What is Thought Reform?
When defining thought reform, we look to two experts in the field: Margaret Thaler
Singer, Ph.D. and Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.:
Six Conditions for Thought Reform
Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph. D.
- Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed a step at
a time. Potential new members are led, step by step, through a behavioral-change program
without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the group. The goal may be to
make them deployable agents for the leadership, to get them to buy more courses, or get
them to make a deeper commitment, depending on the leader's aim and desires.
- Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially control the person's
time. Through various methods, newer members are kept busy and led to think about the
group and its content during as much of their waking time as possible.
- Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person. This is accomplished by
getting members away from the normal social support group for a period of time and into an
environment where the majority of people are already group members. The members serve as
models of the attitudes and behaviors of the group and speak an in-group language.
- Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit
behavior that reflects the person's former social identity. Manipulation of experiences
can be accomplished through various methods of trance induction, including leaders using
such techniques as paced speaking patterns, guided imagery, chanting, long prayer sessions
or lectures, and lengthy meditation sessions.
- Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote
learning the group's ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors. Good
behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of the group's beliefs, and
compliance are rewarded while questioning, expressing doubts or criticizing are met with
disapproval, redress and possible rejection. If one expresses a question, he or she is
made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them to be questioning.
- Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no
feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order. The
group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The leaders must have verbal ways of never
losing. (Singer, 1995)
Dr. Robert Jay Lifton's
Eight Psychological Themes of a Thought Reform Program
- Milieu Control. This involves the control of information and communication both
within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual, resulting in a significant
degree of isolation from society at large.
- Mystical Manipulation. There is manipulation of experiences that appear
spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order
to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent
that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or
she wishes.
- Demand for Purity. The world is viewed as black and white and the members are
constantly exhorted to conform to the ideology of the group and strive for perfection. The
induction of guilt and/or shame is a powerful control device used here.
- Confession. Sins, as defined by the group, are to be confessed either to a
personal monitor or publicly to the group. There is no confidentiality; members'
"sins," "attitudes," and "faults" are discussed and
exploited by the leaders.
- Sacred Science. The group's doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate
Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute. Truth is not to be found outside the group. The
leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism.
- Loading the Language. The group interprets or uses words and phrases in new ways
so that often the outside world does not understand. This jargon consists of
thought-terminating clichés which serve to alter members' thought processes to conform to
the group's way of thinking.
- Doctrine over person. Member's personal experiences are subordinated to the
sacred science and any contrary experiences must be denied or reinterpreted to fit the
ideology of the group.
- Dispensing of existence. The group has the prerogative to decide who has the
right to exist and who does not. This is usually not literal but means that those in the
outside world are not saved, unenlightened, unconscious and they must be converted to the
group's ideology. If they do not join the group or are critical of the group, then they
must be rejected by the members. Thus, the outside world loses all credibility. In
conjunction, should any member leave the group, he or she must be rejected also. (Lifton,
1989)
©Copyright
by Carol Giambalvo, June 1995 except where noted
Carol Giambalvo
P.O. Box 2180
Flagler Beach,
FL 32136
carol.giambalvo@att.net
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