Betsy....any of these ring any bells with you?
http://www.ex-cult.org/General/totalism-group-dynamics1. MILIEU CONTROL - Control of the Environment and Communication
The control of human communication is the most basic feature of the
thought reform environment. This is the control of what the individual
sees, hears, reads, writes, experiences and expresses. It goes even
further than that, and controls the individuals communication with
himself - his own thoughts.
4. CULT OF CONFESSION - Reporting to leadership
This is closely related to the demand for purity. Confession is
carried beyond the ordinary religious, legal and therapeutic expressions
to the point of becoming a cult in itself. In totalist hands,
confession becomes a means of exploiting, rather than offering solace
for these vulnerabilities.
Totalist confession is an act of self-surrender, the expression of
the merging of the individual and environment. There is a dissolution of
self, talents and money. Conformity.
The cult of confession has effects quite the reverse of its ideal
of total exposure; rather than eliminating personal secrets, it
increases and intensifies them.
The individual becomes caught up in continuous conflict over which
secrets to preserve and which to surrender, over ways to reveal lesser
secrets can be revealed and ways to protect more important ones.
The cult of confession makes it virtually impossible to attain
reasonable balance between worth and humility.
6. LOADING THE LANGUAGE - Thought terminating cliches
Everything is compressed into brief, highly reductive,
definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorised and easily expressed.
There are "good" terms which represents the groups ideology and
"evil" terms to represent everything outside which is to be rejected.
Totalist language is intensely divisive, all-encompassing jargon,
unmercifully judging. To those outside the group this language is
tedious - the language of non-thought.
This effectively isolates members from outside world. The only
people who understand you are other members. Other members can tell if
you are really one of them by how you talk.
This narrowness of the language is constricting. The individual is
linguistically deprived because language is central to the human
experience and his capacities for thinking and feeling are immensely
restricted.
While initially this loaded language can give a sense of security
to the new believer, an uneasiness develops over time. This uneasiness
may result in a withdrawal into the system and he preaches even harder
to hide his problem and demonstrate his loyalty. It may also produce
an inner division and the individual will publicly give the right
performance while privately have his own thoughts.
Either way, his imagination becomes increasingly disassociated from
his actual life experiences and may even tend to atrophy from disuse.
8. DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE - Who is worthy to live
They have the right to decide who is worthy of life and who isn't.
They also decide which history books are accurate and which are not.
Those in the organisation are worthy of life; those outside worthy
of death. The outsiders can be permitted to live if they change and
become an insider. Members live in fear of being pronounced "dead".
They have a fear of annihilation or extinction. The emotional conflict
is one of "being vs nothingness".
Existence comes to depend upon creed (I believe, therefore I am),
upon mission (I obey, therefore I am) and beyond these, upon a sense of
total merger with the organisation. Should he stray from the "truth"
his right to exist may be withdrawn and he is pronounced "dead".
