Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace

Margaret Thaler Singer

"Cults today are bigger than ever, with broad ramifications for national and international terrorism. In this newly revised edition of her definitive work on cults, Singer reveals what cults really are and how they work, focusing specifically on the coercive persuasion techniques of charismatic leaders seeking money and power. The book contains fascinating updates on Heaven's Gate, Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, Hare Krishna, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and the connection between cults and terrorism in Al Queda and the PLO."

https://www.amazon.com/Cults-Our-Midst-Continuing-Against/dp/0787967416

Remembering Margaret Thaler Singer

Reception for Margaret Singer in 1997 at the home of Joseph Kelly and Patrick Ryan in Philadelphia, PA.

"Psychologist who researched and fought cults; expert on brainwashing of captured US soldiers and cult members. Born July 29, 1921, in Denver, CO, USA; died of pneumonia on Nov 23, 2003, in Berkeley, CA, USA; aged 82 years.

Psychologist Margaret Singer was, for almost 50 years, a champion of people who had been kidnapped, brainwashed, or worse by cults and other groups. She was outspoken, bringing the world's attention to the psychology of groups and organisations from Charles Manson's to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church to the People's Temple founded by the Reverend Jim Jones. “The public takes care of their fear by thinking only crazies and stupid people wind up in cults”, Singer told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1997. “I've interviewed over 4000 ex-cult members. There's no one type of person who is vulnerable.”

Singer played cello in the Denver Civic Symphony as she earned her bachelor's degree in speech, master's degree in speech pathology, and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Denver, graduating in 1943. She then worked in the University of Colorado School of Medicine's psychiatry department for 8 years. Her interests in mind control were piqued by her work, beginning in 1953, as a psychologist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC. She studied US soldiers who had been prisoners of war in Korea, many of whom had been brainwashed by their captors into hating their native country.

Singer went on to work at the National Institute of Mental Health, the US Air Force, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shifting her focus to schizophrenia. In 1950s, she moved to the San Francisco area, where her husband, Jerome, had been appointed to the University of California at Berkeley Physics Department; he helped develop MRI. Singer too worked at Berkeley, and was an adjunct professor of psychology there for more than 20 years.

Singer found herself in the midst of cult activity and began working with former cult members and their families on “deprogramming”. Her first high-profile case was that of Patricia Hearst, the newspaper heir kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, who took part in an armed robbery."

" ... She interviewed Charles Manson and countless members of other groups. In the 1990s, she turned her attention to con artists, especially those who prey on the elderly. “The common theme is how people go about influencing each other with words through social and psychological manipulations”, she said in a 1996 interview. “I am a specialist in brainwashing and thought reform. I am especially interested in elder abuse because I will be 75 pretty soon. I am a good example of a tough old bird who wants to help the other old birds see to it their roofs and swings and cages don't get stolen.”

Singer published more than 100 articles and coauthored Cults in Our Midst and Crazy Therapies with long-time collaborator Janja Lalich, a sociologist and ex-cult member. She also received many awards from groups including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Singer was a feisty and savvy antagonist to those who hoped to intimidate her. She told The San Francisco Chronicle in a 2002 profile that after a “cult thug” paid her visits at 2 am for a week, she leaned out her window and yelled, 'I've got a 12-gauge shotgun up here with a spray pattern that'll put a 3-foot hole in you, sonny, and you'd better get off my porch or you'll be sorry! And tell your handlers not to send you back!'"

Excerpted from The Lancet, Volume 363, Issue 9406, p403, January 31, 2004

Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/29/2025 (Cult Trauma, Video, Margaret Singer, Swami Rama, White Only)

Cult Trauma, Video, Margaret Singer, Swami Rama, White Only

Coping with Post Cult Trauma (Margaret Singer)

Criminal: The Guru (Podcast)

"In the late 1960s, a yogi named Swami Rama came to the United States. His followers believed he could read their minds, visit them in their dreams, and manipulate reality. Shruti Swamy was one of them."

LAD: Man is trying to establish a 'whites only' town in America in extremely disturbing developments

Their leader wants to foster what he calls 'traditional white American culture'

" ... [A] man in America is trying to establish a 'whites only' community, with thousands of people already donating to show their support.

In case you weren't aware, the US (and too much of the rest of the world) has a problem with racism and xenophobia. You only need to have watched the viral video from Jubilee, which saw one journalist face up against 20 far-right conservatives, with one man losing his job after outing himself as a fascist and quoting a renowned member of the Nazi party."

