The anatomy of undue influence used by terrorist cults and traffickers to induce helplessness and trauma, so creating false identities

Ethics, Medicine and Public Health (2019) 8, 97—107

The anatomy of undue influence used by terrorist cults and traffickers to induce helplessness and trauma, so creating false identities

Anatomie de l’influence indue utilisée par les sectes et les trafiquants terroristes pour induire l’impuissance et le traumatisme, créant ainsi de fausses identités

S.A. Hassan (MEd, LMHC, NCC) , M.J. Shah (MA) Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc., 716 Beacon Street #590443, 02459 Newton, MA, USA b Dare Association, Inc., 234, Huron Avenue, Cambridge, 02138 MA, USA

Received 1st August 2018; accepted 1st March 2019 

Summary There is a need to update the legal system to recognize the use of hypnosis and undue influence occurring throughout the world. Extremist groups are deceptively recruiting and indoctrinating people to do terrorist attacks. Human traffickers are grooming and using hypnosis and social influence techniques to create labor and sex slaves. In this paper, a number of key concepts and models will be used to more fully define DSM-5’s Dissociative Disorder 300.15: Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory, along with Robert Jay Lifton and Margaret Singer’s work (1995) are the foundation of the BITE model of mind control (Hassan, 1988). Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional Control are the four overlapping components through which destructive groups bring people to be obedient and compliant to authority. A programmed cult identity is created through a complex social influence process. That false identity dominates real identity. The ethics and morality of undue influence are understood differently. In this paper, we analyze the techniques of breaking down the existing personality and creating a false or pseudo-identity. The Influence Continuum and BITE mind control model and Lifton’s eight criteria for Thought Reform are discussed; Scheflin’s Social Influence Model (2015) is presented as one tool for analyzing undue influence in a forensic and juridical context.