The Limits of "Coercive Persuasion" as an Explanation for Conversion to Authoritarian Sects
1980; Wiley; Volume: 2; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3790815
ISSN1467-9221
Autores Tópico(s)Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
ResumoThis paper offers a critique of the application of models of to processes of conversion and commitment within religious movements. Although models of coercive persuasion have a definite, if limited, heuristic value in the analysis of identity transformation within relatively authoritarian groups, current applications to cults have involved a number of distortions which appear to be related to the pejorative use of these models as conceptual weapons to legitimate coercive measures employed to rescue allegedly brainwashed devotees. Key problem areas include: (1) overgeneralized cult stereotypes; (2) implicit equation of religious movements with governmentoperated institutions employing forcible constraint (e.g., POW camps); (3) assumptions that persons subjected to certain persuasive techniques necessarily lack free will; and (4) methodological problems arising from exclusive or primary reliance upon the testimony of ex-converts who have negotiated their accounts in persuasive relationships with therapists or deprogrammers.
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