" ... Return to the Land is described as 'a private membership association (PMA) for individuals and families with traditional views and European ancestry' and has strict rules regarding ethnicity and eligibility.

A recent video from Sky News captured the life of women living in the community - or as many would see it, cult - and it reveals that 'trad wife' role that most have undertaken.

The trad wife aesthetic has gained popularity on TikTok in recent months, with Emmeline Pankhurst probably rolling in her grave at the thought of the women in the community who decide that their only worth is in the home, with $1000 bonuses also given to families when they welcome a new child."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources about: cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations, and related topics.

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The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not imply that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly endorse the content. We provide information from multiple perspectives to foster dialogue.

Coping with Post Cult Trauma

Coping with Post Cult Trauma (Margaret Singer)

 https://youtu.be/5kXQ09wPLEo?si=XFYqLXinenSEVAlw

Thy Will Be Done

WCCO: Moore Report, Thy Will Be Done January 3, 1980

Produced in 1979 and aired January 3, 1980, Dave Moore hosts a documentary on the rise and controversies of religious cults in Minnesota and across the United States.

Digitized by TCMediaNow a 501c3 dedicated to preserving Twin Cities film and video.

https://youtu.be/kA1Y34QBpek?si=Q6oASpPqv5ln64CB

Crazy Therapies

Crazy Therapies is a 1996 book by Margaret Singer and Janja Lalich that examines questionable therapies and the people who promote them. The book argues that therapies in the holistic and psychotherapy fields are often supported by hype, anecdotal evidence, and personality cults, making it difficult to reach objective conclusions. The authors also identify some techniques that are used to promote "crazy therapies", such as starting certification programs shortly after creating a new procedure and making promises to customers. Singer and Lalich suggest that some red flags to look out for include therapists who say "I don't understand it but it sure does work", or who use jargon that's difficult to understand.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal: Many who consult therapists don't realize that there is little regulation of mental health workers. As a result, some therapists indulge in questionable practices?e.g., "rebirthing," "channeling," "catharsis" (acting out one's hostile emotions). Singer and Lalich (coauthors of Cults in Our Midst, LJ 4/1/95) describe many such methods and offer case studies. In addition, they discern three problems that apply to all these methods: they have not been rigorously tested, and nothing is known about whether people are actually helped by them; people caught up in these questionable therapies are not receiving proven treatment for their initial complaints; and there is a good deal of evidence that many of these therapies are harmful and make use of classic mind-control techniques to keep patients hooked. While not as essential a purchase, this title is a good complement to Jack Gorman's The New Psychiatry (LJ 11/1/96), which concentrates on explaining standards for good mental health care but does not go into detail about the ways in which therapy can be mishandled. Together, the two titles provide a solid background for anyone seeking assistance with life's problems.?Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, Wash.

Review

"Professionals will find the book valuable in that it provides a different perspective on many of their own therapeutic approaches...[it is] worthwhile because it courageously challenges the shamans and rattle shakers, the opportunists and the fakes, and those parts in all of us." (Transactional Analysis Journal)

"A timely, important, much-need and sane expose. If you are considering any kind of alternative therapy, you need to read this book. If you thought you already knew just how crazy therapy can be, guess again. You had no idea until you read this book." (Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of Against Therapy)

"This book is an intelligent, witty guide for anyone who is considering an "innovative" or unconventional approach to mental health or personal transformation."

"Singer brings educated skepticism to her topic--the wide-open field of fringe psychotherapy." (Dallas Morning News)

"A compelling, fascinating, well researched and informative book. By informing consumers of the serious dangers of quack psychotherapies, Singer and Lalich have performed a much needed public service." (R. Christopher Barden, Ph.D., J.D., L.P., adjunct professor of law, University of Minnesota, president, National Association for Consumer Protection in Mental Health Practices)

"Singer and Lalich reveal the dark side of a host of modern, Crazy therapies in which therapists can become persuasive agents of destructive influence. The authors' perceptive, critical analysis is must reading for all mental health professionals, for all current and potential clients of psychotherapy, and for all those interested in how reasoned traditional therapy lost its mind and in our time." (Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D., professor of psychology, Stanford University and author of The Psychology of Attitude Change and Social Influence (1991))

"Crazy Therapies is a much-needed book to help consumers navigate the unregulated filed of psychotherapy."

