Addiction to the group, addiction to drugs

[cleveland]

"Recently a great deal of attention has been directed to cases of so-called brainwashing, where young adults or teenagers are taken by a group (usually religious) and converted into automatons: smiling, beatific servants of the order who will do whatever they are bidden. For the young people in these groups (many of whom, incidentally, have histories of unhealthy drug use), the religious order sets up a totally controlled social environment, where not only are all practical matters taken care of, but certitude of thought is also provided. Through worship of a leader and agreement with those around them, the young people lose their uncertainty and anxiety and will sacrifice any other commitments or interests to preserve this state. An interesting sidelight of this form of addiction is that if young people do leave the movement, they tend to become as negative toward the organization as they once were positive and may attack it just as fanatically as they once defended it."

I exerpted this from a longer article on addiction which is really terrific:

http://www.peele.net/lib/addexp.html

[marshall]

On 2005-12-06 07:39:00, cleveland wrote:

""certitude of thought is also provided. Through worship of a leader and agreement with those around them, the young people lose their uncertainty and anxiety and will sacrifice any other commitments or interests to preserve this state. An interesting sidelight of this form of addiction is that if young people do leave the movement, they tend to become as negative toward the organization as they once were positive and may attack it just as fanatically as they once defended it."

Man! that really says it all. The True Believers vs the Apostates. All evident in our little microcosm right here.  Thanks Walter. Interesting article too. Very thought-provoking.[ This Message was edited by: marshall on 2005-12-06 18:07 ]

[Antigen]

Oh, I just love Stanton. Reading him is like knowing what my dad might have been like had he not been so rageful.

I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious -- unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind and keep them shut by force.
--Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain", American author and humorist

[marshall]

Here's another link to Stanton's website and some excerpts from some of the letters there.:

http://www.peele.net/faq/index09.html

--------anti-program observations that sound remarkably similar to those reported here:

"It's interesting to note that I never encountered a 12-Step adherent during that crucial period who failed to diagnose me as suffering from a "cunning, baffling and incurable disease". They had the answer, period.
Like you, they all held, as an article of faith, that it did not matter HOW I got their "help'...only that I DID GET IT! And there was complete faith I would be suitably "grateful" afterward - indeed such "gratitude" being a litmus test of whether someone has actually "gotten it".
Throughout the depths of my personal trial - during which the outcome was very much in doubt - one central theme was reinforced and impressed upon me at every juncture...if I didn't drop my perverse and pig-headed "denial" and "surrender" to the "program" I was irrevocably doomed."

--------pro-program observations that also sound familiar:

"My observation is that you are so miserable being clean & sober, you might as well go back out & use. Working some type of recovery program, whatever it may be really is the only thing known to work in the long run. Yes there are those determined to prove this wrong all the way to their grave. I have met many of these poor souls & have never met an angrier, unhappy group in my life."