Hierarchization

The hyperhierarchical group

When the majority of the members of a given group or organization undergoes a double transformation such as this, it is the group as a whole that, as a result, in turn acquires an authoritarian and pyramidal profile. Let us recall that the great frequency with which paranoid contagion groups use military similes to refer to themselves is due not only to their expansionist combativeness but also to their propensity for a mode of functioning based on the principle of authority. Consequently, the development of a strong hierarchy is a consubstantial trait of paranoid contagion groups.

Crisis cults. Keekhwei: Ramkokamekra prophetess (20th century).

"All the old disputes were forgotten, and the prophetess, led in triumphal procession to the ancestral village of Ponto, imposed upon the community a hierarchical organization and new institutions…" (103).

Other paranoid groups. The sebastianisms of Pernambuco (19th century).

"The faithful constituted a kind of brotherhood that obeyed a hierarchy and followed initiation rites that recall in certain respects those of Freemasonry. The collectivity was organized according to a fairly rigorous military regime…" (103).

Folie à deux.

"The literature shows that in cases of induced psychotic disorder the relationships often have a symbiotic and rigid character where the inducer plays a dominant role and the recipient a submissive role" (77).

However, it would be incorrect to assert that the mere existence of power relations is a phenomenon exclusive to paranoid contagion groups. With the exception of hunter-gatherer bands — in which, according to anthropologists' descriptions, an almost absolute egalitarianism exists — no known human society lacks hierarchies. Moreover, dominance-submission behaviors are present in all species of mammals with a gregarious organization. Consequently, what occurs in paranoid contagion groups is a mere exacerbation of a behavioral pattern that forms part of the behavioral repertoire of our species.

Apex and base

There would be two exceptions to this simultaneous exacerbation, in one and the same individual, of both dominance and submission behaviors.

In the first place, in the case of members who find themselves at the base of the social pyramid, where nothing but obedience is possible, given that they have no one over whom to exercise authority; however, a greater potential to display authoritarian behavior still exists in them, should their advancement within the group's hierarchy or the incorporation of new members allow for it.

Sectarian groups. University Bible Fellowship.

"Tom began to realize that to 'train' his flock he was using the same methods that had been used on him. He kept them awake all night so that they would repent, hit them with a stick for failing to remember passages, made them run distances to 'restore their spirits,' and crushed 'rebellion' in the same way that his own capacities for independent thinking had been crushed" (36).

And, on the contrary, the leader of the paranoid contagion group can only exhibit commanding behaviors, given that all those around him are below him in the hierarchical structure. That said, these leaders often express the idea that they are no more than simple servants of a superior force, or of a great project, to which they subordinate, in a certain sense, their interests and their life.

Nazism.

"Hence I believe myself to be acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by fighting against the Jews, I am fulfilling the task of the Lord"(49).

The supreme leader to whom all submit may be an imaginary individual, whose presence, nonetheless, is felt as completely real. The imaginary leader expresses his will through signs, dreams, miracles, or by speaking directly or appearing to some of the members of the PA, or exclusively to the leader. In this way, the invisible leader conveys his orders and proclaims his truths. Groups remote-controlled from the beyond are more common than we might suspect. In them, the presence of the ethereal leader is perceived with the same degree of authenticity as if it were a leader of flesh and blood.

It is not always God who exercises this form of tele-authority over the group. It may be spiritual beings of another kind, mythical or historical immortal figures, or extraterrestrials.

The channels of authoritarianism

In its most elementary expression, domination and submission constitute a matter that concerns two people (the dominant one and the submissive one) in relation to each other. The mPCGs are made up of more than two individuals, but within them the leader knows and has intense contact with each of the members and exercises his authority directly over each one of them.

However, when the PCG increases in size that direct contact disappears, which is why certain alternative channels are needed through which authority may flow.

Given that the PCG tends to place each of its members in a clearly defined position from a hierarchical standpoint, the pyramid thus structured facilitates a personal cascading transmission of orders. The group leader transmits them to the subordinates in his immediate circle, these to their own subordinates, and so on down to the base.

Sokagakkai.

"In the first case, the slogans and goals for the following month (or year) are announced on the basis of decisions made by the Board of Directors at its monthly meeting. A succession of meetings then begins, recorded in the Seikyo Shimbun: meetings of headquarters leaders, general meetings of the headquarters, meetings of leaders with all subordinate organizations (vertical, horizontal, peer, and functional), general meetings of the members of these bodies, and finally sequential meetings of sub-bodies down to the smallest block and the kumi level. In each meeting, guidelines from above are presented and explained [...]" (119).

For this cascade to function correctly, it is not enough for the group's members to impose themselves on subordinates who passively accept any directive. Subordination is also an active behavior; the subordinate is not content with receiving the order but seeks it out.

Sokagakkai.

"What is the most important thing a leader must keep in mind at all times?"

Toda answered as follows: -The need for constant proper guidance in relation to faith. To ensure they have the correct guidance, leaders must remain in permanent contact with the central headquarters. This contact will allow them to stay abreast of the latest directives and maintain harmony with my general spiritual stance and with my intentions regarding specific purposes" (52).

The leader, on the other hand, can also reach all members of the group directly—without intermediaries—by making use of propaganda and the media.

Nazism.

"Years later [Goebbels] declared that among all the arts of government, propaganda must be placed first. It must ensure the willing acceptance by the people of governmental decisions" (10).

Maoist Leninism.

"[...] cotton shoes known by the name of 'liberation shoes' and occasionally adorned with slogans such as 'Defeat Chiang Kai-shek' and 'Defend our land' painted on the soles" (54).

In certain cases, the AP may go so far as to create a police-type body specialized in the task of monitoring and enforcing strict submission to authority (that of the LP and of the group itself). This constitutes a reinforcement of authority that, in a more natural manner, flows through the established hierarchical lines.

Sokagakkai.

"The organization responsible for organizing the pilgrimage programs is the Yosohan or guidance group. The members of the Yosohan are chosen for their enthusiastic faith, honesty, and diligence, with the idea that their sole mission will be to direct the program. Zealous and quite aggressive, they have a closely regulated system of organizing the pilgrims and ensuring that they attend all scheduled activities" (119).

Submission and fear

Paranoia. Clinical case.

"In all cases, these types of behaviors [...] emerged from a general irritability when family members refused to comply with their wishes" (57).

LPs are typically distinguished by their choleric reactions, one of whose characteristic triggers is the disobedience of their followers.

Sectarian groups. Shiloh.

"One of the keys to reinforcing his authority lay in anger. Although his bad temper coexisted with good humor, it was formidable when ignited. He was seen many times slapping his wife in public, throwing chairs from the pulpit, and inciting his congregation to a session of loud and violent prayer called 'an accusation.' He even made an example of his own son, John. When he was seven years old he disobeyed his father. John learned the punishment for disobedience, as did the entire community through his example. Stanford declared that John would be isolated in a room, deprived of food and water, and would then be flogged. To bring the flogging to an end, John had to come to earnestly desire being flogged. For three days he remained in a room, with a tormenting glass of water on a shelf out of his reach, learning to be happy with suffering. Each day he had to climb the stairs to his father's prayer room and ask for his flogging, but Frank did not see him as happy enough until the third day"(36).

Crisis cults. The Baniwa Venancio (19th century).

"Those who disobeyed his orders were severely punished..."(103).

Outbursts of anger depend not so much on the importance of what the individual has refused to comply with as on the very fact of disobedience itself.

Sectarian groups. El Patriarca.

"Manuel, a former resident of El Patriarca, recently reported that 'mistreatment, terribly cruel beatings administered by four people against one, were common practice at the center, reaching the point of actual lynchings, as in the case of an Israeli man whose offense was refusing to eat breakfast...'" (95).

Angry episodes are expressed verbally (through insults, humiliations, recriminations...) and through the imposition of sanctions. It must be borne in mind that some apparently mild punishments, such as expulsion, even when it is only temporary, can constitute a genuine tragedy and a profound humiliation within the peculiar atmosphere of the AP.

Unspecified sectarian group.

"The Guru insisted that each woman be weighed every week. He wanted to see the results. He would get upset if a woman exceeded the weight assigned for that week; when that happened, he could set her apart from the community for two weeks or two months" (59).

Other punishments, on the other hand, prove just as terrifying for the follower as for the outside observer.

Nazism.

"... In a notice published in all the newspapers of Silesia, district chief Hanke clarifies that the reason for having executed ministerial councillor Spielhagen was his cowardly intention to abandon the city of Breslau and his position of responsibility, without waiting for the pertinent order, in order to seek a new role elsewhere..." (122).

The member of the paranoid contagion group lives intimidated by the risk of being punished, as well as by the fear of going against that being, the leader, whom he considers unique, unrepeatable, and even divine. But fear alone does not explain absolute submission. Excessive hierarchization, in and of itself, causes submission to occur even in the absence of coercion, as happens in numerous cult groups in which, apparently, there is no indication whatsoever that the members are victims of violence, coercion, or blackmail.

Exploitation

Delusion of interpretation.

"[...] continuous demands..." (104).

A point of great importance that is worth bearing in mind is that hyperhierarchization is not limited to authoritarianism, to a mere increase in the propensity to command and to obey, but rather entails an inclination toward mistreatment and exploitation of those who are perceived as inferior, as well as a greater tolerance toward mistreatment and exploitation on the part of those who are perceived as superior.

Domestic tyranny.

"[...] the reasons given by the aggressors range from the meal not being ready, having contradicted them, not having been home when they arrived or called on the phone, having undermined their authority in front of the children or other people…" (75).

In the larger PCGs, the tendency toward the abuse of power distinguishes not only the group leader but also the middle-ranking members. In this way, it is strikingly common for a deep rift to open up between the lofty ideals that the PCG preaches and its everyday reality. The following quotation brings us closer to the peculiar psychological state of absolute availability for exploitation: that of the amour oblatatif.

Sectarian groups. Hare Krishna.

"The picture can perhaps be summed up by the phrase that another girl, aged 5, dedicates to Bhagavan Swami [...]:

- My dear Gurudeva, please accept my obeisances. I love you because you are my guru and because you are very, very serious. I like to give you gifts such as flowers; I like to see you because you are beautiful and kind. I like to see you in your room and to worship you together with the others from the school. I like to give you sweets. I keep all your gifts —such as flowers— and Raghunatha [4 years of age] and I will make a book. You are my guru and you must tell me what I must do for you. Your servant, Caitanya dasa brahmacari" (95).

Arbitrariness

Hyperhierarchization allows the PL not only to command, mistreat, and exploit, but to exercise authority entirely at his own whim, in an absolutely capricious manner. Sometimes, as a consequence of his supernatural gifts.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The Founder was given a photograph of each of the new members of the organization, which he would use, relying on his sole capacity for 'discernment', to decide matters such as whether a given individual should travel to Brazil, devote themselves to proselytizing, etc." (93).

The imposition of capricious whims by the cult leader has no limits other than his imagination: one prophet attempts to reproduce genetic cloning with his female followers, another invites his followers to ride comet Halley, one LP teaches his disciples to copulate animatedly while avoiding orgasm, and yet another gives personalized instructions regarding the color of their underwear.

The following quote, which constitutes a fine example of how hostile behavior and the drift toward the leader's divinization manifest themselves in a head of state, has been included here because it portrays better than any other the capricious arbitrariness of the paranoid leader, which in this case takes on grotesque overtones.

The totalitarian caliphate of Al-Hakim. (11th century).

"Who, then, is the famous Al-Hakim, living God and founder of the Druze? He is a Fatimid imam. According to the Ismailis, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Abu Ali al-Mansur ibn al-Aziz Billah belongs to the lineage of the imam Ali ibn Abu Talib. He sees the light in Egypt on August 13, 985. At the age of eleven years and five months, his father dies during the war against the Qarmatians and he automatically becomes caliph. But the boy is not yet fit to govern and resorts to two successive tutors, who suppress several revolutions with great difficulty. The last of these regents, one Bourjouanne, doubtless aspires to seize control of the state. It is precisely the year 1000 AD. Al-Hakim, who is fifteen years old and quite precocious, decides to eliminate him. He invites him to the palace, orders him killed, and — a revealing detail — demands to deliver the coup de grâce with his own hands.

It is the beginning of an atrocious series of crimes. The young caliph has the majority of his advisors assassinated, as well as all of the Kotama kings.

Around that time, the sovereign begins to develop strange obsessions. He likes, for example, to stroll through the city at night. Al-Hakim goes out at sunset and, during the night, holds council, rides, and wanders through the streets of Cairo with his escort.

He soon demands that the entire city be illuminated. Streets and markets are then lined with lanterns. At three in the morning, one might have believed it to be the middle of the day. And, in the luminous night, Al-Hakim wanders endlessly, ordering now the cleaning of a doorstep, now the sweeping of an alleyway.

Joseph Azzi, author of a work on Druzism, comments on the matter: 'At that time, the city was a torch'. Affairs of State are mixed with pleasure. During cabinet meetings, endless orgies are held. Lust takes precedence over legislation.

But overnight, this comes to an end. Seemingly renouncing his dissolute life, Al-Hakim forbids women from going out at night and men from frequenting drinking establishments. The lights go out. Has our man become a diurnal creature? Not at all. The strange sovereign now walks completely alone through deserted Cairo. He takes delight in the darkness and sits in the blackness to meditate. His thoughts must be grim, for the tyranny intensifies. Al-Hakim forbids the trade of wine and orders all taverns and brothels to be razed.

He also multiplies mass killings. According to one of his principal disciples, Hamza, 'Al-Hakim has slain the giants of the earth and their kings, and his actions are not those of a human being'.

At the age of 18, the king seems to feed on crimes. As far back as Egyptians can remember, such murderous frenzy had never been witnessed. Is Al-Hakim mad? At the height of the criminal wave decimating the State, he begins to issue strange and incomprehensible laws. In the year 1004 he orders Christians and Jews to wear belts and black hats. He also demands that the following inscription be written on the walls of the mosques: 'Cursed be Abu Bakr, Oman, Othman, Moawia and other Abbasid caliphs'. He forbids drinking foqa (a beverage similar to beer) and eating watercress and scaleless fish. It is a vain effort to seek any religious logic in such a dietary regime.

One day he decides to kill all the dogs in Egypt. He finds that they bark too much at night. He also decides to kill … the pigs.

He lavishes vexatious measures upon women. A ban on wearing makeup, on wearing jewelry, on mourning the dead (!) and on shopping in the same stores as men. Two markets are created: one for men and one for women.

The repression is such that the prisons are full. Solution to the problem: Al-Hakim orders all detainees to be killed. And he does not stop there: he also has all suspects assassinated. The people, terrorized, do not react. But in the year 1005 a rumor spreads like wildfire: it seems the king has decided to execute the entire population! Immediately, the whole city makes its way to the palace and begs Al-Hakim for clemency.

What is the cause of the panic? A large storehouse for harvests is being built and everyone is convinced that it is a human slaughterhouse. This is the moment when the caliph, for the first time in his short existence, demonstrates common sense. He issues his people edicts of protection.

Nevertheless, for some, the cup has run over.

One Abu Rawka, an Andalusian Muslim, has decided to liquidate the Infidel. In 1005 he takes command of an army and sows anarchy in the Fatimid kingdom. But after numerous and brutal battles, Al-Hakim finally prevails. It takes little imagination to picture Abu Rawka's fate: he is crucified and then subjected to the ordeal of the bonfire. The revolt has lasted two years. On this occasion, the king decides to soften his regime. He lifts the dietary prohibitions, stops cursing the caliphs of Islam, and even authorizes wine for a time.

From 1008 onwards, his life takes a new turn. Joseph Azzi speaks of the 'apex of perversion'.

