I asked my dad about all the disconfirmations he has experienced in his lifetime as a Witness. He was baptized when he was 15 in 1935 and has seen virtually all the beliefs changed that were taught in 1935. He has experienced social setbacks in the group. He has had to change his beliefs countless times. He is 83 and sees he will not collect the promised reward of an opportunity to enter the new world (purgatory) without having to die.
I asked him what he thinks now that he sees everything he preached has been shown was wrong and he is going to die just like he said he would not do. He said he didn't care if it was all wrong, he said, "I couldn't have had a better life.".
That pissed me off because I could have had a better life due to his Witness involvement. I was an outcast in school. I was forced to go to meetings instead of doing homework. I was not prepared for living in the world. I was prepared for dying in Armageddon. He forced me to have a terrible life so he could have his great (delusion) life. And when it is all proved wrong, he tells me me it's not about truth, it's about him having a good life.
I think he is a typical Witness. It's like a political loyalty. It's like citizens of the United States saying they are proud to be Americans in spite of the facts in the history and in the news. Witnessism is more of a political party than a religion. It's more of a multi level marketing business than a religion. Witnesses are captives of a culture they may not especially like but they are comfortable in it. To maintain their comfort, they are willing to overlook error, forget about absolutely no delivery on promised rewards, and live constantly with social ostracism.
They become institutionalized. They are like prisoners who prefer prison. It is very difficult to integrate an institutionalized prisoner back into society. So it is with Witnesses. The Witnesses who are not yet kicked out of the group are aware of the feelings they experience by being away from the group. They have done their own experiments. We may not have noticed them doing them.
Here is a draft of an article I am working on.
Post Exit Syndrome Among Former Jehovah's WitnessesBy: Gary Busselman March 2004
The Jehovah's Witness environment is an institution. Indoctrination, membership and participation tend to create an institutionalized individual. When that institutionalized individual quits the group or gets expelled, she often experiences a set of symptoms. Those symptoms define Post Exit Syndrome.
Post Exit Syndrome among former Jehovah's Witnesses is something I experienced myself as well as observed in other former group members as well as heard described personally by former Witnesses. I have also listened to testimony of many people who observe former Witnesses, like relatives and spouses as well as mental health professionals. Symptoms of Post Exit Syndrome range from anxiety, paranoia, floating episodes, flashbacks, depression, recidivism, post traumatic stress disorder, as well as drug and alcohol addiction. The disorder is caused by the institutionalizing that occurs to the victim by that victim being socially locked in a high control religious (or other) group.
The symptoms of many former Witnesses match almost exactly those experienced by prisoners released from prison after experiencing incarceration for over one year.
- Post Incarceration Syndrome (PIC) is a set of symptoms that are present in many currently incarcerated and recently released prisoners caused by prolonged incarceration in environments of punishment with few opportunities for education, job training, or rehabilitation.(1)
Post Exit Syndrome (PES) is a set of symptoms that are present in many recently released Witnesses caused by prolonged social and environmental incarceration with few opportunities for education, job training, or healthy social interaction.
- The severity of symptoms (of PIC) is related to the level of coping skills prior to incarceration, the length of incarceration, the restrictiveness of the incarceration environment, the number and severity of institutional episodes of abuse, the number and duration of episodes of solitary confinement, and the degree of involvement in educational, vocational, and rehabilitation programs.(1)
The severity of symptoms of Post Exit Syndrome is related to the level of coping skills prior to joining the Witness group, the length of involvement with the group, the restrictiveness of the congregation the victim was associated with, the number and severity of institutional episodes of abuse, the number and duration of episodes of punishment such as marking, shunning, or invasive counseling, and the degree of involvement with the management and enforcement level of participation.
Unlike prisoners, Witnesses can be born and raised in the institutional environment. Thus the issue of institutionalized children and adolescents.
- PICS, which often coexists with substance abuse disorders, is a mixed mental disorder with four clusters of symptoms:
- 1. Institutionalized Personality Traits resulting from the common deprivations of incarceration, a chronic state of learned helplessness in the face of prison authorities, and antisocial defenses in dealing with a predatory inmate milieu
2. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from both pre-incarceration trauma and trauma experienced within the institution
3. Antisocial Personality Traits developed as a coping response to institutional abuse and a predatory prisoner milieu
4. Social-Sensory Deprivation Syndrome caused by prolonged exposure to solitary confinement
- A fifth cluster, reactive substance use disorders, is caused by the use of alcohol and other drugs to manage or escape the PICS symptoms.(1)
1. a.) Institutionalized Personality TraitsActive Witnesses display an Institutionalized Personality that also exhibits the trait of learned helplessness. They return to the elders (local group managers) for decisions on simple matters like attending a birthday party or voting in an election. They turn to the literature produced by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society for the latest rule on medical treatment, approved jobs, and current views of how to treat former members.
