Motivational Interview Questions for Cult Members

The following is a first-blush run-through of suggested, awareness-raising questions in a motivational interview schematic for members of cults subjected to family or individual intervention at the denial / pre-contemplation or contemplation / consideration stages. It is essentially grounded in Shaffer et al’s notion of a universal syndrome model of addiction, much as I treated it in a pair of earlier papers cited in the References.

The questions are set up for “yes” (this is the case) or “no” (this is not the case) answers.

It may be that a first tier for cult members in denial / pre-contemplation and a second tier for members in contemplation / consideration (see Prochaska & DiClemente) will be more positively result-productive.

Bear in mind that many committed members at denial / pre-con may refuse to answer the questions. When that is the case, the questions should be read to them without requiring that they answer or respond in any way. Most con / cons will answer all or most of the questions, but may refuse here and there.

Vis Miller & Rolnick’s Motivational Interview Technique (from their Motivational Enhancement Therapy; see also Rolnick & Miller), the object is not so much to provide an immediately convincing list of “yes” answers under the “test” taker’s nose as it is to introduce concepts into conscious awareness in such a way that the test taker is moved toward a state of cognitive dissonance vs. the beliefs indoctrinated by the cult.

I am not proposing an ordering of the questions here. One can argue for linear “chaining” of three or more questions in a row to move a respondent up a ladder of abstraction (see Korsybski, and Hyakawa) or for disconnecting the links of the “chain” to make them less evident to the test taker. One might also argue for re-phrasing the questions so that “no,” as well as “yes” answers are aligned to reality.

The psychodynamic underpinning for the specific, suggested questions is as follows:

1) Deconstruct existing support and/or dependency systems and replace them with new support and dependency systems (See Lifton, Singer, Schein, Galanter, and Taylor relative to cults; and Carver, Rotter, Shaffer & LaPlante, and Evans relative to similar dynamics in family systems and other interpersonal relationships; I will insert a semicolon to demarcate the citations throughout this list).

2) Develop, reinforce, and then appeal to an un-admitted and denied sense of powerlessness, then helplessness, then hopelessness (see Lifton, Schein, Hoffer, Singer, and Taylor; Bandura, Seligman, Bowen, Golomb, Jackson, Branden, Carver, Rotter, Skinner, Watson, Lidz, Henry, and Laing).

3) Use love-bombing in the early stages followed by withdrawal thereof followed by increasing pressure to conform to get “love,” followed by threat of abandonment over non-conformance (see Singer, and Taylor; Beattie, Cermak, Schaef, Rapson & English, and Mellody).

4) Manipulate and trigger already established – and then enhanced – introjections of guilt, shame, worry, remorse, regret and anxiety (see Lifton, Schein, Singer, Hoffer, and Taylor; Tangney & Dearing, Jackson, Lidz, Bowen, Branden, Golomb, Henry, and Laing).

5) Employ stimulus deprivation and/or amplification, rapid deep breathing (to induce hyperventilation), repetitive motion exercises, chanting, meditation, guided imagery and/or trance induction to create dissociation, de-realization, depersonalization and/or excitotoxic (nerve-damaging) anxiety (see Singer; and DeBellis, Cozolino, Gazzaniga, Heim & Nemeroff, Kaszniak, and Panksepp relative to neurobiology).

6) Use sleep deprivation, diet control, restriction of urination and/or defecation (i.e.: “re-potty training”) to stress, break down the ego and infantilize (see Lifton, Singer, and Taylor).

7) Compel personal history examination, revision and group sharing to induce painful affects and peer-influenced appraisals thereof (e.g.: “I am bad for having done…”) (see Lifton, Schein, Singer, Hoffer, and Taylor; and Ross).

8) Use ever increasing group jargon to enhance in-group identification and out-group rejection, as well as to make it increasingly difficult for members to communicate effectively with outsiders (see Schein, Singer, Hoffer, and Taylor; and Griffin & Moorhead and Kets de Vries relative to organizational dynamics).

9) Manipulate peer pressure to conform to group norms, including group think and group jargon (see Lifton, Schein, Singer, Galanter, Hoffer, and Taylore; and Griffin & Moorhead, and Kets de Vries; and Rokeach, and Henry).