Al-Hakim decides to turn against the Christians. He detains them, martyrs them, burns crosses, and hangs the faithful by their hands for entire days. In 1009 he orders them to wear a cross on their chest. As for the Jews, they fare no better. Wherever they go, they are obliged to wear a bell that jingles throughout the day. Moreover, he orders the destruction of all churches, including the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This symbolic act will play a decisive role in the launching of the Crusades. From 1012 onwards, Christians are deprived of the right to ride on horseback and are systematically excluded from public office. Those in Cairo, desperate, eventually make their way to the palace to beg for mercy. Al-Hakim feigns compliance. However, a few days later the Christians are compelled to increase the size of the wooden crosses they wear around their necks. The Jews, for their part, must endure heavy necklaces of wooden balls.

Most of the Jews and Christians end up banding together. Meanwhile, the king destroys the last remaining churches, desecrates tombs… and uses the bones of the dead as fuel to heat the public baths. Finally, he orders the obstinate Christians to go into exile with their belongings.

From approximately 1009 to 1014, he kills nearly all the country's administrators and intellectuals. He even reaches dangerous extremes. The State, lacking officials and leaders, begins to falter seriously.

Al-Hakim is growing ever more mad…

He turns once again against women. Now, they must remain shut inside their homes twenty-four hours a day. To go out they need a written dispensation, signed in Al-Hakim's own hand. They no longer even have the right to wear shoes; they must go barefoot. By 1015 they are no longer permitted to look out of the windows.

Al-Hakim, however, appears to love them. He has an impressive harem at his disposal. But one fine day he places all his wives in boxes weighted with stones and throws them into the Nile. Around the same time, the king rides night and day without ever stopping. He lets his hair grow down to his shoulders. According to Azzi, 'his nails resembled eagle's talons, and his hair, a lion's mane'.

Need it be said that he no longer washes? A malicious rumor also suggests that he is always accompanied by an enormous Black slave named Masaud, with whom he maintains relations 'against nature'…

It is then that, in 1017, three foreign preachers appear. These men claim to have understood the spirit of Al-Hakim. One of them, Hamza, puts forward the following reasoning: 'We observe in him a behavior that is inadmissible for a human being, unheard of in history and in biographies'. Hamza deduces from this that the man who is capable of such acts is not precisely a man. He is of a divine nature. Al-Hakim's transgressions are, ultimately, proof of his divinity.

The three preachers are called Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmad az-Zawzani, Hassan ibn Haidara al-Farghani and Mohamed ibn Ismail al-Darazi. Al-Hakim is aware of their preaching, but does not deny it. He lets it happen, with unconcealed satisfaction. When Al-Darazi begins to spread the new ideas and to claim that Adam, Noah, Muhammad, Ali and all the prophets are accursed, he forbids prayer and the sermon in the mosques. Later, he prevents the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1019, Al-Darazi decides to punish Muslim Egypt and, consequently, infidel Egypt. He sends an army of Sudanese slaves to kill, rape and plunder everywhere. Al-Hakim has nothing to do with that massacre, the work of an overly zealous disciple. Nevertheless, he supports his preacher and unleashes Muslim anger. To counter the rebellion of the Islamists, the divine king then draws closer… to the Christians, or to what remains of them. But the fury of the Muslims only redoubles. Until the day when Al-Hakim… disappears.

[...] Be that as it may, the God of the Druze disappears on the night of February 13, 1021. He is thirty-six years old.

Once Al-Hakim has disappeared, his preachers have free rein to complete the construction. The cult of the Druze reaches its peak under the guidance of five prophets: the hudud" (11).

Nine centuries later another paranoid champion would also exterminate dogs, massacre ethno-religious minorities (especially the Lamaists), extend terror to the entire population, liquidate intellectuals and civil servants, illuminate the Chinese landscape with thousands of small furnaces burning day and night, clash violently with neighboring countries, impose a puritanical morality on women (though not on those who surrounded him), and consent to the dissemination of a cult of his person with unequivocally religious contours (a cult that, unlike the Druze religion, would not outlive him).

Globality of hierarchical relations

In APs, relations of domination/submission display a striking lack of limits and sense of proportion. In a normal situation, if an employer —to give an example— hires a worker, it is understood that they agree on a specific salary in exchange for the worker carrying out a particular task at set hours; both have a clear understanding of their obligations and of the possibility of terminating the bond that links them. When a traffic police officer stops a driver for speeding, he is authorized to impose the corresponding penalty, but nothing gives him permission to overstep that limit in the exercise of power.

But in the PCG, things are different and the obligation toward the leader is total, without limits, either regarding what is done or the time of availability. The superior feels entitled to dispose of his subordinate as he sees fit, and the latter submits to whatever is asked and whenever it is asked. And both take for granted that this peculiar relationship is forever. The totality of these relationships can be observed quite clearly in sectarian groups. The evangelical movement of the Church of Christ postulates the principle that within the Christian community, authority relationships must be established similar to those that Jesus had with his disciples. And Jesus, supposedly, would have controlled the lives of his disciples down to the smallest detail.

Sectarian groups. Maranatha Christian Ministries.

"Each member of MCM was under a 'discipler' or 'pastor' who in turn was under the authority of another leader in a pyramidal and hierarchical structure. At the head was Robert Weiner, the founder of MCM. All facets of life had to be submitted to the leadership, whether it concerned family visits, 'acceptable' literature, marriage, or even feminine hygiene. Disobedience to the leaders was considered rebellion, which was equated with the sin of witchcraft" (36).

Totalitarian leaders also tend to lose sight of natural limits and to merge the different spheres of authority.

Maoist Leninism.

"His trust in me was growing and he wanted me to become more politically committed to serving him not only as a doctor, but also as a personal secretary" (28).

In the pages that follow, we will address each of the specific areas in which hyper-hierarchization manifests itself.

Concrete Areas of Hyperhierarchization

Hierarchization of Decision-Making

The area in which hierarchy expresses itself most visibly is that of decision-making regarding what to do at any given moment.

Sectarian groups. The commune of Otto Muehl.

"Everyone gets up at the same time, except Muehl, everyone works according to perfectly defined programs and sectoral departments, except Muehl, and everyone submits with devotion and discipline to the ideas and orders of the great leader, Muehl. He decides at parties who dances and when, he says when to paint and when to discuss" (111).

As opposed to those groups that give the individual the maximum possible degree of freedom (within the natural limits imposed by our nature as social animals), and/or those that attempt to have decision-making emerge from dialogue and agreement, the AP adopts decision-making mechanisms based above all on command and obedience.

Sokagakkai.

"You, President Toda, for being the great general of the Last Days of the Law, find yourself surrounded by countless enemies. It is you who raises the banner of the Law and who gives us our orders, and it is we, your disciples, who will carry them out without fail" (52).

Italian Fascism.

"... The fascist party is an army; or, if you will, an order. And one joins it solely to serve and to obey" (Benito Mussolini, cited in 47).

Invasion of the Personal Sphere

The excessive authoritarianism of the AP is not limited to the field of interest toward which the group is theoretically oriented (religious, naturist, economic…), nor to those decisions that affect its daily functioning, but rather tends to unnecessarily invade areas that could perfectly well be left to the individual's free will. Thus, the cult leader sets himself up as a financial advisor…

Sokagakkai.

"The consultant felt inhibited by the presence of the others, but continued with his question, anyway. It turned out that he was having trouble with his wife, since months earlier, attracted by the promise of high interest rates, he had deposited all his savings in a financial company that later refused to return his money, when certain rumors of financial insolvency led him to seek his funds. Toda told him immediately that he had been a fool to be blinded by a promise of high interest rates. -You should have asked me for guidance before making the investment. It is already too late. I can tell a man not to commit harakiri before he takes the step, but once he has opened his belly I can no longer do anything"(52).

(…) chooses the haircut, …

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"When they finally had a photo that satisfied them, Cin laughed under her breath and set it aside. She then turned to the sisters and said, 'Cut her hair!'

I could not believe it[...] Fahizah cut my blonde hair, which reached down to my shoulder. She left me with less than half an inch of hair around my head" (46).

(…) or usurps from individuals and couples the decisions regarding their fertility…

Cult groups.Synanon.

"A week after this appeal, Dederich decided that, in Synanon, birth rates were going to be decided by Synanon. Within a few hours, a group of doctors who were members of the community launched a mass campaign of vasectomies on the men and abortions on the women" (3).

(…) as well as on vocational guidance.

Sokagakkai.

"Toda wanted to leave after that emotional comment, as she had another commitment, but she agreed to answer one last question from a science student who wanted to know whether he should choose a career in his field of academic study" (52).

In totalitarian societies, the personal life of the individual was also regulated (through orders and prohibitions) to a far greater extent than in more open societies. For example, it was common in Leninist regimes to leave in the hands of Party officials a decision as momentous in people's lives as the choice of profession.

Maoist Leninism.

"[...] Here we do not choose our jobs, it is the jobs that choose us. This is called being obedient to the organization" (28).

Centralism

If the members of the paranoid contagion group lack the freedom to decide for themselves, neither do the territorial or functional sections of the group, nor — in paranoid societies — do the various associative entities existing within it. Everyone consults and receives instructions regarding any decision, however trivial it may appear.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"Some members of a Spanish branch thought about the possibility of installing a basketball court in the courtyard to make it easier to attract young people. The matter was referred to the president of the organization in Spain, who in turn passed it on to the representative in Spain of 'Brazil,' who preferred to consult the central headquarters of the organization. The advice-order was not to introduce a revolutionary sport into a branch; it would be preferable to offer the possibility of practicing fencing" (93).

The excessive concentration of decision-making in the person of the leader can even lead to a certain paralysis in operations.

French imperialism.

"There was a fundamental contradiction between Napoleon's constant mobility and the need for his authorization for an endless number of minor administrative acts. For example, the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence had to wait 14 months to obtain Napoleon's permission to sell some of the properties it owned in order to pay its creditors" (121).

Concealment of orders

The authoritarianism of the AP can be masked behind a deceptive appearance, in which there would be no orders but rather advice and suggestions. This is what happens in groups that are ideologically opposed to authoritarianism, in which instructions are conveyed gently and require no form of obvious coercion or authoritarian imposition.

Sokagakkai.

"The most important role of leaders is guidance. Members will turn to their leaders, and these to their higher leaders, with specific problems or obstacles. The leader then provides guidance on how these can be overcome in terms of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Guidance does not tell the member what they must do. The purpose is 'to inspire practice and to make one's own decisions" (51).

Cult groups. The Sullivanians.

"I came to depend on my therapist for all the most important decisions in my life. After all, my friends always wanted to know 'what my therapist thought' about any major change I was considering. Sometimes my therapist would tell me what she thought even without my having asked her. She seemed to know me very well and was interested in helping me make the best decisions so that I would be happy and productive in my daily life" (113).

But the weight of these pieces of advice and "inspirations" — for the PA member who receives them — is such that, in reality, they constitute unappealing orders. Adherents may claim, and with some justification, that they are and feel entirely free and that they do as they wish, and to the eyes of the outside observer there is no indication of abusive imposition. When it is sufficiently intense, authoritarianism does not show its face, goes unnoticed, and is recognized by neither its protagonists.

The command-and-control of the PA is, on other occasions, openly defended, as in fascisms, Nazism, and a large part of cult groups.

Obedience

The reverse of the propensity to command is the propensity to obey. Both increase as an automatic consequence of the state of paranoidization, or, expressed in other terms, as one more of the symptoms of said state. Now then, what in principle is no more than a tendency inherent to paranoid activation is often reinforced by an ideology, a system of values, or habits that support and remind one of the obligation to submit to authority, and which cause what was primarily of a psychological nature to appear to be a rather more cultural phenomenon.

Maoist Leninism.

"When a Chinese official proposes someone's appointment and the candidate obtains the position, the official must also assume responsibility for the acts of the person he appoints. For the system to work, the subordinate must submit in an absolute manner to his superior and comply with his orders even if this means betraying his better judgment. The fundamental principle of party militancy is that of discipline, and party discipline implies total obedience to whoever is considered one's superior, subordination of one's own will to the dictates of the party, and conformity with orders coming from a superior" (28).

The fact that paranoid activation entails an automatic increase in hierarchization is in no way incompatible with the possibility that the LP or LPs may make conscious efforts to reinforce the submissive attitude of their followers, especially in those APs that advocate or extol authoritarian functioning as something good and desirable, or at least indispensable on the path — fraught with obstacles — to utopia or happiness. Curiously, even in groups with an anti-authoritarian ideology, there is intense social pressure exerted on neophyte adherents, on the part of the remaining AP members, to make them become obedient.

Sectarian groups. The Sullivanians.

"If on any occasion their advice did not seem right to me, my friends and companions would tell me that I should trust my therapist, that not enough time had yet passed in treatment for me to understand what was best for me" (113).

Obedience is equally reinforced by the adoption of eternal commitments, more or less formal, more or less public.

Sokagakkai.

"For a long time I have been preparing myself to dedicate everything, even my life, to you and to our mission. I will never have anything to regret, whatever it is that I am commanded to do. I have already made my decision, and I will never change it" (52).

As we have already noted, submission is not limited to the simple acceptance of orders coming from the authority of the LP, but rather leads to seeking guidance and instructions before making any decision.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The adepts, acting accordingly, ask their discipline supervisor for guidance on all kinds of trivial matters" (93).

In the most extreme situations, the adept comes to have difficulty acting on their own, even in trivial yet indispensable aspects for adequate autonomous functioning. This occurs especially in those cults that compel the establishment of excessively close and exclusive personal relationships between each of their adepts and a figure of absolute authority.n

Sectarian groups. Boston Church of Christ.

"Mr. O'Brien explained to me that he was becoming more and more worried about his son. George had lost several pounds, always seemed exhausted, had abandoned his plans to graduate from a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, and had become incapable of making the simplest decisions. He always had to consult his 'discipler' companion before doing anything" (44).

In their total submission, the adepts are prepared for the greatest personal sacrifices. The accounts of former adepts show us an unlimited capacity to renounce their own interests.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"One must be prepared to obey immediately any imperative. For example, it falls within the normal that, from one day to the next, one is sent to do apostolate in Australia" (93).

The adepts obey instructions that are manifestly humiliating or harmful to themselves, or contrary to what previously appeared to be firmly rooted principles, such that they seem to have lost any capacity for rebellion. And the fact is that it is complicated to rebel when one has renounced maintaining a critical sense.

Maoist Leninism.

"That 'Let us obey Chairman Mao above all when we do not understand him…" (72).

The same idea can be expressed with even greater forcefulness.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"Better to obey and be wrong than to be right without obeying" (93).

Hierarchization of opinions and beliefs

Social Psychology has described how the members of human groups, compelled to interact with one another and to debate, tend to gradually bring their initial beliefs and opinions closer together. In paranoid contagion groups, this convergence has two particular features.

1) The greater intensity of the process of homogenization of opinions.

2) The pyramidalization of the manner in which such consensuses are established. In other words, it is the leadership that determines what is believed, what is thought and what is said, and imposes it on followers who, moreover, prove to be particularly credulous and little inclined to reflect, to engage in dialogue, or to reach conclusions on their own, preferring to have those conclusions handed to them.

It is possible to break down the hyperhierarchization of opinions and beliefs into three levels:

1) A leader or leaders who create doctrine.

2) A set of activities aimed at imposing that doctrine on all members of the group.

3) Followers who adopt a particularly receptive and uncritical attitude.

1) Creation of truths. The leader

The words of the leader (those he says and those he has said) are transformed into the ultimate source of truth. They are the only thing that is truly unquestionable.

Soviet Leninism.