"This is a consumer guide to help sort out what might be right for you." (The Denver Post)

"Written in a clear, highly entertaining, and popular style, "Crazy Therapies" is just the book for anyone trying to wend their way through the daunting therapeutic maze."

"Tells a sad but fascinating tale of pathological therapies that abound throughout the country."

"This title is a good complement to Jack Gorman's The New Psychiatry. Together, the two titles provide a solid background for anyone seeking assistance with life's problems."

"A startling--and often amusing--expose of the alternative philosophies and practices that can be found in today's ever-growing psychotheraputic marketplace. This book is an intelligent, witty guide for anyone who is considering an 'innovative' or unconventional approach to mental health or personal transformation." (Feminist Bookstore News)

"Crazy Therapies is fascinating reading and would be helpful for anyone considering any innovative approach to mental health or personal transformation."

"...a must read for anyone who believes that there is sometimes little difference between some mental health practices and the occult. This is that rare book that is both highly entertaining and deeply disturbing..." (Behavioural Interventions, April 2001)

From the Inside Flap

Crazy Therapies is a startling--and often downright amusing--expose of the alternative philosophies and practices that can be found in today's ever-growing psychotherapeutic marketplace.While it is true that millions of people are greatly helped by psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, group, and other types of legitimate therapies, each year thousands of vulnerable and unsuspecting individuals go to and trust practitioners who persuade clients to accept with various unfounded and fanciful methods. Generally these enthusiastic--and perhaps ill-trained--therapists are themselves convinced of the healing powers of an array of techniques, some dating back far into time, that range from hilarious to hazardous.

Some clients are helped--most likely as a result of a placebo effect; some lose precious time and money; and yet others are psychologically damaged by some rather offbeat and irrational procedures. Past-life therapy, alien-abduction therapy, rebirthing, and skull bone adjustments, to name a few, might be laughable if the results of some of these bizarre practices weren't so potentially wasteful and at times harmful.

Written by Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich, the book describes actual case histories of people who participated in a variety of controversial therapies. Methods and guidelines distinguishing a legitimate therapeutic approach from one that is irrational, possibly harmful, and sometimes unethical are outlined by the authors. They also offer specific advice on how to avoid the risks of emotional and psychological entanglement with an influential practitioner putting forth a seductive theory. Crazy Therapies is an intelligent, witty guide for anyone who is considering an ?innovative? or unconventional approach to mental health or personal transformation.

From the Back Cover

"Crazy" Therapies is a startling--and often hilarious--expose of the alternative philosophies and practices that can be found in today's ever-growing psychotherapeutic marketplace.While it is true that millions of people are greatly helped by psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, group, and other types of legitimate therapies, each year thousands of vulnerable and unsuspecting individuals go to and trust practitioners who persuade clients to accept with various unfounded and fanciful methods. Generally these enthusiastic--and perhaps ill-trained--therapists are themselves convinced of the healing powers of an array of techniques, some dating back far into time, that range from hilarious to hazardous.Some clients are helped--most likely as a result of a placebo effect; some lose precious time and money; and yet others are psychologically damaged by some rather offbeat and irrational procedures. Past-life therapy, alien-abduction therapy, rebirthing, and skull bone adjustments, to name a few, might be laughable if the results of some of these bizarre practices weren't so potentially wasteful and at times harmful.

About the Author

MARGARET THALER SINGER is a clinical psychologist and emeritus adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. An expert on post-traumatic stress and cults, she lectures widely in the United States and abroad. She is the lead author of Cults in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995).

JANJA LALICH is a writer, consultant, and specialist in cults and psychological manipulation and abuse. She is also the coauthor of Captive Hearts, Captive Minds (1994) and Cults in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995).

Today would have been our mom’s (Margaret Singer's) 100th birthday

July 29, 2021
Happy Birthday, Mom! 
 
Our mom, Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer, was a champion of free speech and personal freedom. As a UC-Berkeley psychology professor, she was one of the world’s leading experts on cults such as Scientology, People’s Temple, Synanon, Moonies/ Unification Church, and other controversial groups and individuals. 
 
