Monthly Topic: Sucked into the Cult of Pharmacopia
I got wind that Steven Hassan has a new book out about his favorite field of endeavor: authoritarian religious cults. Hassan has the honor of being attacked by Scientologists for participating in deprogramming efforts. He uses his own experience of being seduced into the Unification Church as effective leverage in assisting others to break away from cult influence. His written work along with his work as a trained psychologist give him somewhat of a cult following in the field of mental emancipation.
As I read his first book in preparation for reviewing his most recent literature, I was struck by the parallels between religious cults and psychiatric treatment. Religious cults give their members a new identity in a fashion that is similar to the way that a psychiatric patient is indoctrinated into accepting a clinical label. Patient Jane Doe ceases to think of herself as a human being and comes to think of herself as a paranoid schizophrenic. Rather than consider the path that led to her state of being, she is taught to believe that she has a genetic flaw that requires a lifetime of chemical addiction to maintain control.
To get to this point, psychiatrists subject her to isolation from friends and family who are concurrently taught to fear a latent potential for violence on the part of Ms. Doe should she ever be separated from her pharmaceutical ritual. They may even be too frightened by psychiatric mumbo jumbo to ever allow Ms. Doe to return home again or to spend time visiting friends like in the old days. In this way, the cult of pharmacopia is far more effective than other authoritarian cults. It is rare for friends and family of Scientology members to fear their return from cult control.
Hassan credits psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton for formalizing his understanding of how cult indoctrination works. When Lifton describes Communist Chinese indoctrination methods, lights start to go on for people. Hassan saw the parallel to cult indoctrination. Educators saw the parallel to academic indoctrination. Margaret Mead saw the parallel to psychiatric hospitalization. Lifton himself recognized how the more reactionary aspects of his own training in psychology tend to limit human development with the view that people are crippled by childhood experiences. (He wrote at the time when the crippling effects of psychotropic drugs were not fully understood.)
Some of the parallels between Communist indoctrination and psychiatric treatment are the denial of self-identification, sleep disruption, infallibility of arresting officers, learning to conform to the dictated condition, betrayal of others. Where the Communist prisoners had to confess to espionage, mental patients have to confess to a biochemical disorder. A patient is said to have no "insight" if she refuses drugs. One of our students did not achieve insight into his condition until he found out that the arresting officer claimed he had threatened the lives of his own children. This is quite similar to being accused of espionage in Communist China. You are guilty until proven innocent, which is impossible given the circular logic of the system.
Do you know of anyone with experience with either the cult of pharmacopia or Chinese Communist indoctrination?
Links: Steven Hassan receives a back-handed endorsement from Scientology. Steven Hassan interviews Robert Jay Lifton. Steven Hassan's book on cult mind control. Robert Jay Lifton's book on Chinese Communist indoctrination methods.
As I read his first book in preparation for reviewing his most recent literature, I was struck by the parallels between religious cults and psychiatric treatment. Religious cults give their members a new identity in a fashion that is similar to the way that a psychiatric patient is indoctrinated into accepting a clinical label. Patient Jane Doe ceases to think of herself as a human being and comes to think of herself as a paranoid schizophrenic. Rather than consider the path that led to her state of being, she is taught to believe that she has a genetic flaw that requires a lifetime of chemical addiction to maintain control.
To get to this point, psychiatrists subject her to isolation from friends and family who are concurrently taught to fear a latent potential for violence on the part of Ms. Doe should she ever be separated from her pharmaceutical ritual. They may even be too frightened by psychiatric mumbo jumbo to ever allow Ms. Doe to return home again or to spend time visiting friends like in the old days. In this way, the cult of pharmacopia is far more effective than other authoritarian cults. It is rare for friends and family of Scientology members to fear their return from cult control.
Hassan credits psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton for formalizing his understanding of how cult indoctrination works. When Lifton describes Communist Chinese indoctrination methods, lights start to go on for people. Hassan saw the parallel to cult indoctrination. Educators saw the parallel to academic indoctrination. Margaret Mead saw the parallel to psychiatric hospitalization. Lifton himself recognized how the more reactionary aspects of his own training in psychology tend to limit human development with the view that people are crippled by childhood experiences. (He wrote at the time when the crippling effects of psychotropic drugs were not fully understood.)
Some of the parallels between Communist indoctrination and psychiatric treatment are the denial of self-identification, sleep disruption, infallibility of arresting officers, learning to conform to the dictated condition, betrayal of others. Where the Communist prisoners had to confess to espionage, mental patients have to confess to a biochemical disorder. A patient is said to have no "insight" if she refuses drugs. One of our students did not achieve insight into his condition until he found out that the arresting officer claimed he had threatened the lives of his own children. This is quite similar to being accused of espionage in Communist China. You are guilty until proven innocent, which is impossible given the circular logic of the system.
Do you know of anyone with experience with either the cult of pharmacopia or Chinese Communist indoctrination?
Links: Steven Hassan receives a back-handed endorsement from Scientology. Steven Hassan interviews Robert Jay Lifton. Steven Hassan's book on cult mind control. Robert Jay Lifton's book on Chinese Communist indoctrination methods.