This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1986, Volume 3, Number 1, pages 3-24. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of Thought Reforming Techniques

Richard Ofshe, Ph.D.

Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the literature concerning the use of massive social pressure to substantially modify a person's worldview. The use of "coordinated programs of coercive influence and behavior control" in China and the Soviet Union as well as in American cultic, "growth," and psychotherapy organizations is considered. Special consideration is given to the centrality of the aspects of a person's identity, which are denigrated and undercut in coercive influence and control programs. It is suggested that the technology of this sort of influence has developed well beyond what was employed in the Soviet Union and China. Applications in these cases were largely for the purpose of extracting confessions and carrying out political "thought reform." The development in technology reflects a focusing upon central rather than peripheral aspects of a person's self and the use of techniques, often borrowed from clinical psychological practice, to neutralize a person's psychological defenses. Evidence is reviewed which suggests that there is a risk factor associated with exposure to the type of influence tactics used by some organizations that attempt thought reform.

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