Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic CultsHeaven'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. |
Contents
Introduction Cults and True Believers | 1 |
Definitional Issues | 3 |
Cults in the Headlines | 8 |
The Bounded Choice Perspective | 14 |
The Comparative Research Project | 19 |
Heavens Gate | 23 |
Gurus Seers and New Agers | 25 |
Entering Heavens Gate | 26 |
The Emergence of the New Communist Movement | 121 |
A Typical Recruit | 123 |
A Convergence of Forces for a New Party | 124 |
The Founding of the Democratic Workers Party | 126 |
The Development of Bounded Choice Part I | 137 |
The Cadre Formation | 149 |
RECRUITMENT AND BONDING | 150 |
Decline and Fall | 193 |
Formative Principles | 31 |
Sociocultural Influences | 32 |
Religious and Spiritual Influences | 34 |
Technologies of Change | 37 |
The Beginning The Two Arrive | 42 |
The Development of Bounded Choice Part I | 53 |
Evolution of the Charismatic Community | 63 |
STARTING THE CLASS | 71 |
Denouement | 91 |
Going and Staying Underground | 93 |
Leaving the Human Level | 95 |
The Development of Bounded Choice Part 3 | 98 |
The Democratic Workers Party | 111 |
Revolutionaries Rebels and Activists | 113 |
Historical and Ideological Influences | 114 |
Sociocultural Influences | 118 |
The Glory Days | 195 |
The Unraveling | 202 |
The Failure of Bounded Choice | 206 |
Theoretical Perspective | 219 |
The True Believer The Fusion of Personal Freedom and SelfRenunciation | 221 |
Structures of Freedom and Constraint | 222 |
The Bounded Reality of the True Believer | 233 |
Bounded Choice Cult Formation and the Development of the True Believer | 247 |
The SelfSealing Social System | 251 |
The Limited Choices of the True Believer | 257 |
Bounded Choice as a Larger Social Phenomenon | 261 |
Appendix | 265 |
Notes | 275 |
Bibliography | 303 |
| 317 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
activists activities Applewhite and Nettles Applewhite's became behavior Benjamin Zablocki bers Bonnie Nettles bounded choice Brent cadre ideal called charismatic authority charismatic leader commitment Communist context criticism cult members cultic Cultic Studies Journal decisions Democratic Workers Party dimensions discipline DWP and Heaven's DWP members DWP's early Eleanor example experience feeling followers former members goal Heaven's Gate cult human Ibid ideas ideology individual inner circle interaction internal Janja Lalich joined knew leadership leftist Level Lifton lives Maoism Marlene Dixon Marshall Applewhite Marxist Max Weber meetings Militant's Guide militants movement norms Older Members organization organizational Party's personal transformation political Press Psychology recruitment revolutionary Robert Jay Lifton San Francisco self-sealing system sense social structure struggle suicide systems of control systems of influence theory thinking Thought Reform tion transcendent belief system true believers University women World-Systems Theory worldview York