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groups that use behavioral and ideological restrictions have become increasingly popular. Valid criticism of these groupsUnification Church, Hare Krishna, and otherscenters not upon their unusual belief systems but on their use of behavioral restriction and coercive influence techniques that induce radical personality change and psychiatric casualties (Clark, 1983; Conway & Siegelman,
Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Philip Cushman, 5480 College Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618.
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Philip Cushman
Training." The interviews were conducted in order to describe the recruitment-indoctrination process and explain the contradiction between how participants described the training and how outside researchers evaluated the training. It was hoped the results would aid in understanding what this contradiction implied about the training itself and ultimately about the uses and functions of psychological theories in an advanced consumer society. Rationale for the Study The popularity of mass marathon psychology organizations, the techniques they use, and the psychological impact they create raise significant treatment issues and pose public policy dilemmas that need to be faced by the field of psychology. Most important for psychotherapists to consider are a series of issues related to treating clients who have participated in or wish to participate in a training. Many organizations insist on receiving written permission from the participants' therapists before admittance. For this reason therapists need to be able to assess the effect the training will have on their clients' everyday lives, their work, their personal relationships, and their response to therapy. If individuals have at one time participated but have since left the group, therapists need to assess what psychological problems they might be experiencing as a result of participation, or what problems they might be experiencing as a result of refusing to participate further. If a recruit is already in treatment, the therapist needs to determine what to say when asked by the organization to give written permission releasing their client to participate in the training. Also, there is a question as to how the profession as a whole should evaluate therapists who actively recruit their clients to participate in a mass marathon training. There are also questions related to the exact nature of the training itself and what it accomplishes. Four studies, commissioned by the organization in the studies, did not find evidence of psychiatric casualties that could be conclusively traced to the influence of the trainings (Lieberman, 1987; Lieberman & Yalom, 1984; Ross, 1984; Shostrom, 1978). However, it is also important to consider the psychological consequences that may be caused by the training that are not covered by the specific category "psychiatric casualty." For instance, mass marathon psychology participation is often characterized by a kind of true believership in part marked by narcissistic transference reactions and borderline symptoms, cognitive rigidity, lack of critical thinking, impaired reality testing, grandiosity, euphoria, evangelical fervor, a lack of impulse control, and abrupt personality and lifestyle change. Although these behaviors may not qualify the subject for the narrow category of "psychiatric casualty" as defined by one research team (see Lieberman, 1987; Lieberman & Yalom, 1984), what clinical picture do they in fact portray? What is the field to think about training programs that elicit these behaviors? If most participants cannot be considered psychiatric casualties, then what kind of casualties are they? Recently questions have been raised as to whether "education" is an accurate label for mass marathon trainings. If these trainings use psychotherapeutic techniques, are they conducting psychotherapy without a license and without professional training? And if that is in fact the case, what is psychology's responsibility as a profession regarding how they advertise, what they promise, what safeguards they provide? In other words, does the field of psychology have a "duty to warn" the public? The research reported in this article was undertaken in order to collect data to help answer these questions. Research Design The intention of the study was to develop and evaluate the proposed working model of the recruitment-indoctrination process by using the subjects' reports to determine the model's degree of viability. Eighteen subjects, all Vitality graduates, were interviewed. Three subjects (referred to as "technique" subjects) were interviewed to determine the structure of the training, and 15 subjects (referred to as "feeling" subjects) were interviewed to determine their responses to the training. Research guidelines outlined by Lofland (1971) and Kidder (1981) were carefully followed. The participant observation method was originally planned but not undertaken because the organization refused to allow specific behavioral descriptions of the training to be reported to the public. The working model was used to develop research propositions that are detailed descriptive statements about the recruitment-indoctrination process in the Initial Training. Seven statements describe Vitality's employment of certain behavioral techniques, 14 describe the participants' responses to those techniques, and three describe the demographic characteristics of the participants.