"The return to Lenin and his aggressive method of 'defense' became the communist norm and the rule of party life: 'The precept bequeathed by Lenin is that...' 'Lenin says...' 'The Leninist path to be followed is...' When, on February 25, 1956, in the Kremlin, Khrushchev delivered his famous speech 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences,' the shadow of Lenin hovered over the hall. Head held high, Khrushchev held forth: 'Lenin thought that...' 'Lenin always extolled the role of the people,' 'under Lenin, the Central Committee of the party was the authentic expression of collective leadership...'" (118).

In other words, beliefs are established from the top down…

Nazism.

"We will now analyze that part of the work of the HJ [Hitler Youth], whose importance can only be compared to physical education, that is, ideological education... the topics, and the way of addressing them, being centrally ordered and determined, through circulars... which, being published every two or three weeks, offer the exact content for the meetings of the four HJ units. Apart from this, there are the central directives of the Reich through Broadcasting, in the Hour of the Young Nation..." (Arno Klönne, quoted in 122).

…and, frequently, with great success.

Sectarian groups. The commune of Otto Muehl.

"The large and luxurious receivers are only used to watch recordings of films or of Muehl's activities. A diligent camera continuously films the painter, whatever he may do. His conversations with outsiders are always recorded. His comments, intelligent, curious, foolish or trivial, are repeated ad nauseam by his followers" (111).

And so it is, whether we are dealing with microgroups or organizations with several million members; it is always the leader (or leaders) who shapes the beliefs.

Folie à famille.

"There seem to be six typical characteristics of families that develop a folie à famille: [...] 6) there is a dominant member in the family, the inducer, from whom the delusional ideas [of the other family members] evolve..." (40).

Sokagakkai.

"The teachings of Sokagakkai are a still dynamic blend of various elements. The basic source is the writings of Nichiren (1222-82) as transmitted by the Nichiren Sho cult and presented in their current form by Nikkan (1665-1726), a High Priest of the cult. These writings were taken up by Makiguchi Tsunesaburo, founder and first president of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (which in 1946 became Sokagakkai), who grafted them onto his 'Theory of Value' to form the core of the Gakkai ideology. This juxtaposition was reinterpreted by the second president, Toda Josei, and again reinterpreted by the third and current president, Ikeda Daisaku"(119).

And it is that in his unlimited power, the LP is not only the one who directs or commands in the group, but also the wisest. He combines the exercise of command with the creation of doctrines and the imposition of the same.

Sokagakkai.

"The outbreak left several leaders speechless, but Toda could clearly see what was going wrong in the Soka Gakkai. He immediately set out to correct the situation, personally training a group of young leaders whom hepersonally instructed in matters of doctrine and guidance, and perfecting the organization of the society"(52).

The LP feels a deep teaching vocation and shows himself eager to make known the great truths of which he is the bearer.

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"He was the leader and never hesitated to remind them of it. 'I could be out there leading Black soldiers —I could have an entire army of Black soldiers behind me— but I spend my time with you white people becauseI want to teach youand help you...' And they all believed him"(46).

Leninism. Shining Path.

"The first impression produced by watching the recordings is as if the roles had been reversed: the prisoner adopts the posture of the professor and the police officers look like his timid students, ready to listen to his word. Were it not for the opening image of one of the tapes, when some officers bring a hooded Guzmán into the room, anyone might think that the meeting being held in that room was a university seminar on Marxism-Leninism for beginners" (16).

1) Creation of truths: prolific leaders

The LP's eagerness to teach yields a considerable literary output.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"A speaker and lecturer of great repute in his country of continental dimensions, Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira also distinguished himself as a regular contributor to Brazil's largest newspaper, the 'Folha de Sao Paulo'. As a writer, he has — between books and articles — two thousand five hundred published titles" (21).

That is no small feat. In their speeches, LPs also extend themselves tirelessly, and this is a notable element of their way of influencing their followers.

Sokagakkai.

"The guidance session was meant to last from two to four in the afternoon, but it generally ran until five. When only his trusted disciples remained, Toda would return to his office at the Daito Shoko Company to listen to his company's reports while eating a light dinner brought from a nearby restaurant. And barely had he a few minutes to spare before he would schedule the lectures he was to give in the evenings" (52).

Crisis cults. The shakers of Puget Sound (19th century).

"The meetings frequently lasted from six in the morning until midnight. The Indians wore on their heads a kind of crown made of cedar bark, adorned with candles, because petroleum, which came from Satan, was forbidden at the meetings. Throughout that time, Slocum delivered sermons against sin" (63).

Sometimes, one might say that the prolonged dissertations pursue nothing more than a surrender through exhaustion of the listeners' intellectual resistance.

Nazism.

"Robbing his listeners of full possession of their intellectual faculties was for Hitler the prerequisite for every important speech. With deliberate intent, in the first half of his speeches — which normally lasted an hour and a half or two hours, and sometimes even longer — he sought to wear the audience down physically and spiritually with lengthy accounts and historical and philosophical digressions, so that then, in the second part, when they had grown weary, he could 'electrify' them with demagogic phrases, National Socialist slogans, etc., and gradually induce them to applaud ever more vigorously and to follow him uncritically..." (122).

The capacity of leaders to produce vast quantities of writings or to hold forth for hours, and to do so in a passionate manner, is at once an expression of their authority and a manifestation of the elevated mood state so common among PIs.

It will suffice for now to recall that endless monologues — forever hovering around a limited thematic repertoire — also distinguish the behavior of some paranoid patients.

Paranoia. Clinical case.

"Some years ago, we received the visit of a man with an energetic and self-satisfied face who had requested the appointment to deal with an important matter concerning the mental hygiene and prophylaxis movement to which we devote a part of our activity.

Settled comfortably in his armchair, with his gaze firmly fixed on ours, the man spoke in this manner:

'I am M.D.; you have certainly heard talk of me. All the press is occupied with the book I have just published, a large volume of 350 pages (0 kg., 360 gr.), more than 10,000 lines teeming with facts. Here it is. You will allow me to inscribe a dedication.

I have just spent fifteen years in prison, six years of sentence, plus six years of extension, and three years during which, despite my situation acquired through hard work, I was at all times considered and treated as a prisoner.

I have dedicated to the journalists, the police officers and the magistrates this book which recounts a life in Guiana, so that they may learn to know criminals better and to carry out more effectively the task of social defense with which they are entrusted.

It is Albert Londres who advised me to write it.

Victim of an odious arbitrariness called a trial, imprisoned under conditions that will be severely judged, I owe the whole truth to those who still hold it dear. This account shames me before myself, but I am guided by social interest, by my conception of the solidarity that must preside over all the acts of men.

Against the social injustice that was crushing my need to live, I believed I could direct my young and derisory strength.

Incapable of discerning in the darkness in which, for me, the world moved, the higher realities that preside over my destiny, I was thrashing against the wall of indifference that was crushing me on all sides.

Because in this atmosphere of egotism I have not been able to find a place for my good will?

Without a doubt, and I say this from the depths of my soul, without a doubt it was necessary that I learn all the value for the future enclosed in that word injustice, by knowing and suffering in my sensitive and outraged being, the most exceptional, the most degrading to the species of human injustices.

I have summarized my line of conduct in these words, inscribed on the cover of my book: 'Be generous if you want to be just'.

Before my affirmations some will say: 'He is mad!' But let them read my life, and they will see if it is possible for them to be more positive, more reflective, more master of oneself than I have been during these difficult years.

Furthermore, specialists like yourself will verify that I have a healthy and robust cerebral organization.'

And the man spoke thus for three hours by the clock.

Subsequently, we had some difficulty in eluding a new conference, but we read the book and found a curious psychological document about the life of a paranoiac in prison.

Paranoiac, D. undoubtedly is: he is a proud man, a distrustful one, a false spirit, a misfit, and also a self-taught man, a claimant, a reformer, a righter of wrongs, armored in a powerful psychorigidity, ceaselessly erecting his ego against the social armor" (39).

1) Creation of truths: omniscient leaders

The deification leads paranoid patients to take as certainties what are no more than occurrences, conclusions or ideas that should not exceed the degree of hypotheses. The firmness with which they express their convictions, often highly far-fetched, is well known to any clinical psychiatrist.

Paranoia. Clinical case.

"The patient reads about the Antichrist and immediately knows that reference is being made to him and that he will be transfigured into Christ; the biblical phrase: 'The city is rectangular' referred directly to the imprisonment of the patient in the rectangular city of Mannheim" (60).

One of the typical delusional themes is that of invention. Patients believe they have discovered devices or scientific principles that will contribute to the advancement of humanity.

Delusion of reclaimation. The Aub case.

"[...] embarks on a spree of invention patents; he finds, as he claims, more than one procedure for the manufacture of glass"(104).

Subjects with a high score on the Q factorIV of the 16PF test see themselves as particularly gifted for solving all kinds of problems.

Now then, LPs display the same confidence and religious, scientific, or any other kind of inventiveness as paranoid patients. With the same aplomb with which they create a religion…

North Korean Leninism.

"It is no coincidence that the invention of a pseudo-religion called juche is attributed to Kim Il Sung"(5

).

(…) they may invent new visions of the cosmos that break with the laws traditionally accepted by Physics…

Sectarian groups. Hermetic Philosophical Institute."9. We are creative beings, since the psychic energies originating in our thoughts, feelings and actions constitute pulses of biophotons that are projected into space

10. Each human particle modifies Nature with its biophotonic projections also receiving in return the energy that, due to our action, must restore the cosmic balance" (8).

(…) or to discover a new treatment for cancer or a new educational model.

It matters little that the new beliefs and concepts manufactured by the LP enjoy no recognition outside the limits of their group. Among its followers, they are taken as absolute and unquestionable truths.

Occasionally, the concepts created are so novel that they require neologisms or newly coined expressions. Thus, in the Psychology that is preached at El Patriarca, "psychological antibodies" and "outbursts" hold great importance.

Sectarian groups. El Patriarca.

"Naturally, the importance given to the psychological antibodies described by Lucien J. Engelmajer is the very foundation of a new philosophy in the care of HIV-positive individuals and AIDS patients" (19).

Sectarian groups. El Patriarca.

"Drugs, added to the lifestyle of drug addicts, partially and then totally degrade:

- psychological antibodies

- physiological antibodies and act as immunosuppressants" (34).

Sectarian groups. El Patriarca.

"To psychologically help maintain the struggle of each one of us, to avoid outbursts both positive and negative in order to find the balance necessary to sustain life and hope" (70).

Of course, the LPs, in their omniscience, can also know what the world of immaterial beings is like.

Sectarian groups. Children of God.

"THE SPIRITS OF THE DECEASED ARE IN DIFFERENT CLASSES AND CATEGORIES. They have different privileges and spheres of operation and powers, and certain spirits require certain vehicles or bodies. Other more honorable spirits are granted more honorable vehicles or bodies"(79).

The capacity to resolve doubts knows no limit; the leader pontificates on any subject.

Sokagakkai.

"Working day and night, Toda never ceased to give intense guidance to future leaders in question-and-answer meetings and in dissertations on the Gosho. From the third day on, the questions in the morning sessions began to touch on philosophical matters, which gave him great pleasure: the attainment of the state of Buddha, the law of cause and effect, the distinction between divine punishment and karmic retribution, the Tendai theory that in every thought all existences are present (ichinen sanzenin Japanese), and other topics of this kind. Then, as if he had concluded his studies on these matters, the meetings would drift into complex doctrinal questions, which Toda answered in a simple and enlightening way"(52).

Nor does he know the meaning of ridicule.

Sokagakkai.

"At a meeting of the Women's Youth Division, someone asked him why some girls were pretty and others lacked attractiveness. He replied that lack of attractiveness resulted from having slandered the Lotus Sutra, and that faith always modifies this karmic effect and generates from the depths of life a radiant beauty"(52).

2) Imposition of truths: coercion

We now develop the second point of this section, that of "activities aimed at imposing that doctrine on all members of the group."

These activities range from the most subtle to the most crude and violent. Thus, in the totalitarian utopia Rousseauian the punishment for disagreement with the dogmas established by the general will was the death penalty.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"There is, therefore, a purely civil profession of faith, whose articles must be fixed by the sovereign not precisely as dogmas of religion, but as sentiments of sociability, without which it is impossible to be a good citizen or a faithful subject. Without being able to force anyone to believe in them, it may banish from the State whoever does not admit or accept them; it may banish them, not as impious, but as unsociable, as incapable of sincerely loving the laws, justice, and of sacrificing their life when necessary for the sake of duty. If anyone, after having publicly acknowledged these dogmas, conducts himself as though he does not believe them, let him be punished with death: he has committed the greatest of crimes, he has lied before the laws.

The dogmas of civil religion must be simple, few in number, stated with precision and without explanations or commentary. The existence of the Divinity, powerful, intelligent, beneficent, foreseeing and provident, the life to come, the happiness of the just, the punishment of the wicked, the sanctity of the social contract and of the laws: these are the positive dogmas. As for the negative ones, I limit them to a single one: intolerance, which is part of all the cults excluded by us" (100).

Somewhat later, the French Jacobins would follow that drastic policy laid down by Rousseau. One step lower on the scale of the severity of measures, we find torture, which was practiced systematically, for example, in the Maoist reeducation camps so that inmates would recount their beliefs and modify them sincerely (the only way to free oneself from the torments). It is ironic in what terms the Great Helmsman explained his procedure of belief modification.

Maoist Leninism.

"...two principles must be observed. The first is 'punish the past to prevent the future' and the second, 'save men by curing their illnesses'. Past errors must be exposed without shame and without personal feelings. We must use a scientific attitude to analyze and criticize what is undesirable from the past... this is the meaning of 'punish the past to prevent the future'. But our purpose in exposing errors and criticizing limitations is like that of the doctor when he cures a disease. The purpose is to save the person, not to lead them to their death. If a man has appendicitis, a doctor operates on him and the man is saved... we cannot adopt a thoughtless attitude toward illnesses of thought and politics, but rather [must have] an attitude of 'saving men by curing their illnesses'" (Mao Ze Dong, quoted in 74).

Nazism, on the other hand, employed doctrinal violence without Galenic hypocrisies.

Nazism.

"Let us recall Doctor Ernst Krieck, professor of philosophy and pedagogy at the University of Heidelberg, author of a 'mandatory conception of the world', in which the Socratic dialogue is replaced by the Ausrichtung or drilling, which transfers the methods of the barracks to the realm of thought. Marshal Goering once declared: 'When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver'. One may say whatever one wishes against this aphorism, but one cannot deny it, beyond its classical conciseness, a rigorous mental consistency: after all, Goering was not a professor of philosophy but a professional of barbarism. All the more abominable, on the other hand, is that Doctor Krieck, who justifies the destruction of the highest creations of the human spirit by means of a theory. Or that other doctor, E. H. Jaensch, professor of philosophy at the University of Marburg, who wrote: 'It is regrettable that we professors were unable to take part in the brawls in which, before the seizure of power, the brown-shirted boys used their half-liter steins to split open the heads of socialists, democrats, and Jews'" (102).

The violent imposition of beliefs is also practiced in some sectarian groups (especially upon children), even if in opposition to the customs of the broader society in which they find themselves.

Sectarian Groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"On the basis of statements from the boy's father and several former members of the cult, the San Francisco Examiner disclosed the horrendous details of the ordeal suffered by young Houston during the time he spent devoted to the People's Temple. On one occasion he was savagely beaten by his fellow members before the entire community, as punishment for having argued doctrinal principles" (61).

There are less crude and obvious punishments, but ones that equally introduce significant psychological pressure; among these we may mention the social marginalization that those who do not make the group's dogma their own may find themselves subjected to.

Nazism.

"An absolute guarantee is given that only those persons who truly represent National Socialist ideas will henceforth be able to occupy important positions in the intellectual life of Germany. The trial period that National Socialism had allowed has now ended. Those who did not adhere without reservation departed; the others were welcomed with open arms" (Goebbels, cited in 47).

