This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Journal, 1990, Volume 7, Number 2, pages 126-149. 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.

Persuasive Techniques in Contemporary Cults: A Public Health Approach

Louis Jolyon West, M.D.

Abstract

The persuasive techniques used by totalist cults to bind and exploit their members, while not magical or infallible, are sufficiently powerful and effective to assure the recruitment of a significant percentage of those approached, and the retention of a significant percentage of those enlisted. (The term “significant” here refers to an amount sufficient for the enrichment of the leadership and their accumulation of power.) Such cults are a genuine menace to society because they cause harm to personal families, and the community. Whatever good they do could be done as well or better by other organizations (i.e., benign religious groups, legitimate health professions, and so on) that do not pose the same types of risks to individuals and to the public. The extent of cult-related harm during the past 20 years is sufficient to justify describing it as an epidemic, and calling for a public health approach to the problem. The exercise of such an approach should reduce the number and power of cults, and thus reduce the amount of harm they do, without posing any risk to freedom of religion or to nontotalist organizations.
 

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