Social Science: Brainwashing & The Persecution of Cults
If there is such a thing, an intellectually honest anticultist should understand the arguments from social science which won in court during the deprogramming hysteria in the 70’s & 80’s.
Dick Anthony
Brainwashing and the Cults: The Rise and Fall of a Theory
In the United States at the end of the 1970s, brainwashing emerged as a popular theoretical construct around which to understand what appeared to be a sudden rise of new and unfamiliar religious movements during the previous decade, especially those associated with the hippie street-people phenomenon. Most of the new groups were of Asian origin … Read more
Debunking Zablocki: Dick Anthony’s Searing Take-Down of Cult Brainwashing Theory
This is an excerpt from Benjamin Zablocki’s book “Misunderstanding Cults” which is one of the best representations of the 90’s era debate on Cults and Brainwashing. What’s funny is that all the players, such as Dick Anthony and others, who thoroughly debunked the ideas of “cult brainwashing” just rode off into the sunset – leaving … Read more
AntiCult Brainwashing Ideology as Totalism by Dick Anthony
“If I am correct about brainwashing ideology being a form of totalitarian influence, it would presumably serve the function of ministering to a polarized self-sense and curing identity confusion by enabling converts to it to shift responsibility for undesirable aspects of their personalities and former behaviour onto a scapegoated contrast category, in this case the new religious movement of which they were formerly a member.