Overview

Written by a cult survivor and renowned expert on cults and totalitarianism, Terror, Love & Brainwashing draws on the author's twenty-five years of study and research to explain how almost anyone, given the right set of circumstances, can be radically manipulated to engage in otherwise incomprehensible and often dangerous acts. Illustrated with compelling stories from a range of cults and totalitarian systems, from religious to political to commercial, the book defines and analyzes the common and identifiable traits that underlie almost all these groups. It focuses on how charismatic, authoritarian leaders control their followers' attachment relationships via manipulative social structures and ideologies so that, emotionally and cognitively isolated, they become unable to act in their own survival interests. Using the evolutionary theory of attachment to demonstrate the psychological impact of these environments, and incorporating the latest neuroscientific findings, Stein illustrates how the combined dynamic of terror and love works to break down people's ability to think and behave rationally. This important book offers clarity and a unique perspective on the dynamics of these systems of control, and concludes with guidance to foster greater awareness and prevention.

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9798200188130

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Susan Ericksen is an actor and voice-over artist who has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as the prestigious Audie Award. Alexandra Stein is a social psychologist who lectures and writes on cults and totalitarianism. Formerly, she was an associate lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, and has also taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of Westminster. As a young woman she was a member of a political cult, an experience she described in her first book, Inside Out.

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