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The organization helps the recruits resolve the impasse by explaining to them that behaviors and emotions are not "caused" by outside forces (e.g., the demands of the organization) but emerge from individuals as natural expressions of their values and their true nature. Vitality often instructs recruits to let their true feelings "just bubble up" into consciousness. The recruits then creatively use the cues from the group and the group-induced dissociative states and narcissistic transference reactions to resolve the impasse by deciding: / exhibited X behavior because I believe in X value. Why do I believe in X value now when I never did before? It must be BECAUSE I HAVE BECOME A CHANGED PERSON (i.e., "trans-
formed, " "spiritually evolved," "returned to my true nature"). In my new evolved state I am now able to understand many great truths incomprehensible to me before, including why X belief and X behavior are actually not only acceptable but preferable. A female subject described her experience on the last day of the training:
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At the graduation ceremony I was hugging everyone, I was high. What I had resented at the beginning of the training, now I was more comfortable with. I decided I was becoming a more open and accepting person, and that's why I liked it [the hugging] now. Somewhere along there my feelings about myself changeda major place. . . . I felt elated and giddy. I realized that I was a loving person. . . . I "got" from the training that I was, no, am, a loved, OK person. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 321) is very powerful. Either way I was more committed to the training. The same thing happened with the esp exercise. I could read minds. I let myself realize it. I guess I could do it before but I didn't admit it. . . . I got a greater sense of my own power, the possibilities for me. . . . "Yeah, I can do this, I am a very powerful person. Vitality is right." I decided I'm going to take more of these trainings. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 308)
The indispensable elements in a radical identity change process are the self-serving perceptual distortions that are reframed by the group and/or the recruits in such a way as to make it possible for the recruits to honestly believe that they are radically changed individuals. If they did not believe they were being honest, their self-esteem would be diminished and the impasse would not be resolved. Distortions of perception or memory are by now well known in social psychology (see Greenwald, 1980; Greenwald & Pratkanis, 1984; Hales, 1985, 1986; Pratkanis & Greenwald, 1985). In order to sufficiently demonstrate their transformed identity to others and to protect their internal self-esteem, recruits have to distort reality unconsciously by generating or selectively recalling or evaluating information from the past, selectively perceiving incoming stimuli, or selectively evaluating internal sensations. The training-induced dissociations, altered states of consciousness, and narcissistic transference reactions aid in this process because they are composed of perceptual distortions and kinesthetic sensations that are unusual, exciting, frightening, and bizarre. Participants thus unconsciously use these experiences to proclaim: / can prove in a way impossible to refute that I am a transformed person, because I have seen a sign or experienced a unique, personal feeling that demonstrates to me that a miracle or epiphany has occurred and I am completely new inside. A male subject experienced these memories during a guided fantasy exercise:
During the "remembering" process, I discovered incredibly warm images of my father. This is shocking because my father is a strikingly angry man . . . people just don't like him. I was carrying with me harsh, disdaining memories. I didn't remember how terrific he was to me as a kid. It was such a surprise. . . . This permanently altered my consciousness. . . . I realized: "I am a person who was loved!" (Cushman, 1986a, p. 308)
The organization's tactics have converged at this one moment, and the "conversion" has been accomplished. The recruits' conflict between group-induced behavior and self-concept has been resolved by altering their self-concept. Through the trainer's teachings, suggestions, and demands, and the participants' own need to maintain an inner honesty, participants have unconsciously manufactured perceptual distortions that helped them believe they had become changed persons. Thus, the impasse was resolved. Methods Subjects All 18 subjects were located through an advertisement in a popular areawide weekly newspaper and through word of mouth. "Technique" subjects, two female and one male Caucasians, were between the ages of 30-39. They were all psychotherapists; two have Ph.D. degrees and one has an M.A. degree. "Feeling" subjects, 11 female and 4 male Caucasians, were between the ages of 25-51. Their mean age was 31.6. Eight were between the ages of 30-39, and six were between 20-29. Eight earned B.A. degrees as their highest degree, one had an M.S.W., and one an M.D. All 18 subjects were cooperative within the interview setting. All 15 "feeling" subjects were initially intent upon presenting a positive portrait of the training. Each of them assumed that the interviewer was a Vitality graduate; those who found out otherwise immediately attempted to recruit the interviewer. Two subjects, although initially positive, appeared to change their evaluation of the training after listening to their own stories during the course of the interview. The remaining 13 subjects left the interview believing that they conveyed a positive image of Vitality and that the results of the study would be very helpful to Vitality. All 18 subjects left the interview expressing positive feelings about the interview process and appreciated the opportunity to remember and think about their experiences with Vitality. They all stated that the interview had been conducted in a nonjudgemental and accepting manner.
