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Janja Lalich
Janja Lalich (b. 1945) is an American sociologist and writer. Lalich is best known as a foremost expert on cults and coercion, charismatic authority, power relations, ideology and social control. She is a professor emerita of sociology at the California State University, Chico. Early life and education The daughter of Serbian immigrants, Lalich was born in 1945. Lalich has a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. Beginning in the 1970s, Lalich spent around ten years as part of a radical Marxist-Leninist group, the Democratic Workers Party in California. She later came to realize that the group was a cult. Lalich recalls that during her time in the group she stored questions and doubts in the back of her mind, unable to express them. Lalich became a high-ranking member of the group working long hours with little contact outside the immediate members. She claims that ex-members were harassed and attacked and that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California State University, Chico
California State University, Chico, or commonly, Chico State, is a public university in Chico, California. Founded in 1887, it is the second oldest campus in the California State University system. As of the fall 2020 semester, the university had a total enrollment of 16,630 students. The university offers 126 bachelor's degree programs, 35 master's degree programs, and four types of teaching credentials. Chico is a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI). History On March 12, 1887, a legislative act was enacted to create the Northern Branch of the California State Normal School. Less than a month later, Chico was chosen as the location. On June 24, 1887, General John Bidwell donated of land from his cherry orchard. Then on July 4, 1888, the first cornerstone was laid. On September 3, 1889, doors opened for the 90 enrolled students. The library opened on January 11, 1890, with 350 books. On June 20, 1891, the first graduation took place, a class of 15. In 1910, Annie Kennedy Bidw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial and weakly defined—having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia—and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study. Richardson, James T. 1993. "Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular-Negative." ''Review of Religious Research'' 34(4):348–56. . . An older sense of the word involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, related to a particular figure, and often associated with a particular place. References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word. While the literal and original sense of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crazy Therapies
''"Crazy" Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work?'' is a book by the psychologist Margaret Singer and the sociologist Janja Lalich. It was published by Jossey-Bass in 1996. Content Singer and Lalich's intended audience is psychiatric and psychotherapy patients. They discuss a list of severe warning signs that psychotherapy patients should pay attention to, regardless of the psychotherapist's credentials or reputation. They discuss these in detail and quantify them into ten classic behaviour patterns. These include potential sexual abuse; asking the patient to perform menial chores; discussing the psychotherapist's own problems in detail; asking the patient to cut off relations with friends and family; diagnosing the patient's condition before thoroughly discussing the issue; claiming the patient must be hypnotized in order to sort through past memories; treating patients as if they all have the same psychological root cause of illness; claiming to have a magical miracle techni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cults In Our Midst
''Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives'' is a study of cults by Margaret Singer and Janja Lalich, Ph.D., with a foreword by Robert Jay Lifton. Overview Singer writes: In this book I will use the term ''cult'' and ''cultic group'' to refer to any one of a large number of groups that have sprung up in our society and that are similar in the way that they originate, their power structure, and their governance. Cults range from the relatively benign to those that exercise extraordinary control over members' lives and use thought-reform processes to influence and control members. While the conduct of certain cults causes nonmembers to criticize them, the term cult is not in itself pejorative but simply descriptive. It denotes a group that forms around a person who claims to have a special mission or knowledge, which they will share with those who turn over most of their decision making to that self-appointed leader. In 2003 a revised edition of the book titl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captive Hearts, Captive Minds
''Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Relationships'' is a study of cults and abusive relationships by Madeleine Landau Tobias, Janja Lalich, Ph.D., and Michael Langone. It was published by Hunter House Publishers in 1994. In 2006, the book was reissued as ''Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships''. In her book '' Twisted Scriptures: Breaking Free from Churches that Abuse'', Christian countercult author Mary Alice Chrnalogar cites ''Captive Hearts, Captive Minds'' and adds a note that the book is "excellent for former New Agers". The work is extensively cited in Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth's '' On the Edge: Political Cults Left and Right'' in their chapter on Marlene Dixon. Robert L. Snow cites the work in his book, '' Deadly Cults: The Crimes of True Believers'', to analyze predisposing factors that might make certain individuals more inclined than others to join cults. Snow cites Lalich and Tob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Cultic Studies Association
