I worry about you all, regarding the promotion of "Steven Hassan's." book. Why? (page 3)

Adiva

AJ,

I'd read your post but there are not paragraph breaks.

Adiva

Sorry, I meant 'no' paragraph breaks.

Adiva

GOrwell

AJ.. you're a great poster.. but, paragraphs man.. use them and love them :)

ziddina

Ah - huh.

Well, since you're so damned worried, where's YOUR list of recommended reading?

Steven Hassan's books are pretty useful, though I found them a little "soft" on the subject of cults. For a number of reasons, people on this board feel that Steven Hassan's books have become the "Go-to" books, nowadays, regarding cults. Probably because Mr. Hassan addresses the thorny issue of attempting to awaken cult members without raising their "cult radar" and their "cult walls"...

However, here's MY LIST - which I read selections from, shortly after exiting in the EARLY 1980's....

The Jonestown tragedy occurred on November 18th, 1978. At that time most people had little to no awareness of what cults were and how dangerous they could be... So these books - generally - were written during the first part of the "learning curve" about cults... Our knowledge has advanced somewhat since then. Here are a few books from that EARLIER time period:

"Cults in America: programmed for paradise" by Willa Appel.

"Dealing with Destructive Cults" by Una McManus & John C. Cooper.

"Cults and the Family" by Florence Kaslow & Marvin B. Sussman.

"Crowds, Groups, and Cults: the role of the cluster instinct in human behavior" by Barbara Ann Martell.

"Kids in Cults: why they join, why they stay, why they leave" by Irvin Doress & Jack N. Porter. Don't know much about this book...

"Cults in America" by David Hanna.

"The Lure of the Cults" by Ronald Enroth. Also, "Youth, Brainwashing, and the Extremist Cults" by Ronald Enroth.

On the other hand, after the "Branch Davidians", "Heavens Gate", and the Oklahoma City bombings, society and science turned their attention to a more complete understanding of cults. These were written recently, and I have not read them. However, they will represent a more current understanding of the issues and dangers. Here is a list of recent books:

"Cults, terror, and mind control" by Raphael Aron.

"Cults and new religions: a brief history" by Douglas E. Cowan & David G. Bromley. This book discusses some of the most extreme cults, like the Unification Church, Scientologists, Heaven's Gate, Branch Davidians - also discusses Wicca and witchcraft. [I'm "heathen", so I might not agree!!]

"Bounded Choice - True Believers and Charismatic Cults" [electronic book] by Janja Lalich - delves into the social psychology of cults using certain examples.

"Cults" Jill Karson, editor.

"Corporate Cults: the insidious lure of the all-consuming organization" by Dave Arnott - also available electronically.

"Charts of Cults, Sects, & Religious Movements" by H. Wayne House. This author is a professor at Faith Seminary in Tacoma, Washington, but also is an adjunct professor of law at Trinity Law School, Trinity International University. [Whether that's the one in Deerfield, Illinois, or just a web site, I don't know ...]

"Cults and Abusive Religion" by Frederick Behrle. I could find no information on this man, other than that he has a "Ph.D" - but in WHAT, I couldn't find out... There IS a "Frederick J. Behrle, Ph.D. of psychology in Pitman, New Jersey... Probably the same man...

"Cults: faith, healing, and coercion" by Marc Galanter, Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine.

"Comprehending Cults: the sociology of new religious movements" by Lorne L. Dawson. He has a M.A. and Ph.D. from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and is Professor of Sociology at University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

"Cults" by Joan D. Barghusen. This is part of a series called "Overview", and takes a look at the histories of various cults. It was apparently generated after the "Branch Davidian" tragedy in Waco, Texas.

"Counseling Cult-Impacted Students" from "Cults on Campus: Continuing Challenge" - this is an ARTICLE written by Bill Goldberg, a social worker who researches cults. He has a private practice that counsels families of cult members, and works for the Rockland County, New York Department of Mental Health, directing three out-patient programs, and has testified on cult matters before several state legislatures.

"Unmasking the Cults" by Alan W. Gomes, professor of Historical Theology at the Talbot School of Theology. This author may have a Christian "axe" to grind...

"Cults and Personality" by Frank J. MacHovec, MA, Ph.D., a retired clinical psychologist who worked 30 years in the field of mental health. This website: http://brainblogger.com/author/fmachovec/ has a series of articles written on the subject of cults and terrorism.

"Cults and New Religious Movements: a report of the American Psychiatric Association" edited by Marc Galanter. See above - Cults, faith, healing, and coercion...

