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By the time my friend had witnessed the charming bait strike a women on the course hard across the face and then jump on top of her when she fell to the floor, in a true show of absolute rage (to help this other woman of course), it was too late. The damage had been done. The abuse had been administered, the brainwashing had been achieved and the fear had been instilled. It’s absolutely sickening and it is absolutely undeserved.

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"The trainers are very practised at going into rages. Inquest also has a formal anger process, where people are put in the dark with the music of beating drums, and taunted by shouted insults and sometimes slaps and pokes from the trainers, to hit the floor with sticks and scream. The process goes on for two hours, and during that process usually at least a few people vomit, and some pass out or have fits."

SPOT ON, sane again.. you have articulated this very well...I have for a long time felt that this type of therapy is completely contra-indicated, and there are other therapists who will not use this form of therapy, (the old notion of hitting a pillow, or a newspaper on the arm of a chair, to get your anger out), believing that it in fact has a totally opposite effect, which is that it actually exasserbates the anger. It does not difuse it...rather the anger builds and builds...and of course, recently research has shown that people who express their anger in this way are at far greater risk of heart disease, with is directly attributed to the way they manage their anger. - so I guess the only good news (in a kind of bad way) is that if these freaks don't stop this nonsence, eventually they are all going to die of heart attacks (if someone does not put them out of their misery first - I am referring to the trainers here)...

The trainers do this process themselves regularly, supposedly to "clear" their own anger so that they can be "neutral". In my view, all they're doing is practising tapping into a primitive rage. And this primitive rage is what you see in the contracts process, when the trainer attacks the abused person trying to get their contract. Primitive, but also controlled at the same time, controlled enough that they stop when the person "gets the contract". At least, in those that I have seen.

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"... because they sure as hell know what kind of sh*t they're getting people into. And I hope your friend is not feeling stupid in any way for being recruited, all four of those assistant-trainers are extremely well-skilled at putting on a good impression and finding all the right buttons to push in people, your friend was recruited by a real pro. :evil:

TOO RIGHT!! , sane again,

'shad'

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Cathartic theories are based on the notion that if you express your emotions you will purge yourself of your troubles. There is no proof for this notion, despite its popularity since the time of Aristotle. This notion would seem to have been disproved by experiments with children which find that rather than sublimate aggression when encouraged to be aggressive, the children become more aggressive. It also seems to be disproved every week during football and soccer season, where fans seem to increase their aggression levels while viewing their favorite teams in action. (My favorite story in the book is about the couple who go to a catharsis therapist to help them with their anger. He prods them until they physically assault each other and demolish his office. He sends them a bill for $3,000 and tells them he won't have them as patients!) Singer and Lalich note that "The human organism learns as it acts; the more a certain behavior is practiced, the more it becomes a part of the person's automatic acts." (p. 129) Catharsis therapists seem oblivious to this notion and seem surprised when previously calm patients begin making life miserable for others by becoming more and more aggressive. According to the authors, "...rational therapies assist clients to find ways to talk with others, to change situations, and to identify socially useful and mature means to reduce anger-producing interactions and situations." (p. 130)