What Is a Cult?

What are reliable sources on the subject of cults? Cults, which we’re hearing a lot about in the news lately, are complicated. We need to understand what we mean when we use the term or hear the term cult. To help, I offer the following list of my favorite sources on the topic.

I encourage you to share this post. Links on the book titles take you to Goodreads.com where you can find good descriptions of the books’ contents. In the case of ICSA, the link takes you to their website.

Source list compiled by Charlene L. Edge

Robert Jay Lifton, PhD

Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and The Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry by Robert Jay Lifton. The New Press. 2019. Pg. 4, 5. [Chapter 7: Trump, is very timely].

“I have insisted upon retaining the word “cult” for groups that meet three criteria: First, a shift in worship from broad spiritual ideas to the person of a charismatic guru; second, the active pursuit of a thought reform-like process that frequently stresses some kind of merger with the guru; and third, extensive exploitation from above (by the guru and leading disciples)—whether economic, sexual, or psychological—of the idealism of ordinary followers from below.”

International Cultic Studies Association

ICSA, formerly the American Family Foundation, a nonprofit research and educational organization … uses this definition, adopted at a 1985 conference of scholars and policymakers.

“A cult is a group or movement exhibiting great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing, and employing unethical manipulative or coercive techniques of persuasion and control (e.g., isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it), designed to advance the goals of the group’s leaders, to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community.”

Janja Lalich, PhD

Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults by Janja Lalich. University of California Press. 2004. Pg. 5. Cited source is Benedict Carey, “Method without Madness?” Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2002, etc.

“A cult can be either a sharply bounded social group or a diffusely bounded social movement held together through shared commitment to a charismatic leader. It upholds a transcendent ideology (often but not always religious in nature) and requires a high level of personal commitment from its members in words and deeds.”

Steven Hassan

Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan. Park Street Press. Rochester, Vermont. 1988. Pg. 36.

“A destructive cult distinguishes itself from a normal social or religious group by subjecting its members to deceptive or other damaging influences to keep them in the group.”

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Thanks for reading!

Your writer on the wing,

Charlene