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By "mystical manipulation" Lifton meant "extensive personal manipulation" by the controlling organization that provokes within the prisoner specific behaviors or emotions that seem to appear "spontaneously." These purposely evoked responses are then explained by the organization in such a way as to demonstrate the universal truth of the organization's doctrine and thereby the infallibility of the organization. One subject reported:
Well, people got so tired and exhausted they lost any will to resist. They stopped going by their old social rules of what's appropriate. When that happened people regressed. They acted pretty weird. They were crying and laughing hysterically and getting strange ideas. They got these insights that blew them away. Then the trainer acted pleased. He called this "letting go." He said, "If you surrender to the training the results are incredible!" And that's the way some people were acting: like something incredible was happening to them. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 244)
By the demand for purity Lifton meant that the thought reform environment institutionalizes an expectation for the prisoners that is impossible to fulfill: perfection. As a result, prisoners never feel satisfied or competent. This causes them to increase their reliance on the leader and the official ideology to guide them. Subjects reported:
He was always saying things like "peel the onion," "go deeper," "completely surrender." He kept pushing. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 245) The "wanting-getting" exercise was real demanding. Partners keep asking louder and louder. They don't stop until you are
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"completely clear." People seemed very frustrated. It was jarring and disorienting. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 246) I noticed he never once changed his mind, agreed with another point of view, allowed himself to be persuaded by someone else. He never once apologized or admitted he was wrong, or even that someone else could be right. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 249)
The trainer promised unrealistic, grandiose rewards if only participants will flawlessly do what is demanded of them. One subject reported:
The trainer claimed that living according to the philosophy means you realize "You are the source of everything. No one can victimize you. Everything is choice." (Cushman, 1986a, p. 246)
Even graduating from the Initial Training does not satisfy the organization. Before the training ends Vitality representatives begin pushing participants to enroll in Training II, the second in the Vitality series. One subject reported:
I resented the hard sell on Sunday. A whole bunch of Sunday was wasted on immediately enrolling people into II. The trainer said, "Continued growth is everything. Don't stop now. Go for it." (Cushman, 1986a, p. 247)
By "loading the language" Lifton meant the technique of speaking in "thought-terminating cliches." The new language serves to create intellectual confusion, maintain group cohesiveness, keep outsiders from making meaningful contact with the prisoners, or seal the doctrine against criticism. Subjects reported:
One thing that I noticed that's like a cult is Vitality's tendency to create all these new words. Or, to create new meanings for old words. I noticed before I took the training I couldn't understand my friend [his recruiter]. Then, after I graduated, lots of people in my life couldn't understand me. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 250) They use "unreasonable" a lot. I think I know what this means to them: it means he [the trainer] gets to do whatever suits him, and you don't even get to complain. Whenever I heard that word I thought "Uh-oh, somebody's going to eat shit again!" (Cushman, 1986a, p. 250)
And even that does not satisfy them. One subject reported:
I know for a fact they don't stop with II. They keep pushing. If it's not II it's "the mastery course," or "family course," or some other workshop. They never stop. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 247)
By "the cult of confession" Lifton meant the endless public humiliation that is done to degrade and make the prisoners subservient and compliant. It creates scenes of "symbolic self-surrender" and encourages sadomasochistic tendencies. Subjects reported:
The training is just one long confessional. People just spilling their guts. I mean sometimes it was embarrassing. I hate it when people degrade themselves like that. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 247) One woman stood up and told about how she was responsible for her rape. How she had set it up because she wanted it. It was crazy. And everybody just watched her do it. She said she was eight years old when it happened. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 248)
By "doctrine over person" Lifton meant that the organization respects and values its doctrine and objectives more than individuals. Therefore the brutalization of the individual is condoned and even encouraged. One subject reported:
Sometimes I think he enjoyed it, watching people squirm. But what really bothered me is that people condoned it, they let him do it and they condoned it. They started thinking like him: it's worth it. He told this story, something about the training being like a ladder. Instead of being worried about one rotten rung, look at where the ladder will get you. No, wait, I guess it was about relationships, but the idea is still the same. The whole training's about this: take the abuse, don't complain and it will get you something wonderful. It'll be worth it. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 251)
By "the sacred science" Lifton meant that the organization has developed an ideology that it believes embodies a universal truth, and its authority comes from a source that transcends humankind. It is considered to be sacred and flawless. Therefore, the act of questioning, doubting, or disagreeing is prohibited; it is considered to be an indication of a personality flaw or an essential unworthiness. Subjects reported:
The trainer really gave it to these people who argued with him. When they disagreed with him, he'd just interpret their idea so that it would serve his purpose, which was to get everyone to agree with him. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 249)
By "the dispensing of existence" Lifton meant that the totalistic milieu stimulates the fear of extinction. Threats to existence in the Vitality Training did not approach the life-or-death confrontations of the prison system Lifton described. However, the training is set up in such a way as to make the trainer's grandiose promises so seductive that participants want desperately to be allowed to stay in the training, receive approval from the trainer, and learn the psychological secrets that will "transform" them. Being ridiculed or abused by the trainer or the other participants takes on a devastating meaning within the thoughtreform milieu. Subjects reported:
At some point the trainer I guess had enough from one person. He just wheeled around and said real coldly: "Then get out.
