alcoholics anonymous cults healing coercion
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alcoholics anonymous
cults
faith, healing, Coericion
large size trade paperback
as new
author is marc Galanter
1989 Oxford Paperbacks Oxford univ Presss
Galanter is Prof of Psych and Director of Div of Alcohol and Drug Abuse at NY University School of Medicine
an entire chapter (nine) is devoted to alcoholics anonymous
as a Charismatic Healing Group
From the mass weddings of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church to the ritual suicides at Heaven's Gate, charismatic cults and their devotees have become facts of American life. Using material gleaned from twenty-five years of direct encounters with cults and their detractors, as well as extensive research, Marc Galanter offers the most extensive psychological analysis of these organizations available. Cults explores not only how members feel and think at all stages of their involvement, but also how larger social and psychological forces reinforce individual commitment within the cults.
Cults Faith, Healing, and Coercion MARC GALANTER Based on materials gathered by the author over fifteen years of direct encounters with cults, as well as a broad range of quantitative research, this is the most exhaustive psychological study of cults to date. Filled with first-person accounts as well as overviews of many of the such well-known cults as the Moonies, the book shows not only how cult members feel and think, but how larger social and psychological forces interact within cults to command and reinforce individual commitment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Author: Marc Galanter is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at the New York University School of Medicine. The author of many books and articles on cults and addiction, he is the editor of the American Psychiatric Association's official report on cults and new religious movements.
Cults
Faith, Healing, and Coercion
Marc Galanter
CONTENTS
1. The Charismatic Group
PART I: Forces in the Charismatic Group
2. Group Cohesiveness
3. Shared Beliefs
4. Altered Consciousness
PART II: A Model of the Charismatic Group
5. Biology and Behavior
6. The Cult as Social System
PART III: Case Histories of Charismatic Groups
7. Trouble at the System's Boundary
8. A Religious Sect: The Unification Church
9. A Charismatic Healing Group: The AA Example
10. Epilogue
Am J Psychiatry 159:1074-1075, June 2002
Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion, 2nd ed.
By Marc Galanter. New York, Oxford University Press, 1999, 273 pp., $35.00.
ARMANDO FAVAZZA, M.D., M.P.H.Columbia, Mo.
Cults was a good book when first published in 1989; the secondedition is bigger and better despite the ugly cover and relativelysmall print. Marc Galanter, a professor at New York University,is the psychiatric expert on cults, and his is the best bookon the topic. He neatly brings concepts to life with case histories,clear explanations of his research, and trenchant personal observations.His writing style is engaging, with just the right amount ofinformality.
Galanter describes cults as charismatic groups with as manyas hundreds of thousands and as few as a dozen members. Theyare tightly cohesive, impute transcendent powers to their leadersor missions, strictly control members’ behavior, and exerta powerful influence that overrides individuals’ usualbehavior. Examples of such zealous groups are the Divine LightMission, the Unification Church, right-wing militias, Aum Shinrikyo,and, to a lesser extent, self-involvement groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and est.
A major force operating in cults is a merging of identity anddecision-making functions that results in feelings of relatednessamong members, a decline in psychological distress (especiallyamong new members), and an enhanced sense of well-being. Thecloser people feel to group members, the greater the relieffrom neurotic distress. Conversely, if they disaffiliate fromthe groups a bit, they are prodded to return by the increaseddistress they are likely to feel. Another major operating forceis shared beliefs that are established by a close-knit communicationssystem in which acceptable views are encouraged and dissentingones suppressed. Even an intense 2-day workshop exposure mayresult in surprisingly strong commitments by converts to theUnification Church.
Converts’ affiliation and sense of emotional well-beingreinforce compliance and continued ties to the group. The sightof bald Hare Krisha members singing and dancing in the streetsmay seem silly and incomprehensible to an onlooker, but theparticipants consider their behavior quite normal because ithas been adopted in association with a system of cultic beliefsin a tightly controlled social network. These beliefs and behaviorscan be intensified by alterations in consciousness induced by meditation, drugs, isolation, fasting, prayer, and rhythmicmusic. A psychiatrist attending his third Divine Light Mission(Hare Krisha) meeting described his perception of a bright halothat suddenly emanated from the body of a young woman who wasspeaking about the guru’s mission: She glowed as if shewere a religious figure in a movie, and it gave her the appearanceof holiness....No one had told me to expect a light like this,and no one else seemed to see it....I realized that somethinghad happened to me that I couldn’t dismiss. The experiencewould somehow have to become a part of my understanding of theworld around me (p. 61). He decided to join the group. Galantercould not make a diagnosis. He heard similar stories and concludesthat the phenomena are difficult to integrate into psychiatricmodels.
Charismatic groups focus on making converts not only to becomelarger and stronger but also because the process, when successful,confers legitimacy to the group’s ideology and consolidatesthe commitment of its long-standing members. Conversion demandsa disruption of previous social ties and a change of world view.The result may be psychiatric symptoms in people with no historyof mental disorder or psychological instability (p. 99). Thegroups carefully monitor members’ behavior, foster identificationwith group leaders, suppress individual autonomy and divisivepoints of view, and manipulate feedback. They also establishboundaries to isolate members from outsiders. Thus, the glazed,withdrawn look and the trance-like state seen in members mayappear pathological, but they serve to reduce direct exchanges with hostile persons. The behavior is usually not present whengroup members interact with each other or with friendly observers.
Galanter examines alternative medicine and spiritual recoverymovements, which often are embedded in an emotionally supportivestructure that lends meaning to illness and recovery. Theyare like charismatic groups in that they operate from a baseof spiritual (or pseudoscientific) ideology, and may be fueledby the alterations in consciousness and sensations associatedwith pain, suffering, or addictive drugs (p. 185). Althoughhe admits that Melody Beattie’s books on codependencyhave helped many people reshape their troubled relationships, Galanter also notes that codependency is a term that couldcharacterize almost anyone who has ever had a close relationship.He provides an illustrative anecdote about Marianne Williamson,a popular author, motivational speaker, and guru of love. Shedescribed an event when she had a serious sore throat and ordereda drink at a bar to salve the pain. She spoke to a flirtatiousman who said that he could get her some erythromycin becausehe was a physician. This is a miracle, she wrote, I had prayedfor healing.
I heartily recommend Cults to all my colleagues. It’sa nice respite from neuroreceptor binding charts and providesinsights not only into group dynamics but also, by inference,into family functioning. The study of cults is not as exoticas it would seem. We all are enmeshed in social systems andconfronted daily by demigods.
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