"Cults, Converts and Charisma: the sociology of new religious movements" by Thomas Robbins, a sociologist with a B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. in sociology from University of North Carolina. This Wikipedia article lists some very interesting titles in his list of authored books... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robbins_(sociologist)

"Leaving Cults: the dynamics of defection" by Stuart A. Wright, Professor of Sociology and Director of Research at Lamar University, a PUBLIC University located in Beaumont, Texas. [as opposed to a school of Christian theology...]

Both of these lists were found by searching the public library system centered in the state I live in, Colorado. If you live in the United States, you can request these books through your local library - usually at no cost to you.

And here is a third list that someone else recommended - sounded excellent to me - from this site: http://www.factnet.org/vbforum/archive/index.php/t-9261.html - the entry by Carie Hagan on July 31st, 2002:

"Cults in Our Midst" by Margaret Thaler Singer with Janja Lalich

"Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism" by Robert Jay Lifton

"The Anatomy of Illusion : Religious Cults and Destructive Persuasion" by Thomas W. Keiser and Jacqueline L. Keiser.

"Mind-bending : Brainwashing, Cults, and Deprogramming in the 80's" by Lowell D. Streiker.

"The Manipulated Mind : Brainwashing, Conditioning, and Indoctrination" by Denise Winn.

"Brainwashing and Other Forms of Mind Control" by Margaret O. Hyde.

"Brainwashing and the Cults : an exposé on capturing the human mind" by Paul A. Verdier.

Oh, and as Skeeter mentioned, here's the website of that "International Cultic Studies Association". You might find this useful, too...

http://www.icsahome.com/

Looks like a LOT of reading material!! [eeeeeevil grin!]

OnTheWayOut

I read COMBATTING before I read Ray Franz's books. It totally floored me that Steve Hassan knew nothing about the JW's and that the stuff he wrote proved to me that WTS was just another run-of-the-mill dangerous mind-control cult.

But hey, everyone has their different opinions and spiritual journeys.

I think the best thing about COMBATTING is that you might get a JW on the edge to read it because it isn't from an apostate and it isn't about JW's. If you have other cult books, more power to you but I tried them and they were either too scientific or boring to me or else they focused on telling us about all the different groups out there instead of what to do about it.

COMBATTING told me what to do for myself and RELEASING THE BONDS told me how to work toward helping my JW loved ones.

I also thought Kyria Abrahams' I'M PERFECT, YOU'RE DOOMED was awesome, but we seem to be in two camps on that one- one camp loved it and the other camp was nearly mostly the opposite of love for the book.

Here's one for you- I absolutely thought that all JW's would benefit from seeing the Disney movie, TANGLED. (I am totally not kidding.) It is the story of Repunzel with the long hair. She is "protected" by "Mother" who actually is not about caring for Repunzel but caring for herself. She's protected in the "Tower" and kept away from "the evil world." I could go on and on and try to talk everyone on JWN into making TANGLED our ex-JW theme, but it really wouldn't be for everyone.

Whatever works for you- great. But I enjoy many of the promoted JW helps on JWN. Well, except for Rick Fearon promoting his garbage. Even there, if it's not as great as sliced bread, others let us know.

talesin

Haven't read the thread ... but will give thoughts on the topic and OP ...

haven't read his book ... I did a lot of research on my own in the 90's ...

however,,,

having come to the realization that JW is a cult from my own research,,, I feel that his book(s) would most likely be helpful ...

I *do* find that there is a tendency here, to say that his writings are the "be all and end all" to literature on 'cults'... this is NOT the case, and I urge people to do their own research, including Hassan's books, but not excluding others ..

It is important, imo, to establish a broad knowledge of these issues,,, and not limit yourself to one person's opinions/books.

tal

discreetslave

AJ - is your concern genuinely yours or is it a result of reading Tears of Oberons blog post about Ex JW's idolizing Hassan?

talesin

It totally floored me that Steve Hassan knew nothing about the JW's and that the stuff he wrote proved to me that WTS was just another run-of-the-mill dangerous mind-control cult.

OTOW: Yes! I found the same thing to be true of most of the "research" books about cults, when I did my personal research at the public library.

I was not putting down Hassan's books, rather, saying that if we want to argue the case, we need to have more than one author / researcher that verifies our opinions / viewpoints.

tal

Judge Dread

If you open your sleepy eyes a little bit, you will notice there are 'cults' all over the place.

You don't need to read a book to see them:

I worry about you all, regarding the promotion of "Steven Hassan's." book. Why?

Adiva

Adiva

GOrwell

ziddina

OnTheWayOut

talesin

discreetslave

talesin

Judge Dread

ralorweigh

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