2) Imposition of truths: repetition

Perhaps of greater effectiveness is the incessant thematic reiteration, something that the PL, moreover, finds quite natural. Not in vain does paranoid thinking distinguish itself by its tendency to always return to the same points, which become veritable monothemes.

Delusion of grievance.

"The delusion of grievance may be defined as a chronic systematized psychosis characterized by the exclusive predominance of a fixed idea that imposes itself upon the mind in an obsessive manner..." (104).

Soviet Leninism.

"[...] replied that Lenin thought only of the revolution, night and day, that he even dreamed of it…" (118).

Obviously, the conversation of the IP, once the formalities typical of the start of any conversation have been dispensed with, will reflect that tendency to drift toward his single topic.

Paranoia. The master painter N.

"Emotionally he is very tense and one can only speak to him about 'his matter', although, in all other respects, he is psychically normal" (62).

Folie à deux. Clinical case.

"If the two patients are isolated instead of being kept side by side, talking almost always together, repeating more or less the same ideas with the same phrases, listening to each other as children do when they recount in unison a fable learned by heart..." (69).

The same holds true for written texts.

Querulants.

"Kraepelin (1905) described the syndrome of the persistent litigant and made comments on the general style of the litigant's correspondence [...] The substance of the dispute is also repeated several times in different ways" (101).

In the same way, LPs speak repeatedly and interminably about the same issues.

Nazism.

"One of his secretaries has given a melancholy account of those occasions: 'After Stalingrad', she writes, 'Hitler could no longer listen to music, and, instead, every night we had to listen to his monologues. But his after-dinner talk was as worn out as his gramophone records. It was always the same: his early days in Vienna, the Kampfzeit, the History of Man, the Microcosm and the Macrocosm" (Trevor-Roper, in the preface of 43).

IP and LP have the same ability to steer any dialogue or reflection toward their central concerns and ideas.

Querulants.

"The mental presence of the patient is never altered, the order of their thoughts is well preserved. But one cannot help but notice a great monotony in the content of their ideas. Any discussion with a querulous person soon leads to their ideas of grievance, which the longer they have existed, the more central they become to their interests. From any point, however remote it may be, their stream of thoughts always returns to its center. With endless repetitions, often literal ones, the same stream of thought recurs in their statements, obviously without the patient being able to suppress or abbreviate them" (60).

The tenacity with which IP, in their conversations, always return to the same topics, is one of the reasons why they tend to earn the rejection of those around them, who end up growing weary and distancing themselves. This is not the case for adherents of AP, for whom resorting to flight is not an option. The single-topic style is also characteristic of AP.

Sectarian groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"We held five weekly meetings. For eight years we heard the same things in them, over and over again. After that, man, death is awaited as a liberation" (61).

Sokagakkai.

"It should not surprise us that the experiences that members recount at gatherings are always accounts of the benefits obtained through chanting" (51).

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"All day long and the following day they talked to me about the objectives and aspirations of the SLA, about the need for armed revolution against the fascist state..." (46).

Although the insistence on talking over and over about the same thing naturally derives from the narrowing of their field of interests, it is equally true that LPs are often plainly aware that repeating is the best way to convince.

Nazism.

"The success of an advertisement... is due to the persistence and assiduity with which it is employed" (49).

Paranoid commune. The Manson Family.

"-You -Manson explained to the court trying him- can convince anyone of anything, if you spend the day insisting on the same thing. They may not come to believe it one hundred percent, but they will undoubtedly be left with many ideas. Especially if they have no other sources of information that might help them form an opinion" (95).

And that is what LPs do, repeat over and over again.

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"Cujo's favorite Mao saying, which he read to me so many times that I almost memorized it..." (46).

Sectarian groups.

"With slight variations, this is also the procedure of the ever-growing troop of evangelical groups of sectarian typology such as Reto, Remar, or Emaús.

[...] The 'therapy' of drug addicts consists of immediately integrating into the march and work of the community, followed everywhere by an inmate at a more advanced phase of rehabilitation —called a 'shadow'— and listening at all hours to 'the word of Christ' as an instrument for overcoming the 'negative former life' and walking toward the only hope of salvation that comes from embracing the faith of the group"(95).

Technical devices make it possible for the LP's own voice to reach the adept's ears directly, without interference, and thus be reproduced as many times as desired.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The members of the group listen over and over to cassette tapes—by means of walkmans— with the speeches of Plinio Correa de Oliveira" (93).

To facilitate repetition, paranoid contagion groups simplify content intoclichés, whose reiteration is more effective than complicated logical arguments.

Nazism.

"Only those who know how to reduce problems to their simplest formula, and have the courage to repeat them, even against the objections of intellectuals, always in this simplified form, will in the long run achieve true success in their influence over public opinion" (Goebbels, cited in 122).

Leninism. Shining Path.

"Slogans, repeated with endless precision and persistence..." (42).

2) Imposition of truths: omnipresence of the message

Nazism.

"The army has become an organ of education, not only in the traditional sense of making young men and teaching them to adapt, obey, and know how to command, but it has come to be the universal means of education of what was previously reduced to a military autonomy. Books had always served for the distraction, instruction, or formation of persons, newspapers formerly shaped what was called public opinion, works of art carried, according to traditional aesthetics, their meaning within themselves, the theatre entertained, elevated, or sometimes frightened its audience, and cinema fulfilled illusions, in which all individuals were in agreement. All of this has now become a means of education. We cannot afford to exclude any useful means" (122).

The —unattainable— objective at which the paranoid contagion group aims is a situation in which the subject or adept receives continuous indoctrination, isolated from any other source of information. The aim is to make the leadership's messages and established truths omnipresent, which must appear everywhere, in all places.

An extreme formula by which to deliver the leader's words to the entirety of the followers consists in the installation of loudspeakers, through which the LP can transmit its teachings by occupying, so to speak, the totality of the sonic space.

Sectarian groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"Reverend Jones's thoughts were made known to the population through a loudspeaker system" (Sworn statement of Deborah Layton Blakey, cited in 56).

I have no knowledge of any other paranoid contagion group that has carried out so aberrant an idea, although I do know of others in which such a possibility was considered.

Nazism.

"The Minister rejects the idea of installing columns with loudspeakers" (10).

The LP's proclamations can occupy the visual space by being placed in the most visible locations and in the most unsuspected corners.

Nazism.

"ORR Neumann, from the Propaganda Department, is tasked with contacting the Central Storage and Distribution Office of cigarette factories so that cigarette packets can be used for the distribution of propaganda" (10).

It is of great importance that art and the media be placed at the service of transmitting the group's truths and beliefs, especially literature. In the messianic mentality of the paranoid contagion group, it cannot be accepted that literature should serve any purpose other than indoctrination above all else. Any other literary content is catalogued by the paranoid contagion group as a superfluous distraction from the truly important objectives.

Maoist Leninism.

"For Mao Zedong, art and literature had to be subordinated to politics, since only in this way was it possible to express the true needs of the masses. An important aspect to be taken into account is that these directives were conceived during a period of bloody war and, consequently, letters and the arts were fundamentally, or even exclusively, a support to the ongoing armed conflict. The cultural front, in other words, was considered a support to the true army formed by the masses. Literature was understood and used primarily as an instrument of propaganda in the service of the party, and as such it had to be based on real facts, on the situation of political change of that moment. Literature had to be at the service of the workers and the ruling class of the revolution. From this point of view, the writer was obliged to assume an attitude of combat against the enemies and of support unconditional to the line set by the party" (37).

Maoist Leninism.

"During the 'Cultural Revolution,' those who devoted themselves to literary tasks were nothing but an extension of the party machinery who, with their technical mastery of writing, had as their sole purpose the faithful reproduction of ideological propaganda. It is possible to affirm that the most representative characteristic of the literature of that time can be summed up in a single word: sterility" (37).

Mao's policy regarding literature and the media, however, was nothing but a faithful continuation of that established by his ideological master.

Soviet Leninism.

"The education of the intelligentsia was to be one of the main tasks of the Bolsheviks; the article by Lenin written in 1905 and titled 'Party Organization and Party Literature' laid out the program. It states that literature is a party matter, that newspapers must be brought under control, and that writers must be party members. When he came to power, this profession of faith was transformed into policy" (118).

Non-strictly artistic bibliography must also be subordinated to propaganda.

Nazism.

"... even in the teaching of mathematics, attempts were made to propagandize for the ideology of the Nazi party. In the textbook Mathematics in the Service of National Socialist Education, for example, the following problems are proposed:

... Problem 44: How many children must a family have in order to ensure the numerical survival of the people?

... Problem 95: The construction of an asylum costs 6 million reichsmarks. How many settlements of 15,000 reichsmarks each could have been built with that money?" (122).

Soviet Leninism.

"In December 1918 Lenin personally wrote the following directive.

Mission: in two weeks a reading book for workers and peasants... Topics covered: the construction of the Soviet regime, its domestic and foreign policy. For example: what is the Soviet regime? How is the country governed? Agrarian legislation [...]

Even the anti-illiteracy campaign was politicized" (118).

The great totalitarian regimes of the past century made a particular effort to extend their tentacles into the world of cinema, as it was an artistic form with a particularly mass audience.

Nazism.

"The power of the Nazis over cinema was exercised both on the administrative and the economic level. By concentrating the film industry into a true monopoly, the State exercised absolute censorship and the entire body of films was placed at the service of the ideology. After having excluded Jews and foreigners from the film industry, the National Chamber of Cinema was created on June 6, 1933. Following the seizure of power, the Reich acquired the Tobis company, and made it the most powerful production house. By 1939 only four major companies remained, the others having already been eliminated. On January 10, 1942, UFA-FILMS GmbH was created, a giant company with a capital of 65 million DM. Benefiting from a highly notable technical team, overseen by the State and financed by the 'Filmkreditbank', the German film industry was to undergo gigantic development" (Michel Palmier, cited in 47).

Faced with this strategy of scattering the truths of the paranoid contagion group across public spaces and media outlets, there exists an alternative, tending toward the same end, of condensing those truths into a single book and distributing it to all members of the group and to every corner. The Mein Kampf is the paradigmatic example of a practice that is, moreover, nearly universal among sectarian groups of a certain size.

Maoist Leninism.

"* 1964. May. Nearly one billion copies of the 'Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung', better known as the Little Red Book, are published" (115).

Maoist Leninism.

"In May 1964, the first edition of the Quotations from Chairman Mao was published. It was a small book, the size of the palm of a hand, covered in bright red plastic and filled with aphorisms drawn from his articles and speeches. The cult of Mao had begun.

[...] The army organized work units dependent on political departments throughout the country to teach Mao's thought. 'Only in this way will we succeed in stimulating the revolutionary spirit of tens of millions of party officials and workers in all industries, commerce and agriculture,' declared Mao. Suddenly, the entire country gave itself over to political study, reading the works of Chairman Mao and reciting from memory the most simplistic ideas of the Chairman" (28).

With his Little Red Book, Mao surpassed the Soviet Union itself in absolute terms, but not in those relative to the size of their respective populations.

Soviet Leninism.

"On January 1, 1990, there were more than 653 million copies of Lenin's writings translated into 125 languages in the Soviet Union, perhaps the only achievement of communist efforts in terms of abundance" (118).

Like art, scientific thought is also perverted when its primary objective ceases to be finding out what is not known and begins to be proving what is believed. Science becomes confused with propaganda as well.

Soviet Leninism.

"And so it happened in communist Russia when mathematical logic and 'bourgeois' genetics were proscribed, as if genes could respond to the interests of Wall Street. Professor Zhebrak was denounced by Pravda (a word meaning 'truth') for having declared to the journal Science that many Russian geneticists supported Mendelian doctrine. With anxious urgency, the Lenin Academy of Agricultural Sciences sent the following letter to Stalin: 'You, dear Leader and Teacher, have helped Soviet scholars to develop our advanced materialist science, which serves the people in all its works and conquests, a science that expresses the ideals and the elevated purposes of man in the new socialist society.' At the same time, the Academy expelled the physiologist Orbelli and the morphologist Schmalhausen, dissolved the cytogenetics laboratory, and ordered all biology textbooks to be rewritten on the basis of official doctrine — a doctrine that responded to the postulates of dialectical materialism, but which had one small defect: it was scientifically false" (102).

Just as important as making the group's truth universally present is preventing the spread of opinions contrary to it. Hence the constant presence, in totalitarian societies, of the institution of prior censorship.

Soviet Leninism.

"Lenin had authorized the Cheka to exercise 'a preliminary censorship of the periodical and non-periodical press, photography and cinematography, plans, illustrations... postal and telegraph correspondence.' This, barely a few months after having lamented the severity of the police regime of tsarist autocracy and the bourgeoisie. The only argument employed to justify the arbitrariness and contempt for the law displayed by his own regime was that 'it was in the interest of the masses' and that its acts were carried out by 'the advanced class': the proletariat" (118).

If censorship is the best prophylactic with which to prevent the publication of mistaken ideas, the pyre is the definitive solution for resolving the problem posed by books and old publications, kept in libraries and private homes, in which principles contrary to those of the paranoid contagion group are set forth. The destruction of books is particularly important in totalitarian societies given that, unlike cultic groups, in which it is the adherents themselves who close off their own access to outside information, totalitarian societies have the need to indoctrinate large masses of people, many of whom do not identify with the paranoid contagion group.

Maoist Leninism.

"The mobilization of '66 produced an impressive cultural wasteland: libraries and bookstores with no works other than Marxist ones, museums closed, monuments demolished, cinema and theater nonexistent except for Albanian films and the dreadful 'six model revolutionary operas' by Mao's wife" (99).

Minority sectarian groups, lacking the power conferred by control of the State apparatus, have no choice but to instill in their members a suspicious attitude toward the mass media of broader society (cinema, the press), when they do not outright prohibit them. In fact, this closed attitude, as we have seen in another chapter, is one more expression of the paranoidization of the group. Consequently, the possible influence of these media is neutralized. In their place, they offer their followers abundant publications, in a quantity completely disproportionate to the size of the group.

When its size permits, the sectarian group builds a global communications system, which offers, in addition to doctrinal content, world news, general information, and even entertainment, though always filtered through the beliefs and positions of the AP.

Sectarian groups. Jehovah's Witnesses.

"WHY AWAKE! IS PUBLISHED

AWAKE! is useful for the instruction of the whole family. It shows how to face the problems of today. It reports on the news, tells about people from many countries, examines religion and science. But it does more than that. It examines things in depth and points out the true meaning of current events, yet remains politically neutral and does not exalt one race above another" (25).

Sokagakkai.

"All members are encouraged to read the organization's newspapers and magazines in addition to the Gosho (sacred literature) …" (78).

In this way a situation is reached, similar to that of totalitarian societies, in which all information is loaded with its dose of correct ideology.

Sokagakkai.

"This gradually leads members to translate all vital facts into Buddhist terms, so that the belief system becomes a filter through which the rest of the world is seen" (51).

In sectarian groups, this situation is not imposed by force and through the repressive apparatus of the State, but is instead based on a collaborative attitude on the part of the members, who —as a consequence of the instructions received as well as their own state of paranoidization— tend to read everything that the group publishes and only what the group publishes.

In summary, the paranoid contagion group imposes its doctrines primarily through coercion, repetition, and their omnipresence.

3) Ideological submission: reading, study, and memorization

But in the imposition of the truths created by the paranoid leader, the members also do their bit and carry out their share of the effort. Indoctrination does not occur in an entirely passive manner; rather, the indoctrinated person themselves plays a certain active role in it. How? To begin with, by eagerly reading all the written material published by their group.

Sokagakkai.

"Why should we read NSA publications?