10) Employ Karpman Drama Triangle dynamics: covert control as both rescue and subtle – or not so subtle – persecution to victimize the lower-level recruits and induce compliance via the discomfort of subtle threat (see Karpman, Beattie, Weinhold & Weinhold, Whitfield, and Garrett).

11) Use deception, debilitization, dependency and dread to weaken member’s egos and increase compliance (see Schein, and Singer; and Schore relative to affect regulation).

12) Use authoritarian dominance and submission ploys, games and exercises to identify “proper” and accepted, sadomasochistic roles for leaders vs. followers (see Lifton, Singer, Galanter, and Taylor; and Altemeyer, Baumrind, Benjamin, Sullivan, Rotter, Berne, Byrne, Bernstein, Carver, Golomb, Lidz, Henry, Laing & Esterson, Lifton, and Peterson & Zurbriggen relative to non-cult interpersonal dynamics).

13) Establish ambiguities and conflicts to destabilize existing core beliefs, utilizing paradoxical injunctions, threat of harm or abandonment and other means to induce double binds (see Bateson, Laing, and Watzlawick et al).

14) Induce identity-diffused, ego-dis-integrated, borderline organization (see Kernberg, Meissner, Masterson et al, and Garrett) via compartmentalization of unconsciously opposing, compelled beliefs (“shoulds,” “musts,” “oughts,” “have-to’s”) to support the mutually opposing fears of abuse and abandonment that make it impossible to resolve group-induced conflicts.

15) Induce anxious attachment (as per Bowlby, Shaver & Mikulincer, and Cassidy & Shaver) to place the member in a state of learned helplessness (see Seligman, Schore, Mellody, Whitfield, and Rapson & English).

16) Employ increasing and finally, absolute, control of information and communication among members (see Lifton, Schein, Singer, Hoffer, Galanter, and Taylor).

17) Compel regression on both the Piagetian and Eriksonian scales, from formal operational (hypothesis and test, dialectical) processing, autonomous identity and elective generativity… to concrete operational (black & white, all or nothing, dichotomous /absolutistic) processing, infantile trust and lack of autonomy, respectively (see Piaget, Erikson, Beck, Ellis, Meichenbaum, Schore, and Rokeach).

18) Compel relentless loading of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system to set up the leader(s)’s ability to trigger the fight, flight, freak or freeze response to support learned helplessness whenever desired (see Selye, Wolpe, and Seligman).

A list of suggested MIT questions:

Were you invited to a lecture or a dinner to introduce you to your group?

Are you allowed to question your group’s leaders in public?

Are you required to live with others in the group?

Do the group’s leaders suggest that you chant or meditate when not working or otherwise occupied?

Are you pretty busy most of the time with group activities?

Are you required to recruit new members to the group?

Are you required to solicit donation or raise funds for the group?

Have you been told to stay away from or not talk to members of your family?

Do you live with other members of your group in a remote location?

Have the group leader(s) asked you to quit school or work?

Have you been asked or required to work for the group or its leaders without compensation?

Do you often experience being tired, fatigued or “worn out?”

Did you feel truly and/or greatly loved and accepted at first… then criticized and belittled later on?

Did you have to give up your automobile to the group or use it often to provide transportation for group members?

Have you been told that the ideas, beliefs and/or values you had when you joined the group are wrong, inaccurate or bad?

Have you been told by the leader(s) to have or not have a sexual or romantic relationship with another member of the group?

Have you been told by the leader(s) of the group to have or not have a sexual or romantic relationship with someone outside the group?

Are you required to keep an eye on and report on the behavior of other members to the group leader(s)?

Have others in the group told you that your thoughts or beliefs are “evil?”

Do you sometimes feel like you’re “caught between a rock and a hard place?”

Do you depend upon the group for your meals?

Are you required to eat certain foods and/or not eat certain foods?

Are you required to confess your bad behavior, past or present mistakes or sins to the leader(s) or other members of the group?

Have you ever been put on the “hot seat” and subjected to questioning and/or criticism by the leader(s) or other members of the group?

Have you ever felt as though you should talk and/or act a certain way in the group?

Do you ever act as if you understand things the group members or leader(s) are saying that you actually do not understand?

Have you ever been told or made to feel by the members or leader(s) that you are “defective,” “resistant,” “incompetent,” or “troublesome?”

Have you been threatened with expulsion from the group for failing to meet standards that sometimes seem very difficult or even impossible to meet?