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In summary, the above quotations are indications that all eight thought-reform techniques were extensively used in the training. These techniques control the environment, emotionally manipulate the participants and reframe their experiences, demand the unachievable, and force participants to publicly confess to personal feelings and mistakes. The training severely limits the participants' ability to think independently or critically by creating a "mystical aura" of sacredness around the organization and by inventing a new jargon. The trainer does not allow a concern for the participants' health or comfort to stand in the way of selling the training's ideological message. The trainer also decides who can continue in the training, who can be praised, and who can graduate to the next training (i.e., who can be saved). Research Proposition lb: Hypnotherapy techniques will be repeatedly used to disorient participants, weaken their ability to think critically, and increase their suggestibility to the Vitality ideology. Hypnotic trance is currently thought to be induced by two types of techniques: formal and informal (Erickson & Rossi, 1979). In formal induction individuals are led through a series of exercises that lead to a progressive relaxation and attenuation of their focus of awareness. When subjects are in such a dissociative state they are thought to be highly suggestible. Subjects might be instructed to remember scenes from their past or create scenes about the future, and change the scenes in some approved-of way. When subjects are in trance this technique leads them to feel as though the hypnotist is in a magical harmony with them and that he or she can control their future. Or they might be instructed to imagine a neutral scene and supply important details from their own lives; this leads subjects to believe that the hypnotist can actually read their minds, perceive the past, or predict the future. It forms an emotional bond between the subjects' private, inner life and the hypnotist's optimism and forcefulness. Certain words that have special ideological meanings can be introduced and linked to the pleasant sensations
of the trance. Informal induction is accomplished when the hypnotist does not announce his or her intentions and uses speech and body movements to create paradoxical content, soothing or unusual rhythms, or confusing or bizarre messages to induce trance. Each of the three "technique" subjects reported the extensive use of hypnotherapy techniques. Additionally, each of the 15 "feeling" subjects independently corroborated the reports obtained from the three "technique" subjects. Of the 44 formal events of the training reported by the subjects, eight were formal trance inductions, which Vitality referred to as "closed-eye processes." Each of these exercises began with a ritualized body relaxation, progressed to a deepening induction, intensified emotionally with a psychotherapeutic exercise of some sort, climaxed with the delivery of a specific ideological message, and closed with a pleasant lifting of the trance. Subjects reported:
The closed-eye processes were relaxing and pleasant. Such a relief from the difficulty of the dyads and especially the lectures. It was always so nice. The trainer's voice was very practiced and smooth. He'd say, "Just get in touch with your body. Find a place in your foot. Just let it be" and so on. He'd say, "Your body has a message for you. Be aware of it." Then he'd have us see colors. He'd say, "Listen to your questions" and "Let the answers come, bubble up." Oh yeah, in between somewhere he wanted us to hover somewhere outside our bodies, looking down at us. That was fun and kind of spacey. (Cushman, 1986a, pp. 255-256) The closed-eye processes are, of course, hypnosis. I know about hypnosis and they are, definitely, hypnosis. The trainer was very good at that night-club type of induction. I enjoyed it, it was restful, a relief from the other stuff that was going on. [pause] Hmmm, thinking back on it, I'm surprised at the gaps in what I remember. Maybe I was less conscious, maybe it affected me more than I realized. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 256)
Informal trance was accomplished through the use of paradox, confusion techniques, metaphors, voice cadence, and visual clues. Paradox is often used in the form of idiomatic sayings, definitions of terms, or verbal confrontations. For instance, participants are often told seemingly contradictory things about how to live an enlightened life:
"being at cause" versus "being surrendered" "being totally responsible" versus "letting go" "There is no right way to do the training" versus "I will tell you what to do and you will do it" "The extent to which you are willing to be an asshole is the extent to which it will not be necessary."
Two of the three "technique" subjects reported that a banner was hung on the wall facing the participants throughout the training. Each day of
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the training it increased in size. It read: "What am I pretending not to know?" Subjects reported that this reinforced the pervasive feeling of being watched and blamed. Although it cannot be disclosed in the article, the organization's name itself appears to have a double meaning and functioned as a kind of informal trance-induction device. It conveyed an ideological message that aided in recruiting for future trainings. In summary, the above quotations are indications that both formal and informal hypnotherapy techniques were repeatedly used in the training to soothe and relax participants, make them more suggestible and dependent, and communicate the doctrine through imagery, slogans, formulaic expressions, and embedded messages. Research Proposition lc: A self-sealing doctrine will be used in tandem with a form ofpseudocognitivism to minimize the ability ofparticipants to think critically and autonomously. Self-sealing doctrines are considered by their followers to be completely true and universally applicable (see Riebel, 1979). This makes it extremely difficult for recruits to publicly question or doubt the doctrine or the effectiveness of the group's techniques. If information is presented that contradicts a selfsealing theory, the group's spokesperson simply invalidates the information by impugning the quality of the datum, discrediting its source (i.e., the ad hominem attack), or by distorting the datum to make it appear as though it substantiates the doctrine. In a mass marathon training the doctrine is part of the