Many of us grow into adulthood with parts of our emotional growth missing, cult leaders and manipulators appear to be a segment of society who have not grown beyond the need to manipulate during childhood.

Which behaviours of the cult / manipulative group or person are childish aspects of the psyche?

Let’s take a look at two regular child like statements:

“If you don’t do _______ I’ll hold my breath” - til I go blue and scare the heck out of you into compliance.

“I want it NOW... *insert very loud public tantrum / refusal to leave store here*” - I’ll only stop the chaos when you comply.

Kids are chancing it of course, it’s worth a try if they can potentially get what they want or have something their way with no consideration of others wishes.

If there is a particular behaviour that came from a cult or manipulator that you are dealing with and would like to have a go at understanding, you can try looking at it to see if it was essentially a childish behaviour.

If it works out, this type of understanding may lead to a little more peace inside.

It doesn’t mean that the cult, persons or group with the behaviour are not responsible for their actions, it just means that you’re helping yourself to make sense of what was likely a very confusing situation.