Residential Treatment to Cult

[psy]

I found a real gem here researching transference:

http://www.whyaretheydead.net/misc/Factnet/HALPERNB.TXT
and more here:
http://www.whyaretheydead.net/misc/Factnet/HALPERIN.TXT

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                         Residential  Treatment
                   The Potential for Cultic Evolution

                         David A. Halperin, M.D.
                Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
                        Arnold Markowitz, M.S.W.
                    Cult Hotline and Clinic, New York

                                Abstract

The residential treatment center provides an invaluable holding
environment where the severely impaired are helped to develop
intrapersonal awareness, interpersonal skills, and the ability to
function autonomously.  In real and symbolic terms, the residential
treatment setting serves as a second-chance family.  Here residents are
given the opportunity to experience and grow within a close-knit
communitty with a goal of enhancing the sense of self.  Like all
psychotherapy, the individual's ultimate growth is the product of an
initial period of dependency and regression.  In this context,
responsible mental health professionals have questioned whether or not
the development of intense dependency bonds may render individuals
incapable of functioning outside of this "protective" setting....

Just some interesting information...