Defining Spiritual Abuse

After almost two years of blogging on this topic, this blog now displays a tremendous amount of information about spiritual abuse, but it does not necessarily flow in a logical progression. I’ve prepared this index to help the reader to more easily navigate through the number of posts that appear here on this blog. Probably the most comprehensive overview of spiritual abuse can be heard in the Spiritual Abuse Podcasts available for free download at www.thatmom.com. These interviews give an overview of the topic of spiritual abuse and highlights from many sources.

Introduction

• A Synopsis of Terminology Pertaining to Cults and Spiritual Abuse (A comparison of the many definitions of spiritual abuse and cults, including aberrant behavior within Biblical Christian Churches.)
• Is Spiritual Abuse Biblical? (Addressing the question with a list of many examples of spiritual abuse and surreptitious manipulation found within Scripture.)
• Distinguishing Doctrine From Behavior: What Makes a Cult a Cult? (More discussion of the comparison of spiritual abuse and thought reform, particularly within Christian Churches.)
• Biblical Analysis of Scriptures Pertaining to Spiritual Abusers (A review of Scriptures that concern false prophets/teachers/Pharisees and how this relates to Dr. Walter Martin’s statement that Christians must produce good fruit concerning not only doctrine but the fruit of the life lived.)
• Why Doctrinal Statements Tell You Nothing of the Unwritten Rules of a Manipulative Group (Discussion of how manipulative religious groups maintain two sets of beliefs and rules, including those that are not written and are reinforced subjectively.)
• The Elements of Spiritual Abuse (A series of posts that examine each element of spiritual abuse as defined by Henke and the “Weapons of Influence” defined by Cialdini)
• Thought Reform and Lifton 101 (An overview of the techniques of manipulation identified by Robert Lifton: the “gold standard” for the evaluation of manipulative groups.)
• The Experience of Realizing Spiritual Abuse (What it feels like and what others have experienced when they first began to realize that they were being spiritually abused.)
• Post Cult Trauma Syndrome (Symptoms and dilemmas experienced by those who emerge from spiritual abuse)
• The Heresy of Mind Control (A must-read downloadable book from Steven Martin of Wellspring)
• Why It's So Hard to Leave An Abusive Situation
• Antiquated Ideas About Cults
• Differentiating Between Cult, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse
• Cult Leaders and Con Artists

Finding Help and Healing

• Finding an Exit Counselor and Resources for Healing
• Where to Begin Reading on the Subject? (Dec '08)
• Journey Out of Shame (List of Resources)
• Steve Hassan's Testimony (How to talk to people in cults)

Examples of Manipulative Techniques

• The Term “Biblical” Becomes a Thought-Stopping Cliché? (How loaded language and thought reform takes place in Biblical Christian Churches)
• Closing the Ideological Sale: Thought Reform Goes to Church (One example of how thought reform techniques can operate in churches)
• Pharisees and the Double Bind (How the Pharisees used the technique of the double bind)
• Bounded Choice (Describes the term as a forced moral imperative or perception of choice from within a closed system which functionally allows for no viable choices. Real choices are unthinkable and punished.)
• Cognitive Dissonance (Describing how manipulators, social pressures or other types of subtle manipulation can pressure you to change your mind, often without your notice)
• Loading the Language (Posts discussing the manipulation of language within spiritual abuse)
• Describing Methods of Manipulation (Dissembling and controlling the disclosure of information in order to draw in the unsuspecting – the subtle version of the “bait and switch,” Examples pulled from the True Woman Conference ’08 and from information from a survivor of a Bible-based religious group.)
• Beware the Love Bomb
• What’s in a Uniform?
• What is Damage Control?
• Conference Survival Skills

Conformity Studies (Video Documentaries)

• Bad Apples or Bad Barrels: Video Overviews of Zimbardo’s Lucifer Effect (Philip Zimbardo lectures on how systems of control and social pressure promote evil behavior and encourages individuals to become “everyday heroes” in the face of social and environmental pressures.)
• The Wave (A video that depicts the disturbingly true story of a classroom experiment in a history class in a California high school. The teacher sought to demonstrate to the students how German citizens so readily accepted the Third Reich to his class by exposing them to some of the behavioral techniques used.)
• Stanford Prison Experiment (The Hierarchy Effect?) (How an investigative study produced disturbing behaviors among a group of students at Stanford University)
• The Milgram Study (Study evaluating willingness of subjects to follow instructions given by a perceived authority figure)
• Asch Conformity Study (Study evaluating how subjects respond to social influence and popular opinion as a force that powerfully affects perception)
• The Power of the Situation (A documentary reviewing conformity studies and the powerful effect that social pressures, authority figures and circumstances pose upon individuals)
• Be Heroic! (About Zimbardo’s Hero Project campaign to teach people to be everyday heroes and resist situational influences.)

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