Thos of us who were raised in the JW's (in this I mean those of us who were either born into, were under the age of 6), those false predictions have left many of us with some serious psych hang ups.
JW doctrine is based on instilling fear in a person, and they the only way to cure the fear is follow the sierra for brains in Brooklyn. One cannot maintain the guilt/fear mentality for any length of time before the mind starts to breakdown from the stress. In short, human beings are not designed to maintain the flight reflex for any lengthy period of time, it is a survival mechnism, not a way of life. It leave us with many trust issues, we are taught from the get go not to trust anyone "of the world" only trust the GB and our brother's and sisters in the congregation, which in turn makes the threat of disfellowshiping such a powerful tool for the Elders.