She fought tirelessly both in the classroom and the courtroom as an expert witness to expose coercive persuasion (“brainwashing”) by these groups and others. It was nearly 20 years ago that she died, and even today, we get pleasure in recalling our mom’s fights against evil groups, individuals and corporations, and the victories she won in countless David v. Goliath battles.  She paid a price for being outspoken (death threats, dead animals on the door step of our family home in Berkeley, protests at some of her appearances by cults). But these attacks only inspired her more. Our mom embodied the philosophy of Rick Sanchez of “Rick and Morty” cartoons, who says: “Your boos mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer.” I am only sorry she didn’t live to see this cartoon that her grandchildren love so much. I know she would have agreed with this philosophy. Bullies only made her more determined to win. 
 
Beyond her professional life she was one of the great moms of all time. My sister Martha Singer and I are grateful for her love, wisdom, unfailingly good advice, and the Irish Catholic humor she instilled in us.  
 
In tribute to her 100th birthday, I am reprinting a forward I wrote to the “Margaret T. Singer Collection,” a compilation of some of our mom’s scholarly work on cults, brainwashing, psychopaths, evil, and attacks on the self that was edited by Carol Giambalvo & Rosanne Henry.
 
“It's a delight to write about Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer. First of all, she was my mom. So, it's an easy task to conjure up all the wonderful characteristics that made her special to me personally. Equally important, my mom played a leading role in helping to define personal and psychological freedom during a period in world history where one of the greatest threats to civilization and freedom is the manipulation of our beliefs and lives by individuals, cults or other politically motivated groups with a hidden agenda.
 
“Most of the papers presented in this book were written at our brown shingle family home in the Berkeley hills. While she did some of her work at her office at the University of California where she was a professor of psychology, the vast majority of my mother's professional work, thinking, writing and meeting with therapy clients was done at home.
 
“In our family kitchen was a white mat-finish Formica table. The table was the center of our house and the center of my mom's work. The table served as her writing and editing desk. It was used 'to therap' people (a phase coined by my mother because therapy sounded too dismal to her). Many times my sister and I would come home from school to find someone being 'theraped' at the kitchen table. My mom would introduce us after which we would head upstairs so she could continue her session. A number of these individuals were ex-cult members who were seeking my mother's assistance in getting back their minds and their lives. Others were people who valued my mom's insights in helping them live their lives.
 
“The kitchen table also doubled as a message board, note pad, and shopping list. My mom would get a Ticonderoga #2 pencil and jot down important thoughts, insights, phone messages and make her 'to do' list of personal errands. At some point during the week, she would erase the table with a cloth and soapy water.
 
“Also on the table, was one of her greatest tools, the telephone. The slim-line phone was many times lost under a pile of research papers, the day's newspapers, books and mail. Despite its occasional camouflage, my mom would find the ringing phone and help whoever was on the other line.
 
“She spoke to thousands of people around the world on the issue of cults and coercive persuasion and helped them via the phone.

“Lastly, and most important to my sister Martha, my father and myself, the kitchen table actually doubled as a kitchen table where the family would gather for meals. Using the 1960s Danish modern chairs that were omnipresent in our household, we would gather around the table and individually recall what had happened in our lives that day as we ate dinner. The talk always turned to the work my mother was doing as well as the work my father was doing in the field of physics. Both of my parents were professors in their respective fields at UC-Berkeley. It should be noted that an occasional student dissertation waiting to be read and many times my mom's own research and papers were slightly stained with food that dripped or splashed off our plates.
 
“If Athens is the center of western civilization, then my mother's kitchen table was the center both of our family and of her passionate philosophy of freedom of expression and of the mind.
 
“She argued fascinatingly and endlessly about the insidious religious, political and individual cults that manipulated individuals into what Robert J. Lifton described as "the most dangerous direction of the twentieth-century mind–the quest for absolute or 'totalistic' belief systems."
 
“She was very focused on how environmental and psychological manipulation was being expedited by modern day cults. And, how ultimately, the techniques of mind control and thought reform were designed to destabilize an individual's sense of reality and self.
 
“You will assuredly find the speeches and papers in this book as fascinating today as when my mother first produced these works. Her ability to use her Irish Catholic heritage and its great tradition of story-telling brings brilliant clarity to the subject and threat of thought reform today.
 
“My mother passed away in 2003. Being the type of person she was, she worked up until her hospitalization and death. Today, her work is as relevant and as important–if not more so–than when it was originally created.
 
