2014/02/21 by Massimo Introvigne · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices #Religion and Society Interactions #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Cult #Indoctrination #Sociology #Xenophobia #Communism #German #Confession (law) #Law #Religious organization #Religious studies #Racism #Media studies #Political science #Gender studies #History #Politics #Ideology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1080/0048721x.2014.888021
openalex publication_date 2014/02/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Advocacy by scholars in the field of new religious movements emerged during the ‘cult wars,’ which in the U.S. had their peak between 1970 and 1990 and continued in Europe and Japan in subsequent decades. Advocacy focused on the question of whether the ‘cults’ used a persuasion technique known as brainwashing. The idea of brainwashing was born during the Cold War, and originally applied to Communist techniques of indoctrination, but was lately first extended to religion and subsequently used as a tool to distinguish between legitimate and non-legitimate religions, labeling the latter as ‘cults.’ Prominent psychologists and sociologists were involved in these battles, with most scholars of new religious movements appearing in court in order to criticize the brainwashing theories advocated by psychologist Margaret T. Singer and a handful of anti-cult academics. After the Fishman decision of 1990, which seriously hit the anti-cult camp, advocacy in this field did not disappear but became somewhat less partisan.