[...] In order to maintain a continuous and rhythmic faith in the Gohonzon and to accumulate good fortune through its practice, it is important that you read the publications of the NSA regularly" (120).

Sokagakkai.

"Believers are continually exhorted to read a minimum of twenty minutes daily; occasionally, readings from outside the Gakkai are recommended, but such recommendations are made without much enthusiasm"(119).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"For several years —it can be three or five— one undergoes theoretical-practical training. We read biblical texts or texts by founder Correa de Oliveira and we learned Latin" (106).

Even more active still is the role that the indoctrinated person plays in their own indoctrination when they study and memorize the texts made available to them.

Maoist Leninism.

"The vast masses of workers, peasants and soldiers, as well as revolutionary cadres and intellectuals, must effectively assimilate the thought of Mao Tse-tung. Everyone must study the works of Chairman Mao, follow his teachings, act in accordance with his instructions and be good fighters for Chairman Mao" (Lin Biao, preface of 57).

Maoist Leninism.

"Lin Biao himself, in a preface that would not appear until the second edition (December 16, 1966), explains the reasons for such a compilation. 'One must study the works of Chairman Mao with the purpose of solving specific problems, studying and applying them in a creative manner'... 'It is advisable to memorize his key phrases, to study and apply them repeatedly. The press must constantly include quotations from Chairman Mao in accordance with reality" (86).

Some groups even go as far as holding examinations, which gives the membership a certain academic air.

Sokagakkai.

"It has a Study Department that periodically conducts campaigns, publishes study materials, and administers examinations on the material that has been presented" (51).

The custom that was established in mainland China during the Cultural Revolution of greeting one another by having the person who initiated the greeting begin a quotation from the Little Red Book, which had to be completed by the one responding to the salutation, meant being subjected to a permanent examination at any moment of daily life.

3) Ideological submission: not thinking

Unspecified sectarian group.

"In our group, criticism/self-criticism, which was practiced daily, was the primary method of control. I clearly remember one of the first sessions I was subjected to. Sitting inside the circle of followers, reprimanded and accused of multiple offenses by the group, I felt that everything was spinning around me. I ceased to see, to think, to express what I thought" (113).

The followers accept the truths created by the leaders and imposed by the group with a surprising absence of critical reflection and doubt.

Soviet Leninism.

"... In that way, after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, the popular saying was born: 'Where Stalin is, there is victory!'. Armed with such conviction, people did not feel very inclined to reflect on the new decrees of their leader" (55).

Doubt, the starting point of any reflection, is, in the paranoid universe, dangerous and contemptible.

Nazism.

"The was the answer when doubt came with its hundred weak and cowardly questions..." (Mirko Jelusich, cited in 122).

The PCG would like to have followers who never question anything that comes from the LP.

Sokagakkai.

"We should never let ourselves be carried away by doubt to the point of abandoning our search for truth. Instead, we should use doubt as a tool with which to discover the truth of the Gohonzon. We must use it, but never allow it to take hold of us. 'Belief without doubt' is the ultimate belief that can be attained after having completely resolved all doubts" (58).

In some groups where very close contact is established between the follower and their mentor, the former may turn to the latter as soon as uncertainty assails them, thus avoiding having to reflect for themselves.

Cult groups. Universal energy.

According to a report from the family of a follower, the group has assigned two people who remain at their disposal to resolve any doubt.

And it seems that it is not impossible to reach an unshakeable conviction, devoid of doubt.

Maoist Leninism.

"No one forced me to join the Red Guard. It was I who wished to do so. Despite everything that was happening around me, my aversion and my fear were not focused on any clear object, and it never occurred to me to call the Cultural Revolution into question or the Red Guard in an explicit manner. Both were the creation of Mao, and Mao was beyond all doubt.

Like many Chinese, I found myself at that time unable to develop rational thought. We all felt so intimidated and confused by fear and indoctrination that it would have been inconceivable for us to stray from the path laid out by Mao. Furthermore, we were so overwhelmed by the fallacies of rhetoric, disinformation, and hypocrisy that it was practically impossible to glimpse the reality of the situation and arrive at a sound judgment" (54).

Now then, to speak of not doubting is tantamount to speaking of not thinking. And the fact of not thinking, in the paranoid contagion group, is confused with thinking uniformly.

Nazism.

"... Doctor Goebbels... in his speech of March 15, 1933, specifies the mission of his new Ministry: ... The people must become accustomed to thinking and reacting uniformly and to placing themselves at the Government's disposal with spontaneity and willingness..." (122).

The exercises of attention fixation, very common in APs, have an interesting derivation: they prevent thinking, at least temporarily. Or, in any case, they make it quite difficult. In some religious groups, people are taught to concentrate their attention on phrases or rituals that are repeated ad nauseam. Military training includes a set of meaningless activities that also entail the fixation of attention on repetitive acts. In groups with an orientalist orientation, a highly varied repertoire of alternatives on which to focus attention is observed (a chakra, breathing, a candle, the guru's portrait…). It is also possible, in order not to think, to make a conscious effort to keep in mind nothing more than a single thought or order of contents.

Moonies.

"Ridiculous as it may seem now, I believed that spiritual beings were around me, waiting for the moment to invade my body and possess me. All of this was part of the mind control indoctrination. Keeping attention focused on the True Parents was the only way to keep evil spirits at bay" (44).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"One must strive to have 'elevation of vision'. For example, when facing a traffic light, one must think about how dreadful and utterly ugly such a revolutionary object is... and reflect on higher things" (93).

3) Ideological submission: anti-intellectualism

The imposition of not thinking is often underpinned by a set of anti-intellectual values and attitudes. Among the manifestations of anti-intellectualism, three can be highlighted:

a) The rejection of logic and rational thought. In its place, uncritical faith is always preferable.

Sokagakkai.

"The more a person devotes themselves to theorizing and rational elaboration, the harder it becomes for them to enter the world of faith" (52).

Nazism.

"The principles and foundations of this socialism are the best thing learned in labor camps, the ideal place where the nation's youth gather. The destiny of the Reich depends on them, in absolute terms. The youth has sensed and understood this. It was the path to travel from the 'I' to the 'We', from freedom to union, from reason to faith" (122).

The thinking of the scientist and the intellectual, who attempt to derive their conclusions from objective evidence and logical deductions, is replaced by convictions with a considerably more emotional foundation.

Nazism.

"... an important National Socialist pedagogue went so far as to say... 'Whereas until now the teaching of history relied on historical sources, we, so that the formative power may be more vigorous, will renounce almost entirely the study of sources. Rather, we will tend to present history in vivid tableaux, as dramatic as possible... To that end, prose and poetry, the reciting chorus and song will serve us well" (122).

In proselytism as well, contempt for reason and logic prevails. APs do not attempt to convince by arguing but rather to convert by impressing.

Moonies.

"Every time I tried to formulate an objection, they asked me to save my questions for after the lecture. In the small group the answer was invariable: 'That's a good question. Don't forget it because it will be answered at the next lecture'. Time and again they told me that I should not judge what I was hearing until I had heard it all. In the meantime, I had to endure an enormous amount of information about the human species, history, the purpose of creation, the spiritual world versus the physical world and many other things, most of which was based on the acceptance of what had been said before" (44).

b) The rejection of intellectuals, deeply hated and despised...

Messianic movements. Anabaptism.

"Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, intense millenarian and messianic movements of communist coloration arise in Europe [...] that profess a fierce hatred of intellectuals and reading" (11).

Maoist Leninism.

"Mao also wanted to use construction projects to dignify manual labor and turn it into a respectable form of work. It was part of the contempt he always had for intellectual parasites and an exaltation of the hard work of workers and peasants" (28).

(…) with arguments that were not too convincing.

Nazism.

"The intellectual is the negation of the creative person. The creative person produces values. The intellectual person defines the values produced by others. The intellectual person is the intelligent and cultured person, but also the person without character, without personality..." (Walter Frank, cited in 122).

Maoist Leninism.

"Furthermore, Mao placed intellectuals among the bourgeoisie. 'Intellectuals are unstable —he told me—: they change with the wind. They read many books, but they do not know what real life is" (28).

So then, better to eliminate them.

Soviet Leninism.

"The GPU knew its work: the names selected were the most prestigious of the Russian intelligentsia. But their selection had also been inspired by the personal intervention of Lenin, for the policy of eliminating from society its finest intellectual resources was, in large part, his own. Many times he received the lists so that he might make corrections, additions, comments and questions, and then send them to the GPU…" (118).

c) The aversion to books and the written word.

Messianic movements. Jacobina Mentz (19th century).

"What he does is subject his community to severe military obedience. He prohibits alcohol, gambling and dancing. And he goes even further: he denies children the right to learn to read. Distrust of books is, indeed, a permanent trait among the most radical Anabaptists" (11).

Messianic movements. The khlysty (17th century).

"The cult of the khlysty has above all one point in common with the Anabaptists: it rejects books and advocates illiteracy" (11).

On other occasions, the aversion to books manifests itself in a somewhat more camouflaged way.

Soviet Leninism.

"Thus, in the so-called homeland of communism I never once encountered a single communist in our sense of the term, that is, men who were politicized and nourished by the vast tradition of the international labor movement. In Rostov-on-Don, where I lived when the war ended, there was a tobacco factory that bore the name of Rosa Luxemburg, but in the library not one of her books could be found. And Marx himself fared no better: his thought could be studied in the compilations prepared by the appropriate persons, but never in his own works" (55).

3) Ideological submission: neither criticizing nor debating

Nazism.

"With its program of twenty-five theses, the National Socialist German Workers' Party has built its foundations, which must remain unshakeable. Now and always it is and will be the duty of the members of our movement not to criticize [...] essential principles..." (49).

Just as the obsessive person is greatly bothered by being contradicted, the highly cohesive group of which he dreams is a group in which no dissenting opinions are heard.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"It can be seen, from the preceding chapter, that the manner of resolving general affairs can provide a fairly reliable indication of the current state of customs and of the health of the body politic. The more concord reigns in the assemblies, that is to say, the more unanimous the opinions, the more dominant is the general will; whereas prolonged debates, discussions, and tumult signal the ascendancy of particular interests and, consequently, the decline of the State" (100).

In real-life paranoid contagion groups, it seems that this Rousseauian ideal of unanimity does indeed come to be realized.

Cuban Leninism.

"A couple, a married pair of biologists who grew up under Castroism and were able to access a university level that, given their social background, they could not have dreamed of without the revolution, lament the lack of opposing ideas, the absence of debate in Cuban life" (114).

Sokagakkai.

"The give-and-take of the zadankai clarifies, and thereby reinforces, the messages already received through the mass media. At this level open disagreement with official policy is not heard, or at least not acknowledged" (119).

However, it is impossible for human beings to stop reflecting entirely, and the fact that disagreements are not expressed does not mean that they do not exist within the respective inner forums of the members of the paranoid contagion group. But strong social pressure prevents their expression.

Cuban Leninism.

"When at the Assembly for the Fourth Congress we were told that we could all contribute our ideas to improve the system, I did so, and my own colleagues at the institute (she is a teacher) were astonished that I dared. It served no purpose, and on top of that I am looked upon unfavorably" (114).

To the diffuse social pressure against dissent, an express prohibition of it may be added.

Soviet Leninism.

"The entire apparatus is firmly directed by a leadership body through the system of democratic centralism. At first, discussions are free at all levels, which allows the leadership body to gauge the mood of its militants. But, once the central bodies have adopted them, all divergence from their directives is prohibited... At the same time, the dissemination of ideas condemned by the majority is forbidden... Radek observes with clarity: '[these measures] are extremely dangerous and perhaps one day they will be turned against us. But, in the dramatic situation of our country, I see nothing else that can guarantee the unity of the party.' They remained unchanged for sixty-eight years" (29).

For any prohibition to become effective, it is necessary to impose sanctions so that fear acts where conviction does not.

Sectarian groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"36. [...] Temple members, who fear for their lives, always do what they are ordered. Apparently, they speak with absolute freedom with the representatives, but in reality they are absolutely coached, before each visit, regarding the questions they may be asked and how they must answer them. Jonestown residents cannot clearly say what they think, because they fear reprisals" (Sworn statement by Deborah Layton Blakey, cited in 56).

North Korean Leninism.

"Because North Korea is a totalitarian State in which political dissent is impossible or suicidal, and brainwashing, the usual norm" (5).

Leninist sectarian groupuscule. SLA.

"Thinking it over, I understood that I had to be on guard at all times so as not to offend any of them. I promised myself that I would not show disagreement with anything any of them said, ever. I wanted to get out alive..." (46).

The punishment of dissenters may also be taken care of by the gods, karma…

Sokagakkai.

"The most serious of all negative acts is the slander of the true Law; the act of condemning, disapproving, laughing at, or rejecting the correct Buddhist teaching or its practitioners out of antagonism or hatred. It is said that the negative effect provoked by this offense is beyond imagination. In the Lotus Sutra it is written that someone who commits slander is destined to fall into the hell of incessant suffering for innumerable kalpas or eons. This hell is the most horrible type of hell. It is said that someone who kills their father must remain in this hell for more than twenty kalpas, but one who slanders the Law, for a number of kalpas incomparably greater. In this sense, the act of slandering is far more serious and burdensome" (58).

If discrepancy comes to vanish entirely even in the most private spheres, and consequently would be said to have ceased to exist, this is due in large measure (in addition to the punishments) to the fact that in paranoid contagion groups, informing and snitching —well-intentioned— constitute the norm (informing to the leader or to the leadership, never informing on the leader or on the leadership)

Unspecified sectarian group.

"A woman I spoke with, who was particularly nervous, cited an incident in which she was at home with her husband, who is also a member, when she commented to him on the fact that she did not like the way the Guru played the piano (the Guru had begun playing the piano). At that moment there was another female disciple in the house, who had been her friend for 20 years. The following day the woman told me she had received a call from the Guru's principal disciple telling her that she had been 'expelled from the community for two months as a consequence of her betrayal.' The Guru explained that he would not tolerate this type of criticism of his musical abilities and gave a lecture the following day to 1,000 of his devotees in relation to the incident, stating that any disciple who was caught criticizing him or his music would be punished. The woman who allegedly committed the offense was extraordinarily nervous, not knowing whether it was her husband, her best friend, or God who had informed the Guru about her feelings regarding his pianistic abilities" (59).

For totalitarian societies it is essential that the ideal of absolute unanimity — ultimately impossible and even more so in populations of millions of people — be achieved, at least, in the mass media. These must speak with a single voice, and any divergence among them is, in totalitarian thinking, inadmissible.

Nazism.

"All Ministries and official Departments of the Reich are obliged to deliver the news at their disposal that must be published to the Press Department of the Reich Government, at the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, which shall determine the form and the moment in which it must be distributed for publication in all the information organs of the Reich.'

This radical closure of all official information sources, even those that generally cannot refrain from reporting, was only one of the many systems employed by the Third Reich to direct journalism and information.

The uniformity of the German Press, the process of its alignment with the general lines of the Regime, which, as Goebbels said, was 'without example in Universal History,' was achieved by the following methods:

1. Through central direction and unitary alignment, both of information sources and of the Press,

2. By means of the nationalization of all Press and Information Agencies;

3. By means of the establishment of a system of surveillance and control over the Press, which functioned to perfection;

4. By making the persons responsible for the Editorial Boards and the professional management of the information organs the executors of the state monopoly's will over opinion, and by providing that, in the event of their failing to comply with the guidelines and instructions for information, they could be held directly responsible; and

5. By means of the closure, purchase or subsidization of Press publishing houses by the State and the Party, with the aim of creating a Press monopoly in the hands of the Party and the Government"(10).

Nazism.