“Nearly every place in the world today is threatened by some group or cult that is using the principals of mind control and thought reform to manipulate unknowing individuals. From our shores to the Middle East, from crazed celebrities jumping on couches to cult ownership of one of the nation's capital's daily newspapers, religious and political cults have a sinister ability to insinuate themselves into the mainstream and to attempt to gain an air of respectability. Margaret Singer valued those who stood up to cults and manipulative leaders. I am only sorry that she did not live to see the "South Park" television show's send-up of Scientology and the group's reaction to the piece. She would have loved it.
 
“My mother's greatest admonition to her family–and to her friends and clients–was always this: don't be afraid to walk away from anything that doesn't seem right. She always noted how cults and groups played on the systematic manipulation of social norms. If anything, being the person that she was, she personally wouldn't walk away from things that didn't seem right–she challenged them upfront and in their face. One of the things that I value most of all in recalling my mother, and her work, is that she was the first person to challenge and ask questions of anyone and any group in any setting. She feared nothing.
 
“I am thankful to have had such a wonderful, tough, thoughtful, philosophical and street-smart person for my mother. I hope that the thoughts presented in this effort, as well as her books Cults in our Midst and Crazy Therapies, continue to advance the freedom of thought, expression, and belief that my mother so prized.
 
“On behalf of my father Dr. Jerome Singer, my sister Dr. Martha Singer, my wife Sharon Rollins, and our families, we hope you take the information in this volume and use it to help educate others to the great threat of psychological and social manipulation that we face in the world today from cults, new age groups and totalistic belief systems.”
 
Sam Singer
San Francisco, California

What Is A Cult and How Does It Work?

Margaret Singer
International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)
October 12, 2014

Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and emeritus adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who counseled and interviewed more than 3,000 current and former cult members, relatives and friends.

• What is a Cult and How Does it Work?
• What are cults?  
• How do cults operate?  
• How many people are involved in cults?  
• What are cult leaders' goals and methods?  
• How do cults recruit?  
• What is thought reform?  
• Inside the group.  
• Development of a cult. 
• Pseudoidentity.  
• Returning to the outside world.

CrazyTherapies: What Are They? Do They Work?

Excerpts from the book Crazy Therapies by Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich

The Therapeutic Relationship

The relationship between patient and therapist is unique in important ways when compared to relationships between clients and other professionals such as physicians, dentists, attorneys, and accountants. The key difference is present from first contact: it is not clearly understood exactly what will transpire. There is no other professional relationship in which consumers are more in the dark than when they first go to see a therapist.

In other fields, the public is fairly well informed about what the professional does. Tradition, the media, and general experience have provided consumers with a baseline by which to judge what transpires. If you break your arm, the orthopedist explains she will take an X ray and set the bone; she tells you something about how long the healing will take if all goes well and gives you an estimate of the cost. When you go to a dentist, you expect him to look at your teeth, take a history, explain what was noted, and recommend a course of treatment with an estimate of time and cost. Your accountant will focus on bookkeeping, tax reports, and finances, and help you deal with regulatory agencies.

Consumers enter these relationships expecting that the training, expertise, and ethical obligations of the professional will keep the client’s best interests foremost. Both the consumer and the professional are aware of each person’s role, and it is generally expected that the professional will stick to doing what he or she is trained to do. The consumer does not expect his accountant to lure him into accepting a new cosmology of how the world works or to “channel” financial information from “entities” who lived thousands of years ago; or for his dentist to induce him to believe that the status of his teeth was affected by an extraterrestrial experimenting on him. Nor does the patient expect the orthopedist to lead him to think the reason he fell and broke his arm was because he was under the influence of a secret Satanic cult.

But seeing a therapist is a far different situation for the consumer. In the field of psychotherapy there is no relatively agreed upon body of knowledge, no standard procedures that a client can expect. There are no national regulatory bodies, and not every state has governing boards or licensing agencies. There are many types and levels of practitioners. Often the client knows little or nothing at all about what type of therapy a particular therapist “believes in” or what the therapist is really going to be doing in the relationship with the client.

In meeting a therapist for the first time, most consumers are almost as blind as a bat about what will transpire between the two of them. At most, they might think they will probably talk to the therapist and perhaps get some feedback or suggestions for treatment. What clients might not be aware of is the gamut of training, the idiosyncratic notions, and the odd practices that they may be exposed to by certain practitioners.