Have you ever been “made wrong” in front of the group?

Are you often so tired that you’ve no energy for anything other than the group?

Do you sometimes feel like a hero or a rescuer of others, and sometimes like a persecuted victim?

Are you sometimes uncomfortable with being required to be dominant and then submissive?

Do you sometimes feel like a “fool” in front of the other members?

Save for reporting to the leader(s), are you required not to gossip about others in the group?

Do you sometimes feel isolated from other members of the group?

Do you sometimes feel isolated from the rest of the world?

Are group members required to learn and talk in words and phrases that are different from those outside the group?

Do you find it difficult to talk with people who do not speak as the group does?

Is it easier to confine your conversation to other members of the group now?

Does the group or its leader(s) have special names or terms for people outside the group?

Do the special names or terms for those outside the group make you feel better about yourself?

Does the leader discourage friends and family members from outside the group from visiting you at the group residence?

Has it been suggested that most significant friends and family members not know where you live or attend group events?

Do you feel strongly that the beliefs, ideas, views, opinions and attitudes that you have learned from the group and/or its leader(s) are right even though they disagree with most beliefs, ideas, views, opinions and attitudes of outsiders?

Do you agree with and support the group’s and/or leader’s “absolute truth?”

Do you see the world outside the group as being absolutely or totally wrong about matters important to the group and/or its leaders?

Does it feel to you like you are “wrong,” “mistaken,” “stupid,” “incompetent” or “dumb” much of the time?

Are you required to keep a truth-telling diary and present it to the leader(s) upon demand?

Do you experience annoyance, irritation, resentment, defensiveness or hostility when asked if you felt coerced, manipulated or intimidated to join the group and remain committed to it?

Are you “on board” with the group’s and/or leader’s sense of “higher purpose?”

Do you often feel disturbed, anxious, fearful or frustrated with the leader(s) or other members even though you agree with the group’s and/or leader’s vision of reality and purpose?

Have you gained or lost more than 25 pounds since you joined the group?

Does it seem to you sometimes that your group’s or leader’s ideas are not quite square with your own sense of reality?

Does you group or leader(s) present proof of the group’s or leader’s ideas in the form of a single book you view as special?

Do you see yourself and other members of the group as more informed, more competent and more capable than most (or all) of the people outside the group?

Have you ever been accused of being “resistant?”

After some period of being “on the fence,” did you finally come to completely accept without question the views of the group and its leader(s)?

Have you ever felt pressured to follow what other members or leaders define as “the proper path to purity?”

Have you sometimes wondered if everything you were being told by the members or leader(s) was the truth?

Are you required to witness to, preach, carry the message or otherwise communicate the group’s and/or leader’s views to others outside the group?

Have you been subjected to harsh criticism, group disapproval, ostracism or loss of rank, status, rights or freedoms for your thoughts or behavior?

Have you ever been accused of being “strong-willed” or “rebellious?”

Have you ever been told that the devil was beside or within you?

Do you believe strongly in the concept of sin?

Do you often feel guilt, remorse, regret, shame or worried?

Do you ever have anxiety attacks or long periods of thinking “I’m no good?”

Do you often lose track of time?

Do you sometimes feel like you’re in “a separate reality?”

Are you sometimes told to breathe at a very rapid rate during group meetings?

Does it feel safer to turn your will and your life over to the will of the group leader?

Do you often feel condemned by others in the group or the group leader?

Do you sometimes sense that you are being unduly dependent, submissive or suggestible?

Do you often feel embarrassed, shamed or humiliated during group meetings?

Are you required to meditate precisely as the leader instructs you to?

Are you prevented from seeking medical or dental care outside the group?

Are you restricted from shopping, going to the movies or the activities by yourself?

Do you sometimes experience being outside your own body looking at yourself?

Do you sometimes feel as though your surroundings are unreal or “fantastic?”

Do you sometimes feel numb, tingling or very hot or very cold?

Do you sometimes feel like you are “going crazy” or “losing your mind?”

Do you ever feel like a “ticking bomb about to explode?”

Are you ever afraid of trying to live outside the group?

Do you fear reprisal or retribution from the group or leader(s) if you decide to leave the group?

Has the leader or leaders ever asked you to turn over your money, jewelry or bank account to them?

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