Cult leaders inspire intense loyalty among their followers, yet they strike outsiders as loathsome. Why are there so many of them and why do they persist throughout history despite the fact that most cults disintegrate completely under the strain of their mad ideas? In this study of the thin partitions that separate cult leaders from full-blown schizophrenia, this book argues that the answer lies in our gene pool. The sexual charisma of schizotypal leaders - from Hitler, David Koresh and Jim Jones on the one side and Jesus on the other side of the spectrum - play a vital role when groups split and this is in turn vital for the survival of the species.
Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults[Paperback]
Heaven's Gate, a secretive group of celibate 'monks' awaiting pickup by a UFO, captured intense public attention in 1997 when its members committed collective suicide. As a way of understanding such perplexing events, many have seen those who join cults as needy, lost souls, unable to think for themselves. This book, a compelling look at the cult phenomenon written for a wide audience, dispels such simple formulations by explaining how normal, intelligent people can give up years of their lives - and sometimes their very lives - to groups and beliefs that appear bizarre and irrational. Looking closely at Heaven's Gate and at the Democratic Workers Party, a radical political group of the 1970s and 1980s, Janja Lalich gives us a rare insider's look at these two cults and advances a new theoretical framework that will reshape our understanding of those who join such groups.
Lalich's fascinating discussion includes her in-depth interviews with cult devotees as well as reflections gained from her own experience as a high-ranking member of the Democratic Workers Party. Incorporating classical sociological concepts such as 'charisma' and 'commitment' with more recent work on the social psychology of influence and control, she develops a new approach for understanding how charismatic cult leaders are able to dominate their devotees. She shows how members are led into a state of 'bounded choice', in which they make seemingly irrational decisions within a context that makes perfect sense to them and is, in fact, consistent with their highest aspirations. In addition to illuminating the cult phenomenon in the United States and around the world, this important book also addresses our pressing need to know more about the mentality of those true believers who take extreme or violent measures in the name of a cause.
About the Author
Janja Lalich is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico. She is coauthor of "Crazy" Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? (1996) and Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships (1994).