Consumers are a vulnerable and trusting lot. And because of the special, unpredictable nature of the therapeutic relationship, it is easy for them to be taken advantage of. This makes it all the more incumbent on therapists to be especially ethical and aware of the power their role carries in our society. The misuse and abuse of power is one of the central factors in what goes wrong.

Questions to Ask Your Prospective Therapist

Ultimately, a therapist is a service provider who sells a service. A prospective client should feel free to ask enough questions to be able to make an informed decision about whether to hire a particular therapist.


We have provided a general list of questions to ask a prospective therapist, but feel free to ask whatever you need to know in order to make a proper evaluation. Consider interviewing several therapists before settling on one, just as you might in purchasing any product.


Draw up your list of questions before phoning or going in for your first appointment. We recommend that you ask these questions in a phone interview first, so that you can weed out unlikely candidates and save yourself the time and expense of initial visits that don’t go anywhere.


If during the process a therapist continues to ask you, “Why do you ask?” or acts as though your questioning reflects some defect in you, think carefully before signing up. Those types of responses will tell you a lot about the entire attitude this person will express toward you – that is, that you are one down and he is one up, and that furthermore you are quaint to even ask the “great one” to explain himself.


If you are treated with disdain for asking about what you are buying, think ahead: how could this person lead you to feel better, plan better, or have more self-esteem if he begins by putting you down for being an alert consumer? Remember, you may be feeling bad and even desperate, but there are thousands of mental health professionals, so if this one is not right, keep on phoning and searching.


1. How long is the therapy session?


2. How often should I see you?


3. How much do you charge? Do you have a sliding scale?


4. Do you accept insurance?


5. If I have to miss an appointment, will I be billed?


6. If I am late, or if you are late, what happens?


7. Tell me something about your educational background, your degrees. Are you licensed?


8. Tell me about your experience, and your theoretical orientation. What type of clients have you seen? Are there areas you specialize in?


9. Do you use hypnosis or other types of trance-inducing techniques?


10. Do you have a strong belief in the supernatural? Do you believe in UFOs, past lives, or paranormal events? Do you have any kind of personal philosophy that guides your work with all your clients?


11. Do you value scientific research? How do you keep up with research and developments in your field?


12. Do you believe that it’s okay to touch your clients or be intimate with them?


13. Do you usually set treatment goals with a client? How are those determined? How long do you think I will need therapy?


14. Will you see my partner, spouse, or child with me if necessary in the future?


15. Are you reachable in a crisis? How are such consultations billed?

After the Interview, Ask Yourself:

1. Overall, does this person appear to be a competent, ethical professional?


2. Do I feel comfortable with the answers I got to my questions?


3. Am I satisfied with the answers I got to my questions?


4. Are there areas I’m still uncertain about that make me wonder whether this is the right therapist for me?


Remember, you are about to allow this person to meddle with your mind, your emotional well-being and your life. You will be telling her very personal things, and entrusting her with intimate information about yourself and other people in your life. Take seriously the decision to select a therapist, and if you feel you made a mistake, stop working with that one and try someone else.

How To Evaluate Your Current Therapy

What if you have been in treatment a while? What do you ask or consider in order to help evaluate what is going on? The issues below may assist.
Do you feel worse and more worried and discouraged than when you began the therapy?


Sometimes having top access one’s current life can be a bit of a downer, but remember, you went for help. You may feel you are not getting what you need. Most important, watch out if you call this to your therapist’s attention and he says, “You have to get worse in order to get better.” That’s an old saw used as an exculpatory excuse. Instead of discussing the real issues, which a competent therapist would, this response puts all the blame on you, the client. The therapist one-ups you, telling you he knows the path you have to travel. It’s an evasion that allows the therapist to avoid discussing how troubled you are and that his treatment or lack of skill may be causing or, at the very least, contributing to your state.
Is your therapist professional? Does he seem to know what he is doing? Or do features such as the following characterize your therapy:


· The therapist arrives late, takes phone calls, forgets appointments, looks harassed and unkempt, smells of alcohol, has two clients arrive at one time, or otherwise appears not to have her act together at a basic level.


· The therapist seems as puzzled or at sea as you do about your problems?


· The therapist seems to lack overall direction, has no plans about what you two are doing.


· The Therapist repeats and seems to rely on sympathetic platitudes such as “Trust me,” or “Things will get better. Just keep coming in.”