overall recruitment plan. Therefore the trainer recruits participants in part by reinterpreting the participants' behavior in such a way as to prove the applicability of the doctrine. This is accomplished by describing the participants' behavior (especially public displays of skepticism, disagreement, or rebellion) as a "problem" that must be "solved" by the application of the group's ideology and techniques. Of course, the trainer must somehow explain away instances in which the techniques have failed to produce the desired effects, (i.e., when the participants' "problems" have not been "solved"). If the doctrine is universally perfect, and yet the participant continues to remain imperfect, it must be the participant who is at fault (i.e., the ad hominem response to contradictory data). Each of the three "technique" subjects reported the extensive use of a self-sealing, pseudocognitivist ideology during the training. Additionally, each of the 15 "feeling" subjects independently corroborated the reports obtained from the three "technique" subjects. Sealing the doctrine from criticism through the technique of "blaming the victim" seems to be a common Vitality technique. One subject reported:
People were sometimes feeling disappointed because they were not "popping" or "getting" the training as dramatically as they thought they should. The trainer always treated these statements the same way. He would say, "Look, what you resist you are stuck with" or "Dig deeper." He never thought that maybe he should try a different technique or something. He would go right up to a couple of people during the question and answer periods, got right up in their faces. He kind of beat on their resistances until they broke. He kept saying, "You're not surrendered. You know it and I know it. If you don't let go, you're just wasting your money. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 261)
Some doctrines fit the thought reform milieu better than others. Vitality appears to use a form of extreme or pseudocognitivism (see Sampson, 1981) that aids the restrictive milieu by arguing that the external world has little or no control or influence over the individual. This doctrine therefore undermines the participants' ability to protest Vitality's abusive and restrictive techniques by devaluing the external world and reducing it to a hallucination or at best an insignificant irritation that can be dismissed by thinking "correctly" about it. One subject reported:
I don't know why this is, but the trainer just won't tolerate anyone thinking some external force caused something to happen to them. He even said he believes he chose everything in his life, including his parents, and when he dies. And he wants us to believe it, too. Well, they're right in a way. It is good to look at your behavior and ask yourself what you did to cause it. That's what we do in therapy, you know? But Vitality is too extreme. They blame everything on the individual. I don't agree with that. It's too extreme, it's kind of delusional, in fact. Like this older woman who was a concentration camp survivor. The trainer tried to convince her she chose that. It was disgusting. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 263)
In summary, the above quotations are indications that Vitality used a self-sealing doctrine, in conjunction with a form of pseudocognitivism, in order to minimize the participants' abilities to think critically and act autonomously. Research Proposition Id: The participants' cultural frame of reference will be repeatedly attacked. One's cultural frame of reference plays a central role in the formation and maintenance of one's sense of self (Geertz, 1973; Mead, 1934). This frame consists of such items as values, beliefs,
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In summary, these quotations are indications that the structure of the training is shaped so that the participants' cultural frames of reference were repeatedly discredited. Through ridicule, philosophical debate, verbal abuse, extreme changes in the rules of social interaction, and the evocation of dissociative states, the participants' habitual ways of framing experience and maintaining a sense of self were broken down. This made them vulnerable to exploitation by Vitality's totalistic ideology, charismatic leadership style, and authoritarian processes. Research Proposition le: A rigid reinforcement program will be communicated to participants. This program results in social rewards for par-
ticipants who conform to the expectations of the trainer, and punishments for participants who deviate from or refuse to conform to the norm. Obedience to authority and compliance to group norms in public settings has long been the subject of social psychology research. Recently, self-image management theory has summarized and unified several midlevel theories into one larger whole (see Greenwald & Ronis, 1978; Hales, 1985). There is little doubt that in our society group norms and the expectations of others, especially a group leader, is a compelling determinant of individual behavior (see Asch, 1952; Cartright, 1951; Janis, 1973, Kelman, 1973; Lewin, 1958; Milgram, 1963; Schacter, 1951; Sherif, 1935; Weary, 1978). This is an important aspect of the restrictive milieu, since the working model suggests that behavioral compliance with the techniques of the group will inevitably cause self-image management dilemmas and fragmentation experiences that ultimately make the conversion experience so compelling. Further, severe punishment and lavish praise in a group setting can cause or contribute to psychological regression and stimulate separationindividuation or narcissistic conflicts (see Bion, 1961; Cushman, 1984; Kernberg, 1980; Kidder, 1972; Kohut, 1976; Strozier, 1978). In an attempt to defend against such conflicts and the memories of old conflicts, group members may be unusually willing to comply with authoritarian processes in order to gain approval or escape rejection. Unconscious memories of abandonment or engulfment may be stimulated in the restrictive milieu, which lead to an unconscious "reunification wish" (see Masterson, 1981, pp. 129-181). Similarly, the restrictive milieu may create or exacerbate a narcissistic emptiness which may lead to a strong wish to merge with or exhibit before the trainer. For all of these reasons a rigid reinforcement program contributes to compliance and conversion. Each of the three "technique" subjects reported that a reinforcement program was clearly delineated from the outset of the training. Additionally, each of the 15 "feeling" subjects independently corroborated the reports obtained from the "technique" subjects. Subjects reported:
The trainer was extremely punitive and harsh, especially with certain exercises, say the first day or so. He attacked and humiliated people. If they didn't do what he wanted or say what he approved of he would just lace into them. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 266)
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When he was leading the basic rules discussion, he came on real mean. He called several people a "welching malcontent." When he kicked a couple of people out because they wouldn't agree to the rules he said [in a cold, harsh voice, with one arm pointing stiffly toward the door] "Then get out\ Either you agree and commit or you stuff it, and you stuffed it. So get outl" (Cushman, 1986a, p. 267)
In summary, the above quotations are indications that the structure of the training included a rigid reward-punishment program. Participants who conformed to the rules and expectations of the trainer were reinforced with praise, friendly interaction, and even physical affection. Those who deviated from or refused to conform to the norm were punished by verbal attacks, social rejection, or emotional withdrawal. In many ways the trainer replicated the characteristics of the worst kind of parenting: a refusal to recognize and tolerate psychological separation in the child. This parentchild pattern may lead to an inappropriate emotional dependence and an inability to develop a separate, autonomous adult life. Since the pattern is similar, Vitality's authoritarian processes may result in similar psychological consequences. Research Proposition If: Participants will be forced to remember in vivid detail the events and emotions of their early lives. Participants will be instructed to recall, relive, and finally remake the scenes most central to their emotional lives. These scenes will stimulate primitive psychological feelings such as abandonment and/or engulfment fears. These memories will in turn activate defenses against such feelings, like the "reunification wish." As a result participants will become increasingly unable to think critically and autonomously, and will become increasingly focused on compliance and approval-seeking behavior. The activity of remaking and reliving childhood scenes is an indispensable element of the conversion experience in many mass marathon trainings. Participants are told that they are working on basic emotional trauma that can be undone, thereby liberating participants from old "decisions" and personality styles. Recalling old scenes also gives the training an abundance of psychological material which it distorts and reinterprets in order to reconstruct the participants' pasts. Participants emerge from the training with a new version of their pasts (including their relationships with their parents and friends) which conforms to and reinforces the training's basic philosophical tenets. Each of the three "technique" subjects reported incidents of hypnotic induction that led participants
to recall, relive, and remake early emotional traumata. They also described dyadic exercises that required participants to act out and then change scenes of early childhood memories in a psychodrama mode. In all cases participants were encouraged to experience these scenes "as if they were happening now." Additionally, each of the 15 "feeling" subjects independently corroborated the reports obtained from the "technique" subjects. Subjects reported:
After the trance induction we went through a guided imagery exercise where we were living a perfect day in our childhood. But then we were to recall how awful it felt when we kept our feelings for a parent hidden. We were supposed to really feel them, intensify or exaggerate them, and then give voice to them. This was real regressive. At this point the noise was real loud. Then we were supposed to turn to our partners and pretend they were our parent we had been hiding our feelings from. Then we were supposed to act out the whole thing with them, and they were to act like our ideal parents, like how we wished our parents were. This stuff was very emotional and sometimes overwhelming. There was a lot of regression going on. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 269) The trainer led us through a whole set of exercises that were supposed to prove that all physical symptoms are under our conscious control. If we wore glasses we were supposed to go back and figure out what happened that was so painful that we screwed up our eyes so we wouldn't have to see it. If we gained weight, we were supposed to go back to find out what happened right before we got fat that we had to physically armor ourselves against. This was all very mechanistic and unicausal. It was so simple it was easy for people to get the hang of. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 269)
In summary, the above quotations are indications that the training's exercises forced participants to remember, relive, and then remake traumatic emotional scenes from their childhood. These exercises provided Vitality with information that the organization used to a) reconstruct the participants' life histories so that they confirmed Vitality's ideology, and b) create the intense emotional experiences that were essential to the conversion moment. The vividness with which participants were instructed to remember and then act out important scenes was probably one of the causes of the marked psychological regression subjects reported. The appeal to the "reunification wish" was particularly apparent in the "good parent" exercise, when participants were supposed to act out a scene with their "ideal" parent. The euphoria and infantile wish to please that comes from such a false gratification might make it easier to develop ecstatic conversion experiences, and more difficult to remain psychologically separate and autonomous. In fact, the "good parent" exercise is in itself a compelling metaphor that could easily be
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Subjects described behavior by the trainer that appeared to promote narcissistic symptoms:
He was charismatic, plain and simple. He was very powerful from a distance. Rigid, shaming, cold. And the more displeased he was, the more they wanted to please him. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 273) The trainer was a real exhibitionist. He was mean at times, and then he acted like he really cared. Sometimes he was distant, and sometimes he acted almost like one of the people. All in all he was real manipulative. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 273) At one point he said his philosophy is different than the world's, which is why the world's so screwed up. He said, "I set up everything from who my parents are to when I die. There aren't any miracles, and there aren't any accidents." I thought to myself "The guy thinks he's God!" Then I looked around at everybody and I thought "And they think so, too." (Cushman, 1986a, p. 273)
Subjects described the content of Vitality exercises that appeared to promote narcissistic symptoms:
People's defenses were torn down, and when that happened they seemed to get needy for attention. The microphone became very important to many of them. Some people couldn't stop talking in the small groups or the dyads. And the stage! When they could get up on the stage, for instance after the "Team A-Team B" game, they fought for the spotlight. (Cushman, 1986a, p. 272) The "hug" I think was a setup for a giant group merging. We had to signal if we wanted to look away, make eye contact
In summary, the above quotations are indications that participants experienced an upsurge of narcissistic transference reactions that appeared to be promoted by Vitality's ideology, the content of the exercises, and the behavior of the trainer. Grandiosity and the urge to exhibit were prominent, as was the wish to overidealize and psychologically merge with the trainer, the other participants, and the Vitality organization. Regression appeared to be encouraged, and the trainer took on characteristics of a manipulative type of charismatic leader (e.g., rigid overconfidence, empathy, attractiveness, exaggerated potency, sadism). The overidealizing of the leader, the empty need for attention and approval, and the wish to publicly exhibit and psychologically merge make individuals extremely easy to control. This identification of the narcissistic dynamic makes more understandable some of the puzzling occurrences in the training, such as the disavowal of adult autonomy and the gleeful "surrendering" to the absolute authority of the organization. To summarize the results of Research Proposition 1, all seven items have been overwhelmingly supported. Each of the eight thought-reform techniques was reportedly utilized. Hypnotherapy techniques were found to disorient and disarm participants and thereby more forcefully instill the Vitality ideology. The training was found to present a selfsealing doctrine that was impossible to disprove within the confines of the training. This doctrine, a form of pseudocognitivism, was used in co-
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operation with self-sealing techniques in order to reduce the participants' critical thinking skills. Subjects also reported that their cultural frame of reference was repeatedly attacked. The structure of the training appeared to be reinforced by a strict reward-punishment program, which activated early abandonment fears and reunification wishes in participants. These tactics combined to force participants to comply with the trainer's demands, which often led to extreme ego-dystonic behavior. One type of such behavior was the emotional regression necessary for one of the most important aspects of the training, the reenactment of early childhood trauma. It is in service of the need to justify these unusual behaviors that the unconscious distortions of memory and perception are developed. This mechanism is studied in more depth with Research Proposition 2. Grandiosity and the tendency to overidealize the trainer were also promoted, causing the urge to exhibit before and merge with the trainer, other participants, or the Vitality organization. The combination of these tactics resulted in a mass compliance with the demands of the training, and created the emotional responses that were ultimately used by the Vitality organization to force an intensely emotional conversion experience. How participants responded to the above techniques, and how those responses were used in order to further the Vitality organization's purposes were explored in Research Proposition 2. Why restrictive groups are so prevalent today in the U.S. among the post-World War II Caucasian middle-class cohort was explored in Research Proposition 3. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, Research Propositions 2a-n and 3a-c cannot be presented in this article. Conclusions The process of a Vitality Initial Training is primarily composed of an attack upon the self of the recruit that causes a narcissistic crisis and a self-image-management identity impasse. The conversion moment is actually composed of disintegration products and self-serving perceptual distortions, not psychological growth or spiritual enlightenment. The conversion moment results in a forestalling of the self-fragmentation and a resolution of the identity impasse because participants are forced to use the charismatic leader and his ideology as a kind of substitute self. This causes a euphoric relief and a strong need to stay involved with the organization through continued indoctrination and proselytizing activities. Because the organization first caused and then cured the selffragmentation and self-concept conflicts, the Initial Training can be considered an iatrogenic process. Thus the findings replicated in an interesting way the findings of the opposing sets of previous research. Subjects reported glowing accounts of the Vitality training, thereby replicating the results of research that reported subjects' positive evaluations and enjoyment of trainings (Lieberman, 1987; Lieberman & Yalom, 1984; Ross, 1984; Shostrom, 1978; Simon, 1978). Subjects also reported anecdotes about the details of the structure of the training and displayed clinical signs that revealed negative psychological consequences of the structure. These reports thereby replicated the results of research that described psychiatric casualties and regressive, abusive, and psychologically damaging processes (see Gottschalk & Pattison, 1969; Haaken & Adams, 1983; Kirsch & Glass, 1977; Yalom & Lieberman, 1972). Above all, the opposing sets of research findings illustrate the psychological dynamic Lifton (1961) referred to as "the psychology of the pawn." In studying the reeducation camps of postrevolutionary China, Lifton found the same opposing set of reports from participants and observers. He explained that the coercive, manipulative techniques of the organization
