Cults in Our Midst

Cults in Our Midst

Cults in Our Midst
Author Margaret Singer
Janja Lalich
Robert Jay Lifton, Foreword
Country United States
Language English
Subject Cults
Publisher Jossey-Bass
Publication date
September 1996
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages 374
ISBN 0-7879-0266-7
OCLC 35979557
Preceded by Captive Hearts, Captive Minds
Followed by Crazy Therapies,
Bounded Choice

Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives is a nonfiction psychology book on cults, by Margaret Singer and Janja Lalich, Ph.D., with a foreword by Robert Jay Lifton. The book was published by Jossey-Bass in 1996 in hardcover format. In 1997, the book was published in Spanish, as Las Sectas Entre Nosotros,[1] and in German, as Sekten: Wie Menschen ihre Freiheit verlieren und wiedergewinnen können ("Cults: How people lose and can regain their freedom").[2]

In this book I will use the term cult and cultic group to refer to any one of a large number of groups that have sprung up in our society and that are similar in the way that they originate, their power structure, and their governance. Cults range from the relatively benign to those that exercise extraordinary control over members' lives and use thought-reform processes to influence and control members. While the conduct of certain cults causes nonmembers to criticize them, the term cult is not in itself pejorative but simply descriptive. It denotes a group that forms around a person who claims to have a special mission or knowledge, which they will share with those who turn over most of their decision making to that self-appointed leader.[3]

A second edition of the book without Lalich as co-author was published in paperback form by John Wiley & Sons, in 2003, with a new title[4] shortly before Dr. Singer's death.

Singer's Six Pre-Conditions for Thought Reform

In Cults in our Midst, the authors describe six conditions which they claim would create an atmosphere in which thought reform is possible. They state that these conditions involve no need for physical coercion or violence.

References

  1. Las Sectas Entre Nosotros/Cults in our Midst, 1997, Language: Spanish, ISBN 84-7432-605-2
  2. Sekten/Cults in our Midst, 1997, Language: German, ISBN 3-89670-015-4
  3. Margaret Singer and Janja Lalich. Cults in our Midst (book), 1995, pp. ix-xx. ISBN 0-7879-0051-6.
  4. Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace, April 11, 2003, ISBN 0-7879-6741-6, ISBN 978-0-7879-6741-3
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