"... Such was the wording of paragraph 1 of the 'Law for Writers', by means of which the editors, who from that point on were responsible for the content of the various newspapers, were on the one hand freed from the influence of the publishers, but on the other hand were exposed to the far more rigorous influence of the party. The editor, who occupied a position similar to that of a civil servant, was no longer to regard himself, as had hitherto been the case, as a contributor to the newspaper and an employee of the publisher, but rather as a spokesman for Hitler's Government..." (122).

3) Ideological submission: credulity

To conclude this chapter on the hierarchization of beliefs and opinions, let us recall the importance of the increase in credulity, a phenomenon that goes far more unnoticed than the coercive component, whether when analysing totalitarianisms, cultic groups, or microgroups such as folie à deux. Credulity is the clearest manifestation of submission in the realm of beliefs and, evidently, it is a selective credulity towards authority figures; it is not that the IP is indiscriminately credulous (quite the contrary, given the distrust) but rather that he is so towards those whom he perceives as his authority figures.

On the other hand, many APs reinforce credulity by valuing it as a highly desirable attitude.

Sokagakkai.

"Yamamoto identified himself so absolutely with Toda that it felt natural to him to adhere to the principles of his master. This kind of union between master and disciple has always been an important support in the daily practice of Soka Gakkai" (52).

And they reject in equal measure skepticism and disbelief.

Sokagakkai.

"Toda cast his gaze over the faces of the participants. Some reacted with thunderous applause to Yamamoto's passionate exhortation. But in many he noticed signs of an unhappiness that can only be explained by the skepticism that remains even in those who manage to draw closer to the Gohonzon" (52).

Nazism.

"Unfortunately there exists a category of National Socialists who, at a certain point, accomplished great things for the Party, but who were never capable of shedding their prejudices. When our action surpassed the limit of what they had been able to comprehend, and which corresponded to their own representations, they became afraid..." (48).

Hierarchization of speech

In this section we will discuss the control exercised over phonation; what is said or vocalized at any given moment comes to be dictated by the group's rules or by its hierarchy. In the majority of AP, the control of phonation is limited to certain ceremonial events or specific situations. In some groups, however, it acquires great importance.

1) This is the case of Sokagakkai, a religious organization whose central activity consists of endlessly repeating a single phrase. The obligation to recite mantras, or whatever one may wish to call them, — which can come to absorb a significant portion of the adept's time, during which, obviously, they cannot speak for themselves— occurs primarily in religious organizations. The prolonged repetition of the same sound facilitates the triggering of trance-like and semi-hypnotic states during which sensory alterations and ecstatic experiences can occur.

Sokagakkai.

"In a prison cell, Fujiya Shirota understood through his own life the adversities suffered by Toda and Makiguchi during the war. At that moment, after invoking two million daimoku, Toda awakened to his mission as one of the Bodhisattvas of the Earth and leader of the movement for kosen-rufu. In prison, Shirota also understood that he would have to devote himself to shakubuku and to the invocation of the daimoku" (52).

But the repetition of mantras, at least in the APs, is something more than an exercise used to induce transcendental experiences. The act of repeating the same sound also implies a submission to the group; the adept renounces the freedom to say what they please, at least during certain periods of time, which may be prolonged.

Crisis cults. The Delaware prophet (19th c.).

"The Lord of Life sent these commandments to the Indians, who were to recite them morning and evening beginning on the day..." (63).

Sokagakkai.

"The daily and sincere practice of morning and evening gongyo, with the chanting of as much daimoku as possible, constitutes the foundation of faith. Both gongyo and daimoku enable us to develop great strength in our daily lives.

When an individual recites gongyo and chants daimoku serenely with a clear and sonorous voice, his daily life becomes rhythmic, refreshing and happy" (120).

Collective recitations, however, need not be limited to brief phrases or simple sounds.

Sokagakkai.

"All those present recited the brief poem over and over again, and from reading it so many times they felt a deep awareness of Toda's desire that each of them might successfully traverse the thorny path to the universal propagation of the Supreme Law" (52).

2) APs are also fond of collective chanting and shouting. In the latter, slogans of all kinds are repeated incessantly and absurdly.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"There is a great love of music in the TFP. Their own songs are sung, as well as Gregorian and Carlist ones. Sometimes with lyrics of their own composition. It is supposed that in song is expressed the intense spiritual joy that should overwhelm the adept and that he must reflect" (93).

Crisis cults. Hau-hau (19th century).

"In combat, the soldiers of the pai marire raised their right hand to head height, with the palm facing outward, and shouted: 'Pai-marire-hau-hau'" (11).

3) In third place, the adept may encounter the prohibition of speaking (which entails renouncing the satisfaction of one of the most imperious needs of the human being). The imposition of absolute silence occurs only in some religious APs, and tends to be temporary in nature.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The monks of the 'camáldula' are not authorized to speak. They only communicate in writing and through the person in charge" (93).

The imposition of silence —not absolute, of course— occurs equally in families subjected to domestic tyrants, in keeping with what their victims recount with a certain frequency ("he would hit me for speaking," a patient recounted). The domestic tyrant imposes silence on those around him as a simple demonstration of power, or because noise bothers him, or because he does not accept interruptions to his monologues. The same often happens, more spontaneously and without requiring any form of coercion, around the leaders of sectarian groups, always surrounded by people willing to fall respectfully silent when they speak and eager to listen to them.

The military training through which a simple recruit is transformed into a true soldier (or, what amounts to the same thing, into a killer) includes a combination of prolonged silences, chants, and syncopated shouts. The latter have also served, in all times and places, for the martial warm-up that precedes battle…

Hierarchization of information

The members of any human group, insofar as they participate in the life of the group and communicate with one another, share a body of information. But paranoidization and the subsequent hierarchization profoundly affect the spontaneous process of information dissemination. In the paranoid contagion group, a marked tendency toward secrecy emerges, such that certain important pieces of information tend to remain at the apex of the hierarchical structure and are not disclosed to all members. In other words, knowledge becomes concentrated as one ascends the hierarchy, while ignorance increases as one descends.

Soviet Leninism.

"At the very moments when the Politburo was organizing the carefully controlled publication of Lenin's texts, it was confining impressive quantities of his writings to the most remote corners of the archives [...]

Lenin himself took great care with his secrets, and the State he created followed those precepts religiously" (118).

Soviet Leninism.

"Until very recently, almost everything that has been written about the Romanovs has appeared outside Russia. It was a taboo subject, as were the links between the Bolsheviks and the Germans, or the origins of Lenin's family, the truth about his illness, the party's financial affairs, Lenin's personal involvement in the origins of the terror, and many other topics. All the documents concerning the elimination of the tsar and his family were kept in the most secret and inaccessible places" (118).

In some sectarian groups, access to certain knowledge is granted only to the extent that the adept is considered "ready" to receive it, in parallel with the acquisition of ranks of greater importance within the group.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"TFP members are very careful when it comes to revealing to not fully initiated members the various aspects of their doctrine. They even have a word, 'blowtorch', to refer to the act of 'burning' someone by telling them something they are not yet ready to hear" (93).

Let us emphasize that for this system to work — one in which knowledge, rendered esoteric, is distributed in the form of concentric circles, and in which the dedicated adept laboriously advances toward the core — a significant degree of collaboration is required from the adepts as a whole, who must suppress the natural human tendency to discuss and share what they know.

Secrecy particularly affects beliefs that are inherently implausible, and that require prior preparation of the adept (increasing their credulity). But it also affects knowledge of facts that have occurred and decisions that have been made. A good recent example in history is the remarkable success with which the totalitarian regimes of the past century were able to conceal from their own populations the atrocities, of great proportions, committed by them.

Nazism.

"We will not describe here the gas chambers, the cremation ovens and the other abject installations of this kind, which today we all already know. But the secret surrounding these crimes was so jealously guarded that the great mass of the German people, although not unaware of the existence of these camps, was far from suspecting the horror of these practices and the number of victims. Even abroad, the full truth was not discovered until after the German defeat" (23).

Maoist Leninism.

"Today I am grateful for not having understood Mao at that time, for not having known the extent of his purges, nor the terrible torments suffered by my intellectual colleagues, nor how many people were dying" (28).

Soviet Leninism.

"First and foremost, the decisions of the Politburo [a body of fewer than ten members, supposedly dedicated to internal party matters but which in reality exercised absolute power over appointments and political decisions] had the highest priority, and the Law and the Constitution were merely tools in its hands. For the citizens of the vast country, the Politburo embodied the Law. It equally inherited from Lenin the rule of absolute secrecy. Who knew, for example, that the Politburo had ordered the Katyn massacre, or the creation of terrorist squads for internal or external use, how it managed the Berlin crisis, or the Cuba crisis, the invasion of Hungary, Czechoslovakia or Afghanistan, or how it was preparing to invade Poland in 1981?" (118).

Soviet Leninism.

"When, 40 years ago, in March 1953, the Soviets learned of Stalin's death, they were overcome by a feeling of pain and anguish. Moscow had to be immediately isolated from the rest of the country to prevent the influx of people from the provinces who wished to pay their last respects to the deceased leader. But this exceptional measure did not prevent the tragedy: hundreds of thousands of Muscovites poured into the streets, toward the center, in groups gathered by chance, in families, young and old. And this immense human tide ended up colliding against the barriers formed by military trucks blocking access to the House of Soviets, where Stalin's body lay in state. The crowd could not fall back, and it occurred to no one to move the trucks. The result was a gigantic pandemonium in which hundreds, if not thousands, of people perished. Even today the exact number of victims is unknown. The authorities deployed all their energies to conceal the event from the country and, evidently, from the outside world. The bodies of the identified victims were returned to their families only on the following nights, with the prohibition against speaking of the event and against burying them during the day. It was necessary to wait for Khrushchev's de-Stalinization before people could begin to recall that bloody day, at first in veiled terms and through the subterfuge of literature.

Russia has never known, either before or after the revolution, scenes of collective grief that led to carnage like those that followed Stalin's death. It has never been possible for anything similar to occur in a great European capital without the entire world knowing about it immediately. The drama that took place in March 1953 in Moscow gives an idea of the magnitude of the USSR's isolation at that time and of its madness. Today it is uncomfortable to speak in Moscow of those events..." (55).

Secrecy manifests itself, on some occasions, in the opacity of the hierarchical structure and especially of the identity of those who truly exercise power. In some cases, without this constituting the rule, even the supreme leader remains in the shadows, hidden from the eyes of his own subordinates.

Cambodian Leninism. Khmer Rouge.

"At the head of that regime of absolute terror the uncertain figure of Brother Number One took shape, a leader of dark personality, mysterious, always hidden in the shadows of power…

[...] The permanent concealment of the figure of Brother Number One produced a profound disinformation. At the opposite extreme of propaganda, the supreme leader of the revolution managed to be almost unknown to the Cambodian people" (98).

The hyperhierarchization of information has a "passive" side, less visible, namely: the renunciation of inquiry, of questioning, of finding out.

Hierarchization of wealth

Sectarian groups. The Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"The stream of money flowing into Jones's coffers was so abundant that it was said the Temple had fifteen checking accounts. Jim began transporting large bundles of banknotes to the colony in Guyana. Wire transfers worth 50,000 dollars reached the jungle mission. A former bigwig of the cult has stated that, according to the Temple's records, at least ten million dollars had been deposited in various banks in Europe, Guyana, and California.

After the suicide, alongside the bodies of Jones and his followers, securities were found amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and bank drafts" (61).

Ascent of wealth

The hierarchization of the enjoyment, possession, or effective control of material wealth causes it to tend, in paranoid contagion groups, to be distributed pyramidally, accumulating at the top.

Sectarian groups. The Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"As a former accounting secretary, I was aware that the People's Temple received about sixty-five thousand dollars a month in welfare checks. It angered me to find that, of the income of the older members, only a fraction went to those concerned" (Sworn statement by Deborah Layton Blakey, cited in 56).

This is what allows certain domestic tyrants to sustain themselves through the efforts of their victims, "freeing" them to devote themselves to whatever they please.

Domestic tyranny. The Rachel case.

"We bought a house. In reality, I bought the house, as he only contributed a small amount, a fact that was the general pattern of our investments" (113).

Domestic tyranny. Clinical case.

- [...] for a good part of his life he has been unemployed, but that did not stop him from taking the money we needed for food and the most basic necessities, to drink or to gamble away at cards.

In paranoid contagion groups, in which those who are subjugated constitute the great majority, the pyramidalism of material wealth allows, in an almost universal manner, for leaders to be able to swim in abundance. This is typically the case in sectarian groups.

Moonies.

"Dr. Pak, or Colonel Pak, as he is also known, is one of Reverend Moon's most intimate associates and serves as president of CAUSA International. He is a dominant and charismatic person whose personality has been tempered by terrible pressures resulting from a life generously seasoned with difficulty and persecution. Nevertheless, through his status with Moon, with CAUSA, and his companions, he now leads a life of luxury with personal attention that is habitually only afforded to powerful figures in business or politics"(90).

And so it happens in totalitarian regimes, in which the enrichment of the ruling elite is habitual.

Nazism.

"Ribbentrop, who for seven years controlled the foreign policy of Nazi Germany, and had numerous villas, country houses and castles..."(117).

In egalitarian totalitarianisms, the leaders allowed themselves greater access to wealth without this implying its formal appropriation.

Soviet Leninism.

"On occasion Lenin resorted to populist measures aimed at increasing the authority of the new regime. He established new wage scales for Government members, fixing the remuneration of a people's commissar at 500 rubles per month, plus 100 rubles for each non-working family member. It was probably almost the same salary as a skilled worker, since the party's policy was to remunerate its officials more or less according to that measure. But this only represented a part of the commissars' income. They received special rations, in Moscow they frequently seized the recreational cottages of the bourgeoisie, and they had access to their own specialist doctors. From 1918 they had acquired the habit of resting abroad, where they received medical treatment, and senior party officials never let that privilege slip away. In any case, after 1918, money rapidly lost its meaning, as galloping inflation stripped it of its value. The only transactions of value were conducted by barter, and the only salaries of value were those received in kind"(118).

Maoist Leninism.

"The practice of confiscating old and luxurious villas and building new ones for the exclusive use of the party elite began shortly after the liberation of Beijing..." (28).

Collective property

A distinct variant in the hierarchization of wealth is one in which the group, as such, takes possession of all goods, thereby stripping individuals of access to private property.

Anabaptist messianisms. Jan Matthijs (16th century).

"In the scant space of a month and a half, all properties were placed in common ownership, the private holding of coins, of foodstuffs, of everything necessary for supply was prohibited"(28).

Sectarian groups. The commune of Otto Muehl.

"The abolition of private property also persists. All income, whether from wages or business profits, goes into a common fund from which the cooperative's expenses are covered" (111).

In Rousseauian thought, the State also erected itself as the owner of all material wealth and, through it, there would exist a kind of collective ownership of goods. Their individual use and enjoyment would have to be considered a kind of state concession, always subject to the possibility of being revoked.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"Each member of the community gives himself to it at the moment it is formed, just as he finds himself at that instant, with all his forces, of which his goods form a part[...]for the State, with regard to its members, is the owner of their goods by virtue of the social contract"(100).

Without going as far as the complete denial of the right to property, nationalism is habitually associated with a certain tendency toward the appropriation by the Nation-State of certain goods.

Nazism.

"I am totally opposed, on the other hand, to property in the form of anonymous participation in joint-stock companies... Such profits rightfully belong to the nation, which is the only one that can derive legitimate benefit from them. In this way, at least, those who are at the origin of said profit (the engineers, the workers) can be indirectly its beneficiaries. In my view, anonymous companies must be entirely under state control..." (48).

In corporatism, we can see a more attenuated variant of the same tendency. The Nation-State does not appropriate the means of production, but arrogates to itself the right to authoritatively direct their functioning.

Fascism.