· The therapy hour is without direction and seems more like amiable chitchat with a friend.
Does your therapist seem to be controlling you, sequestering you from family, friends, and other advisers?


· Does the therapist insist that you not talk about anything from your therapy with anyone else, thus cutting off the help that such talk normally brings to an individual, and making you seem secretive and weird about your therapy?


· Does the therapist insist that your therapy is much more important in your life than it really is?


· Does the therapist make himself a major figure in your life, keeping you focusing on your relationship with him?


· Does the therapist insist that you postpone decisions such as changing jobs, becoming engaged, getting married, having a child, or moving, implying or openly stating that your condition has to be cured and his imprimatur given before you act on your own?


· Does the therapist mainly interpret your behavior as sick, immature, unstable? Does he fail to tell you that many of your reactions are normal, everyday responses to situations?


· Does the therapist keep you looking only at the bad side of your life?
Does your therapist try to touch you?


· Handshakes at the beginning and end of a session can be routine. Anything beyond that is not acceptable. Some clients do allow their therapist to hug them when they leave, but this should be done only after you’ve been asked and have given your approval. If you are getting the impression that the touching is becoming or is blatantly sexualized, quit the therapy immediately.


· Are you noticing what we call “the rolling chair syndrome”? Some therapists who begin to touch and encroach on the bodies of their clients have chairs that roll, and as time goes by they roll closer and closer. Before you realize what’s happened, your therapist might have rolled his chair over and clasped your knees between his opened legs. He may at first take this as a comforting gesture. Don’t buy it!
Does your therapist seem to have only one interpretation for everything? Does she lead you to the same conclusion about your troubles no matter what you tell her?


You might have sought help with a crisis in your family, a seemingly irresolvable dilemma at your job, some personal situation, a mild depressed state after a death of a loved one, or any number of reasons. But before you were able to give sufficient history so that the therapist could grasp why you were there and what you wanted to work on, the therapist began to fit you into a mold. You find that, for example, the therapist insists on focusing on your childhood, telling you your present demeanor suggests that you were ritually abused or subjected to incest, or that you may be a multiple personality – currently three very faddish diagnoses.

--Excerpted with permission from “Crazy” Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? By Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich.

An Evening with Margaret Thaler Singer and Louis Jolyon West

An Evening with Margaret Thaler Singer and Louis Jolyon West: Reflections Across 50 Years of Studying Mind Control and Psychological Abuse.

"Children and Cults" Conference, May 29 - 31, 1998 Philadelphia, PA

Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D., Emeritus Adjunct Professor of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley

Louis J. West, M.D. Director Emeritus, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California at Los Angeles

The Man Who Saves You from Yourself Going undercover with a cult infiltrator

Harper's REPORT — From the November 2013 issue "The Man Who Saves You from Yourself Going undercover with a cult infiltrator"
By Nathaniel Rich

Nobody ever joins a cult. One joins a nonprofit group that promotes green technology, animal rights, or transcendental meditation. One joins a yoga class or an entrepreneurial workshop. One begins practicing an Eastern religion that preaches peace and forbearance. The first rule of recruitment, writes Margaret Singer, the doyenne of cult scholarship, is that a recruit must never suspect he or she is being recruited. The second rule is that the cult must monopolize the recruit’s time. Therefore, in order to have any chance of rescuing a new acolyte, it is critical to act quickly. The problem is that family and friends, much like the new cult member, are often slow to admit the severity of the situation. “Clients usually don’t come to me until their daughter is already to-the-tits brainwashed,” says David Sullivan, a private investigator in San Francisco who specializes in cults. “By that point the success rate is very low.”

Sullivan became fascinated with cults in the late Sixties, while attending Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado. It was a golden age for religious fringe groups, and Boulder was one of the nation’s most fertile recruiting centers, as it is today. (There are now, according to conservative estimates, 2 million adults involved in cults in America.) “You couldn’t walk five steps without being approached by someone asking whether you’d like to go to a Buddhist meeting,” says John Stark, a high school friend of Sullivan’s. Representatives from Jews for Jesus and the Moonies set up information booths in the student union at the University of Colorado, a few miles down the road from Fairview High. Sullivan engaged the hawkers, accepted the pamphlets, attended every meditation circle, prayer circle, shamanic circle. When the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi led a mass meditation session at the university, Sullivan was there, watching from the back of the lecture hall.

Read compete article at Harper's