think or act freely that can be quite brutal on one’s mind and body if one even dares to contemplate of leaving.

            In deprogramming scenarios, the programmer, who is leveraged as an authority figure, is, in a way, a surrogate for the cult leader and can act with a great deal of insensitivity and even psychological brutality with the hopes of breaking down the barriers that keep the cult member from his own authenticity,

            According to Hassan, this effort often backfires, leaving the formerly imprisoned and psychologically badgered cult victim, with now two traumas- the trauma of cult imprisonment and programming and the trauma of anti-cult imprisonment and deprogramming. 

            The tactics used in the past in association with these older deprogramming efforts are now currently illegal for those over 18 and can invoke extreme legal risks those undertaking this method.

            In my next discussion, I will discuss exit counseling, the next stage of interceptive anti-cult methodology.