"Typological description of fascism

[...] Organization of a new highly regulated, multiclass and integrated national economic structure, whether it is called national corporatism, national socialism, or national syndicalism" (88).

Italian Fascism.

"Today we bury economic liberalism. The corporation acts in the economic sphere as the Grand Council and the militia acted in the political sphere. Corporatism is a disciplined economy, and consequently a controlled one, for one cannot conceive of discipline without control. Corporatism stands far above both socialism and liberalism: it creates a new synthesis" (Benito Mussolini, Speech of 14-11-1933, cited in 47).

Now then, both in the case of Anabaptism, and in that of the commune of Muehl, and in corporatism, collective property or collective management are not, in reality, such, given that these are not egalitarian and democratic groups but rather strongly hierarchical ones, so that, as the leader exercises absolute dominion, he is transformed into the owner de facto of the collectivized assets.

Donation

The ascent of material assets occurs as a consequence of the pressures and manipulations to which the adherents of the PC are subjected, but it is also due to a spontaneous donating impulse, which expresses the active submission of the member of the PCG.

The argument most frequently used by followers of PCs to justify this uncontrollable desire to give — which often brings with it significant personal and family financial difficulties — is that of gratitude. The least one can do is to express thanks with money for the honor of being a privileged being.

Sokagakkai.

"The happy member is convinced that somehow he has received great favors from the gohonzon. This leads to a sense of gratitude and dedication" (78).

Sectarian groups. The Patriarch.

"Thanks to Lucien, we are still standing" (33).

Sokagakkai.

"I feel a deep sense of gratitude toward the Gohonzon, for its mystical power, and toward President Toda for his wonderfully wise guidance"(52).

Cult groups. Children of God.

"In the Children of God, all of us who were born within the group were treated with special severity. Much was expected of us. It did not matter that we had been selling books on the street since we first learned to walk, nor did it matter how hard we worked as we grew older. We were relentlessly told how ungrateful we were in the face of the sacrifice that our parents' generation had made in order to offer us this way of life;we were urged to be more grateful,willing, humble, spiritual, self-sacrificing, etc."(113).

The need to donate may also be related to experiences of guilt.

Maoist Leninism.

"She felt that her [mother's] jewels were connected to an already outdated past and shared the Party's view, according to which they were nothing but the fruit of the exploitation of the people, which was why they ought to be returned to them"(54).

The cult of the leader, a manifestation of the hierarchization we will discuss later, expresses itself in a series of behaviors that, with few variations, tend to repeat themselves. Among these behaviors is the giving of gifts.

Nazism.

"... The gifts to Göering grew ever larger. Months before his birthday, the government, the army, and party officials received a questionnaire, to be completed and returned, concerning the size of the donation to the Reich Marshal. There were even some organizations tasked with coordinating the purchase of the gift for Göering. One year, in the midst of the war, the Berlin City Council asked Goebbels whether he would agree to their purchasing a painting for Göering worth 250,000 German marks on behalf of the citizens of the 'Reichshauptstadt'..." (117).

Soviet Leninism.

"José Stalin achieved the height of the personality cult on the occasion of his 70thth birthday, in 1949. This is attested to by the 25,000 gifts that the all-powerful dictator received, most of which are housed in the Museum of the Revolution in Moscow.

Now, forty years after the death of the seminarian from Tbilisi, the City History Museum of Lahti, 75 kilometres north of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, has hosted for the first time outside the Soviet Union a representative selection of the gifts that were sent to Stalin. The exhibition, which will remain open until November 11 and which will likely visit other European cities, according to its organizers, bears the title Stalin: Man or Deity.

All the items on display come from the most diverse locations across the former Soviet Union, as well as from the most remote corners of the planet. Once Nazi Germany was defeated, Stalin was seen by millions of people as the savior of humanity and the hope of a wonderful future" (108).

Donation may also be the consequence of the adherent's identification with the group's aims; the adherent hands over their money for the success of a cause they share. Something similar occurs in certain patients on the paranoid spectrum, who devote their entire lives, and their wealth, to a single objective.

Delusion of grievance.

"[...] sacrifice all their fortune to the publication of their numerous writings, to the preparation of their experiences, to the ardor of their proselytism" (104).

The renunciation of individual property is likewise explained as an imperative of the war mentality that characterizes APs, which demands the elimination of all obstacles so that the group or the adept may respond quickly and effectively to any order or urgent need.

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"Of course, it was bourgeois to think that one needed their own toothbrush among brothers and sisters of the same army" (46).

Moonies.

"I was always struck by Glenn's profound dedication. He confided in me that there were times when all he had was the clothes he could wear on his back, allowing him to move anywhere at a moment's notice when Reverend Moon required it of him" (90).

Imposition

However, not all ascent to the pinnacle of material wealth is due to the spontaneous "donating impulse." APs tend to compel the payment of periodic dues, or the making of sporadic contributions.

Sokagakkai.

"In fact, the most spectacular source of financial support for the Gakkai is neither the Financial Department nor the publishing business, but rather the members. As already mentioned, no regular levies are imposed on members; but the dramatic and paradoxical examples of financial commitment that can be seen in lower-class religious groups in other countries are also found in the Gakkai. The most striking example is the donation campaigns. These campaigns are launched for special construction projects, but the financial response is such that the costs of the project are invariably exceeded, thus providing the Gakkai with additional capital" (119).

Another source of income is the sale of group materials (publications, devotional objects, miraculous objects...) whose price usually far exceeds what we would normally understand as a reasonable price, or market price.

Sokagakkai.

"The Soka Gakkai does not solicit donations from its members, but the average follower will spend a considerable amount of money each year subscribing to the Seikyo Shinbun, Daibyaku Rengei and other publications on a regular basis, as well as purchasing a variety of books by Ikeda and other authorities of the Nichiren Shoshu and the Soka Gakkai" (78).

Crisis cults. The Melanesian cargo (19th century).

"The paradise of these believers, who were obliged to give ten shillings or one pound in cash for a bottle of water from the fountain of life, was equivalent to that of the Christians" (13).

The gradual increase of the sectarian tax is a good reflection of the group's growing paranoidization.

Cult groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"At first, the faithful were required to hand over to the holy man a quarter of their salary, which later became 40 percent and finally the entirety of their income. The faithful, in return, received what was strictly necessary for their subsistence in the Temple's pavilions" (61).

Poverty

Only in highly exalted groups, usually religious ones, are members compelled to renounce totally or almost totally any material possessions, which are to be handed over to the group. In these cases, it is not a matter of dues, contributions, or percentages of income; the group demands that everything be given to it.

Cult groups. Moonies.

"When I was a member, the common practice after this final program was to ask the recruits to donate the money from their bank accounts, to move into the Moonies' house, and to become full members" (44).

The renunciation of owning anything can go so far as to encompass even that which we would hardly dare venture to describe as a "material possession."

Cult groups. Kashi Ranch.

"Joya, who had adopted the name Joyce Cho, was trying to have a child. She had recently married a taekwondo instructor, and although she had three children from her first marriage — two still young and one a teenager — at forty she wanted more. For months we heard about her miscarriages and her overwhelming desire to become pregnant. Then she devised a plan, and any woman who was pregnant on the Ranch became her target. We were asked to give our children to 'Ma' (Joyce's spiritual name). In time, we were told, these children would be her successors. All of this was handled discreetly by 'the girls,' a group of women who personally looked after Joyce and who did the dirty work.

I was chosen when I was six months pregnant with our first child. They first convinced Harry and had him convince me. After two months of unbearable pressure, I accepted the plan. I remember the moment when I changed my way of thinking: 'There is nothing greater I can do for my child than offer him to the divine mother', I thought. Four couples gave our firstborn children to that woman, who raised them as if they were twins, as if they were two pairs of dolls"(113).

The ideal of absolute poverty held by some cults was also imposed on large masses of the population by Maoism and other Asian communist regimes. During the Great Leap Forward, Mao collectivized the peasants' plots and stripped them even of their kitchens in the name of common ownership. As if that were not enough, he showed little concern when, in order to keep the small steel mills running, peasants were left without furniture and even without farming tools. In Chinese cities, too, the right to property was restricted to only the bare essentials.

Maoist Leninism.

"The Beijing housing authority soon discovered that my mother's rooms were empty and I was asked to surrender the title deed. I had no other choice. Finally, ten years after the proclamation of 'People's China,' and when more than a decade had already passed since I had returned as a young idealist to serve my country, I became a proletarian, a member of the class that owned no property. Now the state was confiscating all my family's private property"(28).

Hierarchization of norms

We understand by norms that set of explicit obligations imposed on the members of a given group and which, while they may be modified, have a relatively stable character. These norms are kept written on paper or are transmitted verbally to be remembered. A particular type of norm is laws, elaborated by States. The imposition of norms, their repeal or modification constitutes a nuclear aspect of the exercise of power.

In paranoid contagion groups, the increase in hierarchization confers on their normative systems the following characteristics:

1) Personalization. The right to create, suppress or modify norms is concentrated in the person of the charismatic leader.

Reformers. Cabet.

"The exaggeration of Cabet's personality erupted at every instant; he could not bear to be contradicted, he regarded the statutes he had drafted as a sacred law, and treated as a spy, as sold out to the Jesuits, anyone who dared to dispute with him even the letter of them" (26).

Nazism.

"This central power was, after March 24, 1933, totally concentrated in the hands of the Führer. The Enabling Act, voted by the Reichstag by the constitutional two-thirds majority, placed in the hands of the chancellor the fullness of legislative power for a period of four years, authorizing him to dispense with the Constitution. These powers were renewed for him unanimously on January 30, 1937" (23).

If the Führer became the supreme source of legislation, it was insofar as it was accepted that in his person the will of the German nation was embodied, but in religious groups the power of leaders to legislate derives from the fact that they act as vehicles of the will of superior spiritual beings.

Other paranoid groups. The Sebastianisms of Pernambuco (19th century).

"The prophet and his chief assistant styled themselves 'procurators of Jesus Christ,' received revelations and decrees from the miraculous saint or the saint of the stone, and governed the community according to their instructions" (103).

After the disappearance of the leader, some paranoid assemblies cling to the rules he bequeathed them, resisting with obstination any modification or adaptation to the passage of time. This represents a desire to maintain the founder's authority beyond his death.

2) Regulationism. The paranoid mentality, fond of rules, tends to regulate the smallest details in such a way that the individual's freedom is curtailed by a great number of prescriptions that reduce his margin of autonomy.

Nazism.

"One of the fundamental characteristics of the concentration camps was the absurd meticulousness with which life was regulated" (66).

Let us look at some concrete manifestation of this insistence on regulating the smallest details of daily life.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"At the table one must remain standing at attention, not sitting down until permission is received. The most senior member of the headquarters begins to eat..." (93).

Nazism.

"[...] a circular dated November 20, 1933, read: 'The Führer's deputy has become aware that in some towns and villages there is discord regarding whether the NSDAP greeting is 'Heil' or 'Heil Hitler'. Some people have been arrested for having the audacity to shout a simple 'Heil'. Bormann made it known that the greeting 'Heil' had never been officially replaced by 'Heil Hitler'. So both forms were acceptable" (117).

Regimentation leads leaders not only to regulate specific behaviors such as the way of sitting at the table or of greeting, but to attempt to direct all the behaviors of the adept.

Sectarian groups. Community Chapel.

"The seminars offered by the church leaders covered topics such as 'What to do with your hand', 'Masturbation', 'Child-rearing', 'How to dress', 'How to be a good wife', 'How to be a good employee', 'How to be a minister's wife', 'How to choose makeup'" (36).

3) Absolutism. The paranoid contagion group tends to wield absolute power, considering that its norms always take precedence over those of the individuals or subgroups within it, over those of other groups, or over the general norms of the broader society in which it exists.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"In Rousseau we find a clear overvaluation of the importance of the State —returning in more than one sense to Plato and Aristotle— to the point that he goes so far as to affirm that the State has the right to force its citizens to be truly free in order to form their will with morality, that there is no morality outside the State and that the competences of the State are practically unlimited" (100).

4) On the side of submission, paranoid hyperhierarchization produces an increase in the predisposition to comply with the group's norms. Paranoid individuals also attach great importance to the observance of norms.

Paranoia.

"[...] in the clinical picture of paranoia. Among the objective characteristics is included [...] rectitude..." (76).

The paranoid relationship. Tizón.

"[...] he/she often presents as a collector of injustices and norms (rigidly followed)" (112).

When we talk about nations and their citizens, submission to norms is called "civic spirit," which is widely known to increase during periods of greatest patriotic fervor (such as wars).

Nationalism

"In this sense it can be said that Israel and the Arab states have long found in war a certain balance that has favored the unity of citizens, civic discipline, nationalist ardor and religious fervor" (22).

With the same zeal with which they submit to the law, IPPs make sure that those around them also comply with the rules. The most punctilious IPs are attentive to the most inconsequential infractions of the rules, and are willing to report them and demand that they be punished.

Querulants.

"A married male of 67 years employed as a municipal gardener initiated a series of complaints in relation to the theft of a birdbath and a stool from a local authority park.

[...] One day, he saw his supervisor driving a van through the park above the permitted speed limit. He thought it was a danger to children, but when he pointed it out to the supervisor, an argument ensued. He reported it to the superintendent, but the complaint was not accepted. He discovered that the supervisor had a birdbath and a stool in his garden, which he claimed belonged to the local authority. After photographing them, he accused the supervisor of theft, believing that this would expose the 'corruption' in the department.

[...] He described the amount of affect associated with these ideas and his rage at the breaking of the rules of the park and society" (101).

5) Contrariwise, in the PCG individuals situated in positions of higher rank have greater freedom to disregard the group's norms. This is the paradox of the most moralistic sectarian groups, whose leaders grant themselves the greatest liberties. In these groups, permissiveness toward the failure to comply with norms on the part of those who, precisely, create them, often reaches grotesque extremes.

6) A final manifestation of the hierarchization of the law consists in the subject's accepting without resistance normative changes that imply profound modifications in pre-existing habits or that contradict his previous values.

This phenomenon is evident in individuals who join cults (which are often dissonant with their prior value system and way of life). Thus, the prohibition on singing outside the bounds of their temples, which weighs upon the members of the Evangelical Church of Philadelphia, represents a genuine shock cultural for its members, the majority of whom are Roma, who find themselves compelled to modify centuries-old habits and patterns of communication acquired from their earliest childhood.

Also characteristic of crisis cults was the demand that followers adopt codes of behavior radically different from and contradictory to those of their tribal cultures.

Crisis cults. Handsome Lake (18th century).

"Some Seneca should learn to read and write in English, others to till the land with plows as the white men do, to build stockades and log cabins and, finally, most revolutionary of all in a land where agriculture was work reserved for women, it would henceforth be the men who should attend to it, as the white men did. Some ancient rites should be abandoned or changed, others would be preserved and strictly observed" (63).

Crisis cults. The Delaware prophet (19th century).

"He then handed the prophet a stick bearing strange markings that represented his commandments: to drink water no more than once or twice a day at most; not to sing the old 'medicine songs'..." (63).

For their part, LPs frequently display a certain spirit of contradiction that leads them to elaborate laws and norms in open rupture and opposition to pre-existing ones, underscoring the character of absolute novelty of their message.

Messianic movements. Sabbetai Zevi (17th century).

"During the course of his stay, which will last eight months, he carries out a multitude of senseless acts. For several weeks he walks around with a cradle in which a fish dressed as a newborn rests. To the stupefaction of the rabbis, he calmly explains that his gesture is based on the certainty that redemption will occur in the astrological age of Pisces. Everything has its explanation.