The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) is a non-profit anti-cult organization focusing on groups it defines as "cultic" and their processes. It publishes the ''International Journal of Cultic Studies'' and other materials. History ICSA was founded in 1979 in Massachusetts as the American Family Foundation (AFF) – one of several dozen disparate parents' groups founded in the late 1970s by concerned parents. For a time it was affiliated with the Citizens’ Freedom Foundation (CFF) which later became the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). It also developed links with Christian counter-cult movements such as the Christian Research Institute. In December 2004, it changed its named from American Family Foundation to International Cultic Studies Association. ICSA is a non-profit organization, with a stated mission "to study psychological manipulation, especially as it manifests in cultic and related groups".Cowan, Douglas E. and Bromley, David G. ''Cults and New Religions: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Singer
Margaret Thaler Singer (July 29, 1921 – November 23, 2003) was an American clinical psychologist and researcher with her colleague Lyman Wynne on family communication. She was a prominent figure in the study of undue influence in social and religious contexts, and a proponent of the brainwashing theory of new religious movements. Singer's main areas of research included schizophrenia, family therapy, brainwashing and coercive persuasion. In the 1960s, she began to study the nature of social and religious group influence and mind control, and sat as a board member of the American Family Foundation and as an advisory board member of the Cult Awareness Network. She was the co-author of the book '' Cults in Our Midst''. Education Singer was born in Denver, Colorado, to Margaret McDonough Thaler and Raymond Willard Thaler. Her mother was a secretary to a federal judge and her father was chief operating engineer at the US Mint. While attending the University of Denver, she pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Undue Influence
Undue influence (UI) is a psychological process by which a person's free will and judgement is supplanted by that of another. It is a legal term and the strict definition varies by jurisdiction. Generally speaking, it is a means by which a person gains control over their victims' decision making through manipulation tactics and unfair pressure, typically for financial gain. Historically, UI has been poorly understood, even in some legal circles. Undue influence is typically perpetrated by a person who is trusted by the victim and is dependent on them for emotional and physical needs. caregiver, Caregivers are often found to have unduly influenced their patients, however, anyone in a position of trust and authority over the victim (e.g. fiduciary) may be guilty. This includes the victims' attorney, accountant, nursing home attendant, or even children. UI is a ''process'', not a single event. A manipulator may spend weeks, months, or even years before successfully unduly-influe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Expert Witness
An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as an expert. The judge may consider the witness's specialized (scientific, technical or other) opinion about evidence or about facts before the court within the expert's area of expertise, to be referred to as an "expert opinion". Expert witnesses may also deliver "expert evidence" within the area of their expertise. Their testimony may be rebutted by testimony from other experts or by other evidence or facts. History The forensic expert practice is an ancient profession. For example, in ancient Babylonia, midwives were used as experts in determining pregnancy, virginity and female fertility. Similarly, the Roman Empire recognized midwives, handwriting experts and land surveyors as legal experts. The codified use of expert witnesses and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heaven's Gate (religious Group)
Heaven's Gate was an American new religious movement (often described as a cult), founded in 1974 and led by Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985) and Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997), known within the movement as Ti and Do, respectively. Ti and Do first met in 1972 and went on a journey of spiritual discovery, identifying themselves as the two witnesses of Revelation, attracting a following of several hundred people in the mid-1970s. In 1976, the group stopped recruiting and instituted a monastic lifestyle. Scholars have described the theology of Heaven's Gate as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age, and ufology, and as such it has been characterized as a UFO religion. The central belief of the group was that followers could transform themselves into immortal extraterrestrial beings by rejecting their human nature, and they would ascend to heaven, referred to as the "Next Level" or "The Evolutionary Level Above Human". The death of Nettles from cancer in 1985 challenged the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bounded Choice
''Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults'' is a 2004 psychology and sociology book on cults by Janja Lalich. It was published by University of California Press. Lalich had previously studied Heaven's Gate and the Democratic Workers Party (DWP) for her doctoral dissertation titled "Bounded Choice: The Fusion of Personal Freedom and Self-Renunciation in Two Transcendent Groups", and that research was incorporated into the book. Lalich's methodologies were influenced by the work of Anthony Giddens, Herbert Simon and Robert Lifton. Heaven's Gate, a UFO religion, was used as a model for analyzing the cult structure. According to Rubina Ramji's review, Lalich identifies four structures to cults: charismatic authority, a transcendent belief system, systems of control, and systems of influence. They interlock to create "true believers" who end up in a state of "bounded choice" in the cult. Reception Marion Harmon wrote "Lalich’s research culminated in a new theory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
