See [
www.culteducation.com]
It's really not that complicated or difficult to follow what coercive persuasion is.
Ofshe who is a sociologist and professor at Stanford University descibes it succintly.
"The reliance on intense interpersonal and psychological attack to destabilize an individual's sense of self to promote compliance"
He then uses four criteria to demonstrate how this is done.
1. The use of an organized peer group
2. Applying interpersonal pressure to promote conformity
4. The manipulation of the totality of the person's social environment to stabilize behavior once modified.
Robert Jay Lifton, a psychiatrist and author of the seminal book "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalsim" describes what is commonly called "brainwashing" through eight criteria.
1. Control of communication
2. Emotional and behavioral manipulation
3. Demands for absolute conformity to behavior prescriptions derived from the ideology
4. Obsessive demands for confession
5. Agreement that the ideology is faultless
6. Manipulation of language in which cliches substitute for analytic thought
7. Reinterpretation of human experience and emotion in terms of doctrine
8. Classification of those not sharing the ideology as inferior and not worthy of respect
This is quite different from other forms of persuasion as outlined in a chart composed by clinical psychologist Margaret Singer.
Singer makes distinctions between education, advertising, propaganda, indoctrination and thought reform.
See [
www.culteducation.com]
In the recovery process it's important to sort through these issues effectively.
There is a recovery section within this Web site to assist former members of destructive groups.
See [
www.culteducation.com]