Dr. Margaret T.
Singer's 6 Conditions for Thought Reform
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Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is
being changed a step at a time. Potential new members are led, step by step, through a
behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or
full content of the group.
The goal may be to make them deployable agents for the leadership,
to get them to buy more courses, or get them to make a deeper
commitment, depending on the leader's aim and desires.
-
Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially
control the person's time.
Through various methods, newer members are kept busy and led to
think about the group and its content during as much of their waking
time as possible.
-
Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person.
This is accomplished by getting members away from the
normal social support group for a period of time and into an
environment where the majority of people are already group members.
The members serve as models of the attitudes and behaviors of
the group and speak an in-group language.
-
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such
a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former
social identity.
Manipulation of experiences can be accomplished through
various methods of trance induction, including leaders using such
techniques as paced speaking patterns, guided imagery, chanting,
long prayer sessions or lectures, and lengthy meditation sessions.
-
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in
order to promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and
group-approved behaviors.
Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of the
group's beliefs, and compliance are rewarded while questioning,
expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress
and possible rejection.
If one expresses a question, he or she is made to feel that there is
something inherently wrong with them to be questioning.
-
Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure
that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by
leadership approval or executive order. The group has a top-down, pyramid structure.
The leaders must have verbal ways of never losing.
(Singer, 1995).
Dr. Margaret T. Singer's 6 Conditions for
Thought Reform
These conditions create the atmosphere needed to put a
thought reform system into place:
Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she
or he is being changed a step at a time
Potential new members are led, step by step, through a
behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the
group. The goal may be to make them deployable agents for the leadership, to get them to
buy more courses, or get them to make a deeper commitment, depending on the leader's aim
and desires.
Control the person's social and/or physical environment;
especially control the person's time
Through various methods, newer members are kept busy and
led to think about the group and its content during as much of their waking time as
possible.
Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the
person.
This is accomplished by getting members away from the
normal social support group for a period of time and into an environment where the
majority of people are already group members.
The members serve as models of the attitudes and behaviors
of the group and speak an in- group language.
Strip members of their main occupation (quit jobs, drop out
of school) or source of income or have them turn over their income (or the majority of) to
the group.
Once stripped of your usual support network, your
confidence in your own perception erodes.
As your sense of powerlessness increases, your good
judgment and understanding of the world are diminished. (ordinary view of reality is
destabilized)
As group attacks your previous worldview, it causes you
distress and inner confusion; yet you are not allowed to speak about this confusion or
object to it -- leadership suppresses questions and counters resistance.
This process is speeded up if you are kept tired -- the
cult will keep you constantly busy.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and
experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former social
identity
Manipulation of experiences can be accomplished through
various methods of trance induction, including leaders using such techniques as paced
speaking patterns, guided imagery, chanting, long prayer sessions or lectures, and lengthy
meditation sessions.
Your old beliefs and patterns of behavior are defined as
irrelevant or evil. Leadership wants these old patterns eliminated, so the member must
suppress them
Members get positive feedback for conforming to the group's
beliefs and behaviors and negative feedback for old beliefs and behavior.
Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and
experiences in order to promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and
group-approved behaviors
Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and
acceptance of the group's beliefs, and compliance are rewarded while questioning,
expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress and possible rejection.
If one expresses a question, he or she is made to feel that there is something inherently
wrong with them to be questioning.
The only feedback members get is from the group, they
become totally dependent upon the rewards given by those who control the environment.
Members must learn varying amounts of new information about
the beliefs of the group and the behaviors expected by the group.
The more complicated and filled with contradictions the new
system in and the more difficult it is to learn, the more effective the conversion process
will be.
Esteem and affection from peers is very important to new
recruits. Approval comes from having the new member's behaviors and thought patterns
conform to the models (members). Members' relationship with peers is threatened whenever
they fail to learn or display new behaviors. Over time, the easy solution to the
insecurity generated by the difficulties of learning the new system is to inhibit any
display of doubts -- new recruits simply acquiesce, affirm and act as if they do
understand and accept the new ideology.
Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian
structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership
approval or executive order
The group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The leaders
must have verbal ways of never losing.
Members are not allowed to question, criticize or complain
-- if they do, the leaders allege that the member is defective -- not the organization or
the beliefs.
The individual is always wrong -- the system, its leaders
and its belief are always right.
Conversion or remolding of the individual member happens in
a closed system. As members learn to modify their behavior in order to be accepted in this
closed system, they change -- begin to speak the language -- which serves to further
isolate them from their prior beliefs and behaviors.
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