Prisoners come to be reactive to their environment. They have lots of bells. Every bell means something and they become conditioned to the bells. The Witnesses have reset triggers such as words in their loaded language. (2) Witnesses become reactive to the triggers in their conditioning, like going into a church, or standing for the National Anthem. They won't think about those things. They will instinctively react just like the inmate reacts to the bell.
1. b.) Antisocial DefensesAntisocial behaviors are often exhibited by the elders in their dealing with rule breakers and by the members in their behavior towards people who expose those members to information designed to show some error of the group, such as failed predictions, like 1975, or to show the group in unattractive light such as the United Nations involvement or referring to a program like the Dateline TV show.
I have observed Witnesses screaming, slamming doors, raising voices, rude behaviors like interrupting, and making threats of shunning or death by their God at Armageddon.
- 2.) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- You don't have to be a soldier to be diagnosed with PTSD. You only have to be a survivor of some traumatic event. Awake! August 22, 2001 (5)
That's an interesting admission from the group that is prolific at manufacturing "traumatic events" and just happens to be our subject in this article. The Witness group holds trials where minors can be charged and forced to meet with two or three elders who may be strangers in a room without windows behind a closed door. The charged are not allowed to face (or sometimes to even know the names of) their accusers, not allowed to call witnesses on their behalf, not allowed representation, and not allowed to take notes or record the trial. Most Witnesses I am aware of who have been through this type of trial suffer from some of the symptoms of PTSD.
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape. People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person's daily life.
- PTSD is marked by clear biological changes as well as psychological symptoms. PTSD is complicated by the fact that it frequently occurs in conjunction with related disorders such as depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition, and other problems of physical and mental health. The disorder is also associated with impairment of the person's ability to function in social or family life, including occupational instability, marital problems and divorces, family discord, and difficulties in parenting. (6)
The article also states that among those likely to develop PTSD are:
- Those who experience greater stressor magnitude and intensity, unpredictability, uncontrollability, sexual (as opposed to nonsexual) victimization, real or perceived responsibility, and betrayal (as well as) those with a social environment that produces shame, guilt, stigmatization, or self-hatred (ibid)
The Witness environment certainly is designed to produce an intensity marked by unpredictability, lack of individual control, physical as well as verbal and mental abuse, a perceived responsibility to save the world from doom, and eventual betrayal form those Witnesses loved and trusted. Witnesses are required to feel shame for not meeting the ideals set by the group leaders, guilt for not trying harder, stigmatization as a member by official designation or gossip and self hatred for being rejected and shunned.
- The two most prominent reasons for correctional officers being terminated or placed on disciplinary leave is the introduction of contraband into the facility, and sexual misconduct with an inmate or another officer on facility property. (American Correctional Association, 2002) (3)
The two most prominent reasons for Witnesses being terminated (disfellowshipped) is introduction of contraband ideas or literature into the institution, and sexual behavior. Witnesses disfellowship approximately one percent per year. (4)
The difference between involvement with the Witness group and inmates in a prison system, is that with prisoners, they are marked and punishment is decided before they enter the institution. Witnesses are marked and punishment is decided after they get out of their institution, but the consequences and after effects of the institutionalization of both groups is the same.
(1) News from the worlds of research and clinical practice
Volume 3, No. 4: Post Incarceration SyndromeMarch 1, 2001
http://www.mid-attc.org/addex/addex3_4.htm(2) Thought Reform, The Psychology Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton
(3) http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/topic/29388.html(4) The Watchtower, July 1, 1992, p.19 Elders, Judge With Righteousness
(5) Awake!Awake! August 22, 2001
(6) National Center for PTSD What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?
http://www.ncptsd.org/facts/general/fs_what_is_ptsd.html
"Note: Reports have been received where elders have
revealed confidential matters to their wives or others in
the congregation." (Pay Attention 1977 p.65)
"Sadly, in recent times it has been necessary to disfellowship tens
of thousands of unrepentant wrongdoers each year. Prominent
elders have been included among them."
(Proclaimers, WTBTS 1993, p. 187)