Thought Reform Dr. Robert J. Lifton's Criteria for Thought Reform
Any ideology -- that is, any set of emotionally-charged convictions about men
and his relationship to the natural or supernatural world -- may be carried by
its adherents in a totalistic direction. But this is most likely to occur with
those ideologies which are most sweeping in their content and most ambitious or
messianic in their claim, whether a religious or political organization. And
where totalism exists, a religion, or a political movement becomes little more
than an exclusive cult.
Here you will find a set of criteria, eight psychological themes against which
any environment may be judged. In combination, they create an atmosphere which
may temporarily energize or exhilarate, but which at the same time pose the
gravest of human threats.
(a brief outline)
MILIEU CONTROL
The most basic feature is the control of human communication within an
environment. If the control is extremely intense, it becomes internalized
control -- an attempt to manage an individual's inner communication Control
over all a person sees, hears, reads, writes (information control) creates
conflicts in respect to individual autonomy Groups express this in several
ways: Group process, isolation from other people, psychological pressure,
geographical distance or unavailable transportation, sometimes physical pressure
Often a sequence of events, such as seminars, lectures, group encounters, which
become increasingly intense and increasingly isolated, making it extremely
difficult-- both physically and psychologically--for one to leave Sets up a
sense of antagonism with the outside world; it's "us against them" Closely
connected to the process of individual change (of personality)
MYSTICAL MANIPULATION (Planned spontaneity)
Extensive personal manipulation Seeks to promote specific patterns of behavior
and emotion in such a way that it appears to have arisen spontaneously from
within the environment, while it actually has been orchestrated Totalist
leaders claim to be agents chosen by God, history, or some supernatural force,
to carry out the mystical imperative The "principles" (God-centered or
otherwise) can be put forcibly and claimed exclusively, so that the cult and its
beliefs become the only true path to salvation (or enlightenment) The
individual then develops the psychology of the pawn, and participates actively
in the manipulation of others The leader who becomes the center of the mystical
manipulation (or the person in whose name it is done) can be sometimes more real
than an abstract god and therefore attractive to cult members Legitimizes the
deception used to recruit new members and/or raise funds, and the deception used
on the "outside world"
THE DEMAND FOR PURITY
The world becomes sharply divided into the pure and the impure, the absolutely
good (the group/ideology) and the absolutely evil (everything outside the group)
One must continually change or conform to the group "norm" Tendencies towards
guilt and shame are used as emotional levers for the group's controlling and
manipulative influences Once a person has experienced the totalist polarization
of good/evil (black/white thinking), he has great difficulty in regaining a more
balanced inner sensitivity to the complexities of human morality The radical
separation of pure/impure is both within the environment (the group) and the
individual Ties in with the process of confession -- one must confess when one
is not conforming
CONFESSION
Cultic confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal and
therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself Sessions in
which one confesses to one's sin are accompanied by patterns of criticism and
self-criticism, generally transpiring within small groups with an active and
dynamic thrust toward personal change Is an act of symbolic self-surrender
Makes it virtually impossible to attain a reasonable balance between worth and
humility A person confessing to various sins of pre-cultic existence can both
believe in those sins and be covering over other ideas and feelings that s/he is
either unaware of or reluctant to discuss Often a person will confess to lesser
sins while holding on to other secrets (often criticisms/questions/doubts about
the group/leaders that may cause them not to advance to a leadership position)
"The more I accuse myself, the more I have a right to judge you"
SACRED SCIENCE
The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic doctrine or
ideology, holding it as an ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human
existence Questioning or criticizing those basic assumptions is prohibited A
reverence is demanded for the ideology/doctrine, the originators of the
ideology/doctrine, the present bearers of the ideology/doctrine Offers
considerable security to young people because it greatly simplifies the world
and answers a contemporary need to combine a sacred set of dogmatic principles
with a claim to a science embodying the truth about human behavior and human
psychology
LOADING THE LANGUAGE
The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-
terminating cliche (thought-stoppers) Repetitiously centered on all-
encompassing jargon "The language of non-thought" Words are given new meanings
-- the outside world does not use the words or phrases in the same way -- it
becomes a "group" word or phrase
DOCTRINE OVER PERSON
Every issue in one's life can be reduced to a single set of principles that have
an inner coherence to the point that one can claim the experience of truth and
feel it The pattern of doctrine over person occurs when there is a conflict
between what one feels oneself experiencing and what the doctrine or ideology
says one should experience If one questions the beliefs of the group or the
leaders of the group, one is made to feel that there is something inherently
wrong with them to even question -- it is always "turned around" on them and the
questioner/criticizer is questioned rather than the questions answered directly
The underlying assumption is that doctrine/ideology is ultimately more valid,
true and real than any aspect of actual human character or human experience and
one must subject one's experience to that "truth" The experience of
contradiction can be immediately associated with guilt One is made to feel that
doubts are reflections of one's own evil When doubt arises, conflicts become
intense
DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE
Since the group has an absolute or totalist vision of truth, those who are not
in the group are bound up in evil, are not enlightened, are not saved, and do
not have the right to exist "Being verses nothingness" Impediments to
legitimate being must be pushed away or destroyed One outside the group may
always receive their right of existence by joining the group Fear manipulation
-- if one leaves this group, one leaves God or loses their transformation, for
something bad will happen to them The group is the "elite", outsiders are "of
the world", "evil", "unenlightened", etc.
Excerpted from: Thought Reform And The Psychology of Totalism, Chapter 22,
(Chapel Hill, 1989) & The Future of Immortality, Chapter 155 (New York 1987).
|