must assume, for the manipulated, a near mystical quality. . . . [This aura encourages the prisoner to] welcome the mysteriousness, find pleasure in the pain . . . [and think that they are] necessary for the fulfillment of the "higher purpose" which he [learns to] endorse as his own. (p. 422)
Subjects unwittingly described a training program that exacerbated participants' fears so that they complied with the trainer's demands, manipulated their behaviors so that they acted in ways that conflicted with their self-concept, attacked their sense of self to the point that they had to psychologically merge with the trainer, taught them to psychologically regress, provided the opportunity for that regression, and pretended to listen and attend to each of them but actually forced them to conform to a rigid ideology and comply to unyielding behavioral demands. Subjects also described the training as a kind of elaborate bind from which participants can escape only by unconsciously changing or creating memories of their past or reevaluating their present so as to produce an emotionally moving experience that helps them remake their self-concept. All of this appears to be done in order to guarantee the
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tactics, ideology, or business practices. These people often alternate between self-criticism and rage at the organization, between still believing in its ideology and feeling deceived and exploited, between hating the organization and feeling an overwhelming sense of loss. They oscillate between confusion about their commitment to the organization and a rudimentary understanding of the complex process to which they were subjected, between despair over the necessity of pulling their lives together and occasionally hopefulness about a future unencumbered by the thought-reform milieu. The last two types of clients should be treated in a manner similar to a religious-cult victim (see Cushman, 1983;Galper, 1983;Markowitz, 1983; Singer, 1979). They need to study the behavioral tactics common in restrictive groups and the psychological dynamics of thought reform and social coercion. They need to analyze carefully their own experience in the organization and understand how they progressively lost their critical thinking skills and personal autonomy. They need to meet others who have been through similar experiences. They need to mourn the time, energy, money, and friends who have been lost in the process. It is a difficult, painful, and time-consuming process. Given the proper help recovery is possible. Without the proper help former participants become the walking wounded: they continue to believe in the organization's ideology (and thus blame themselves and criticize their nonorganizational behavior) and yet for poorly articulated reasons they refuse to participate. They live between two worlds. Implications: Public Policy Dilemmas Mass marathon psychology organizations usually describe themselves as "educational" organizations and therefore are not required by law to obtain a license to perform psychotherapy. However, the findings of this study have described several psychotherapeutic techniques that are used in the Vitality Initial Training. Therefore, the use of the term "educational" appears to be inaccurate and misleading. Also, these findings have uncovered a leadership style and group processes similar to those which Gottschalk & Pattison (1969) and Yalom & Lieberman (1972) found to produce deleterious effects and psychological casualties in encounter-group participants. Particularly noticeable were the prominence of a "true believer" dynamic and the lack of assessment, differential diagnosis, and differential treatment planning skills among trainers. One working hypothesis that emerges from this study is that certain types of educational, religious, or psychological programs of change do not actually result in new learning, spiritual enlightenment, or personal growth. These programs, like Vitality, have certain characteristics in common. 1. They do not allow the participant to use defense mechanisms or other means of psychological escape from painful memories or associations. 2. They maintain that learning, enlightenment, or growth is universally preceded by an overwhelming discharge of primitive feelings. 3. They present their ideas as universal truths that are not metaphorical and are independent of all cultural frameworks. 4. They view the participants' reality orientation as the primary impediment to change. 5. They believe that change consists of divesting oneself of one's reality orientation and selfconcept. The techniques employed by these organizations destroy the participants' reality orientation, discredit their self-concept, and manipulate them into replacing their old orientation with a new, competing frame of reference. It is not transformation that they are selling, but substitution. Especially germane to public policy discussions is Yalom & Lieberman's (1972) contention regarding encounter groups that the most effective means of preventing psychological casualties is informed self-selection. This can be accomplished, they contended, only if there is an accurate and responsible program of public education available that describes the "process, risks, and profits" of various group experiences" (p. 253). Disclosure, they argued, would protect the consumer from deceptive recruitment tactics that disguise the actual nature of the training and use global statements and exaggerated promises to recruit naive participants. Perhaps, as more data are collected on mass marathon psychology organizations, the need for some type of licensing procedure or legal safeguards for consumers will become more obvious. Given the findings of this study, two preliminary recommendations emerge. First, organizations should make available to prospective participants a detailed, accurate description of their training program. This would facilitate an informed choice on the part of the consumer. Second, organizations should allow participants to leave the training or
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"transformational" technology; this should tell us something about the nature of the autonomous, bounded, masterful self (see Cushman, 19866; Sampson, 1985) and the function of "the therapeutic" in modern, postindustrial consumer societies. These are all issues with which the field of psychology and our society as a whole must face if we are going to begin slowing the growth of authoritarian groups, charismatic leaders, and power-hungry agendas. Given the political and military events of the last 60 years, this would seem to be a worthy goal. References
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