But his most serious act, the one that justifies his expulsion from Constantinople, is the transgression of the calendar. In 1658 he celebrates three different Jewish feasts in the same week and begins to openly preach antinomianism. This characteristic appears in numerous false messiahs: considering that their coming announces the golden age, they deduce from this that all previous rules are abolished and that what was forbidden yesterday has become lawful today. In 1658, in Constantinople, Sabbetai Zevi blesses for the first time 'He who permits what is forbidden'. Now, God authorizes all manner of transgressions" (11).

Hierarchization of violence

As was to be expected, the exercise of violence is also affected by the hyperhierarchization of the PCG. Schematically, two clear tendencies can be observed:

The increase in recourse to violence, which becomes more severe, more arbitrary, is applied to lesser offenses and to the most fragile and defenseless.

Sectarian groups. The Truth.

"There are former members who claim that children as young as three months of age were struck harshly" (36).

The unidirectionality in the exercise of the same, which is not indiscriminate, but rather follows exactly the established lines of authority.

Soviet Leninism.

"Indeed, reading the minutes of the Politburo after the seizure of power, it becomes immediately clear that there were almost no sessions in which measures were not considered to reinforce the dictatorship of the proletariat —that is, the dictatorship of the party— expanding the powers of the punitive bodies, legislating terror, ensuring the impunity of the new caste of 'untouchables'…"(118).

One must not forget that alongside this "hierarchical" violence of the paranoid contagion group there exists another form of violence, which we might call "expansive," upon which we elaborated in the previous chapter.

We will begin with the more benign forms of violence, leaving the most severe manifestations for the end.

Verbal violence

The majority of gregarious animal species possess ritualized forms of intraspecific confrontation through which individuals can aggress or confront one another while at the same time avoiding the harm that combat can produce. Fights are carried out according to rules, different for each species, that reduce the risk of death or serious injury. Among humans, the main alternative to actual fighting lies in the use of language. The skirmishes that incessantly occur among male individuals of our species do not involve, on most occasions, any physical contact, and when such contact does occur it rarely goes beyond a shove or a light scuffle.

Verbal violence, which in paranoid contagion groups is also the most frequent and everyday form, is exercised in different ways: through shouting, through reproach, through threats, and through insult. Outbursts of rage, in which leaders emit all manner of expletives and recriminations, are a universal characteristic of paranoid leaders, from the great totalitarian regimes to the small paranoid contagion groups. Four examples will suffice.

Shouts and reproaches:

Sectarian groups. Moonies.

"Moon employed a new style to motivate leaders. At first he was friendly with us, buying us gifts or taking us out to dinner or to the movies. Then he would invite us to his mansion and would scream and scold us for how poorly we were doing our jobs"(44).

Insults and threats:

SLA Leninist-sectarian groupuscule.

"Every so often the bathroom door would fly open with a bang, giving me another fright, while he or she watched what I was doing. I always received the same warning: 'Make any noise, bitch, and we'll kill you!'"(46).

Reproaches:

Unspecified sectarian group.

"Jackson belonged to a far-left political cult that taught its members to 'take the initiative within the limits of discipline,' which meant in theory that members had to apply all their creativity and intelligence to whatever situation they found themselves in, without violating the group's strict rules and guidelines. This rule allowed the leader to criticize members continuously because, in practice, almost any independent behavior could be judged as falling 'outside' the limits of discipline, while failing to act in any given situation could also be criticized as 'meekness, cowardice, or passivity.'

While he was at a demonstration in front of City Hall protesting a wage cut for city workers, Jackson saw the mayor approaching. As a courageous militant prepared to defend his organization's principles, Jackson walkeddirectly up to the mayor and asked him what he was going to do about the wage cuts. When this action was reported to the cult's leader, he flew into a rage and ordered that Jackson be severely criticized for breaking discipline, claiming that he had behaved egocentrically, had acted solely in his own interest, and was attempting to seize power. A week later, Jackson was sent to another picket line, where the general secretary of a union was expected to appear. The leader told Jackson to be prepared to confront the union leader. 'What are you talking about?' asked Jackson, trembling. 'You know damn well what I'm talking about!' his leader exclaimed"(113).

Reproaches and insults:

Sectarian cults. TFP.

"The Chapter —public confession of faults— takes place every time an adept returns to the hermitage or the camaldule.

For 7 to 10 hours, the adept remains lying face down on the floor, with their nose pressed to the ground, their hands in a particular position of tension and a state of general tension throughout their entire body, which the so-called cuidam helps to maintain with a rod whenever the adept relaxes.

In this painful position, they endure all manner of criticism, recriminations and insults uttered by those who know or have known them" (93).

The humiliation of insult and contempt can be achieved through other ridiculing measures.

Sectarian cults. TFP.

"Among the punishments that may be imposed following the Chapter is that of wearing clothes inside out —with the seams on the outside…" (93).

Unspecified sectarian cult.

"The Sunday bulletin of a Californian church contained the following announcement: 'Mrs. Blank [I have changed the real name] refuses to stop the damned sin of gluttony. She resorts to any excuse to remain fat. She also has a sarcastic and complaining attitude toward this church. The board of elders recommends that she be transferred [to another church] until she is willing to stop her sin of gluttony. [...] If Mrs. Blank wishes to repent she must see [the leaders] and express her willingness to stop complaining and lose weight" (36).

Pain

One step further up in the practice of violence leads to inflicting physical pain (or threatening to do so). Pain is produced with the body itself (through kicks, punches, etc.) or with weapons or instruments of torture. Corporal punishment and physical violence are a frequent, though not universal, characteristic of paranoid microgroups, …

Domestic tyranny

"At home, Ida, a captive, was the scapegoat of that father who imposed upon his five daughters admiration for Hitler, the reading of Mein Kampf, and training sessions in the handling of weapons. His fury reached its extreme when Cristina, the eldest daughter, deserted the family home in the summer of 1989 for the love of a friend. Believing that Ida knew where the eldest was hiding, the father kicked her in the abdomen. He loaded his Luger pistol and made the weapon available to the rest of the family: in the event of the runaway's return, anyone had to be able to immobilize her by shooting her in the legs. It was the weapon of parricide…" (116).

(…) of cult groups…

Cult groups. TFP.

"Among the punishments that may be imposed following the Chapter is [...] wearing boots on the wrong foot" (93).

Cult groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"Diana Mills, 18 years old, was the daughter of Al and Jeanie. She too retained anguishing memories of her life in the People's Temple, where she spent her entire adolescence. According to her testimony, the atmosphere in the colony began to sour around 1972. The beatings began then — 'brutal and demented,' in her opinion. She had to watch as her own sister Linda was struck with a stick for more than an hour, until her buttocks were as black as coal. The beating was of such cruelty that young Mills took a week and a half before she could sit down. 'While they were at it, they put a microphone in front of her so that everyone could hear her screams,' Diana recalled. The punishment was applied because Linda had been seen in a vacant lot used as a parking area, embracing a friend who had left the cult. Jones accused her of having engaged in a homosexual relationship with her."(61).

Cult groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"Mills described the holy man as brilliant in the art of seizing control of his followers' will during the sessions of catharsis that unfolded over the course of entire nights. In them, the faithful were denounced, beaten, and humiliated by Jones and other members of the community. 'The beatings became increasingly frequent at the nightly meetings. And if anyone showed any sign of displeasure, they were removed from the group to be subjected to the same mistreatment.'"(61).

Cult groups. El Patriarca.

"There is also an abundance of testimonies showing the violent dynamic that is common in El Patriarca's centers toward dissidents.

'At the Las Palmeras center in Castellón, they made us work recovering materials, mainly construction materials — recounts a former resident in a report —. After a few days I stated that I wanted to leave and, at first, they tried to convince me, but when I held firm in my request, they locked me in the showers with five boys, and from 7 in the evening until 4 in the morning they beat me systematically until I was left completely black and blue."(95).

Cult groups. TFP.

"Physical punishments include push-ups or floggings with a horse whip on the chest, while the adept remains motionless at attention" (93).

(…) and of totalitarian societies.

Nazism.

"Corporal punishment is practiced in Dachau. Prisoners are flogged with ox sinews wrapped in wire, which they must braid themselves. Between 25 and 75 lashes are dealt to them with force.

Without any reason whatsoever, communists and social democrats are beaten upon their arrival at the camp. Detainees are also beaten using wet towels. Seven SA members who arrived on the first of August were so badly mistreated that two of them, Amuschel and Handschuck, did not survive the beatings. As a result of the mistreatment received, the communist Fritz Schaper was immobilized for two months. On September 2nd, a Nazi guard fractured a prisoner's lower jaw with a punch..." (47).

Nazism.

"Some of the ordinary punishments consisted of: administering 20 or 50 blows with a baton to the kidneys..." (66).

Other punishments bordering on pain are, strictly speaking, something else, such as forcing individuals to endure cold, to suffer nausea…

Cult groups. The Otto Muehl commune.

"... and that Muehl punishes disobedience with a tribunal that humiliates adults and children. They recounted a case in which Muehl had poured a bucket of cold water over a girl who had fallen asleep during one of the communal sessions" (111).

Cult groups. No-Name Fellowship.

"[...] according to Pam and other former members, fierce discipline of the members was the order of the day. Measures included spanking adults with hands, belts, wooden paddles or other objects; drinking salt water; putting liquid soap in a woman's mouth for addressing her husband inappropriately; and lying at someone's feet to beg forgiveness" (36).

Exhaustion

Nazism.

"At the main entrance [of the concentration camp] a wrought-iron gate, crowned by a forged iron header, bore a kind of mocking laugh with an inscription dictated by Commandant Höss: "Arbeit macht frei" (Work sets you free)" (66).

Another frequent punishment in paranoid contagion groups consists of demanding superhuman physical or labor efforts, as occurs with the forced labor of concentration camps and some rural communities operating as cults.

Cult groups. The Reverend Jones's Peoples Temple.

"Other children, to cite another of the hundreds of possible examples, which were very common in Jim Jones's cult, for saying they were sick and that they did not want to go to work, were punished by being forced to climb down into a pit and dig in the mud from dawn to sunset" (95).

Nazism.

"[...] placing the prisoner face down and forcing him to push himself up with his arms, fall back down and push himself up again, for hours and hours, raining blows on the back of whoever collapsed from exhaustion before what was considered sufficient by the executioners; standing at attention under the blinding rays of the floodlights, from nine in the evening until dawn, with hands crossed behind the neck..." (66).

But the punishment of exhaustion is also applied to members who are not confined in any facility.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"A 'major' penance for having committed an infraction of the ordo is to walk 20 km" (93).

Death penalty

The greater the group's paranoidism, the more the punishments applied by the leadership will be for increasingly minor infractions, and will be administered in a more capricious manner. The greater the paranoidism, the more the severity of physical punishments also tends to increase.

Anabaptist messianisms. John of Leiden (16th century).

"The burgomaster and municipal council are immediately relieved of their functions. Bockelson [John of Leiden] and twelve 'elders' replace them. This theocratic government reinforces the communist measures adopted by Matthys and incorporates into them a severe puritanism. Accordingly, adultery, fornication (that is, marriage with an ungodly person), insolence of children toward their parents, greed, slander, and quarreling are punishable by death" (11).

Anabaptist messianisms. John of Leiden (16th century).

"One of his wives, who dared to criticize him, was beheaded in the marketplace; the king afterward trampled her corpse with frenzied fury, as a medicinal lesson for all" (28).

Anabaptist messianisms. John of Leiden (16th century).

"Despite the example of the divine spokesman, with his dozen wives, and of other leaders, polygamy gave rise to resistance that was silenced with execution" (28).

The crimes are not always carried out, but the members of the paranoid contagion group are completely conditioned by threats that seem credible to them.

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"Failing to protect a comrade in the course of a combat operation was the worst of the crimes listed in the SLA's Codes of War. The punishment for that failure was death. Instant death. Shot right there, without trial or appeal" (46).

Nazism.

"If the slightest attempt at mutiny were to take place at this moment in any part of the Reich, I would respond by adopting immediate measures: a) That same day, all the leaders of the opposition, including the leaders of the Catholic party, would be arrested and executed; b) all the occupants of the concentration camps would be shot within three days; c) all the criminals on our lists, regardless of whether they were free or imprisoned, would be shot within the same timeframe" (48).

Now, for these threats to be perceived as real, the LP must be willing to carry them out when the failure or betrayal it had threatened to punish actually occurs.

Domestic tyranny.

"The husband in the process of separation, but having lived separate lives for several months, stabbed his wife five times in the middle of the street…" (75).

The justifications of violence

Although threats and aggressions constitute an essential component of hierarchical behavior (in ours and in the rest of social species), the truth is that this exercise requires a justification that gives it it a certain rational meaning. The rationalizations of hierarchical violence tend to cluster into two major groups, namely:

1) Education and behavior modification.

Nazism.

"It is easy to reply to these refractories that they do not hesitate to eat the bread that others are going to conquer for them; that, from the point of view of a higher justice, this is not equitable, and that, therefore, they must be left to die of hunger. I have shown proof of great clemency by not subjecting them to the torment of hunger and by having some so-called Jehovah's Witnesses shot, one hundred and thirty in total. Such executions had the effect of a salutary storm. As soon as they became known, several thousand refractories of the same kind revised their opinions and lost the inclination to shirk the fight by invoking one or another verse of the Bible" (48).

Sectarian groups. Raschimura Group.

"Raschimura, from the moment he claimed to already be God the Father, became more and more violent... At the slightest failing, he would impose punishments on you such as doing flexions on gravel or rice, which would dig into your flesh, or he would beat you with kendo (bamboo) swords" (95).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"At the headquarters in Brazil a rod is used, with which blows are struck to the chest, to impose discipline and instill the correct ways of behaving" (93).

Sectarian groups. Shiloh.

"Illness was a sign that the soul was sick, and if the children were ill it was not due to malnutrition but because of their sinful state. Sick children were ordered to 'get rich with God' by fasting and praying on their knees for prolonged periods of time. Somehow their sins were making Shiloh suffer. Since the children were unruly and disobedient, fasting and beatings were the way to punish them. The beatings went on day and night. One father beat his son from dusk until one in the morning, when someone stopped him. It was rumored that some older children had been taken into the woods and beaten with horse whips. A mother heard Standford say that flogging a child was 'the teacher to bring them to Christ" (36).

2) The curative, salvation-based, etc. arguments.

Cult groups. The Mazagón cult.

"The prosecutor's summary contains an account of spine-chilling events. During the strange gatherings at a chalet in Mazagón, a coastal town near Huelva, the defendants drank urine, pulled each other's hair out and then ate it, and subjected one another to severe beatings... The orders of A. C. were carried out in the belief that any setback would seriously affect the health of the one who, to them, was a very special being..." (105).

Cult groups. Estación Verdad.

"A few months after Gretchen's departure, the group began to use physical violence, especially against women and children, to eradicate the 'satanic spirits" (44).

Hierarchical violence (against inferiors) and violence against traitors can be distinguished conceptually, and we have done so, but in practice they tend to merge into a single reality. The jealous husband abuses in order to demand more servile treatment from his wife (that is, to discipline) but also abuses to punish or prevent the betrayal of infidelity. As for totalitarian societies, physical punishments serve indiscriminately to punish indiscipline and to combat internal enemies.

Self-administered punishments

A peculiar phenomenon, seen almost exclusively in APs of religious inspiration, consists in the subjects themselves inflicting physical harm upon themselves.

Crisis cults. The Baniwa Venancio (19th century).

"His numerous followers submitted themselves to flagellations, became intoxicated, practiced frenzied dances and led a dissolute life" (103).

When the explanation for this paradoxical self-torture consists in asserting that it constitutes an "offering" (to the leader or deity), it becomes most evident that mortification is also a form of submission. Another type of argument is that which seeks to justify this unusual behavior as a means of atoning for guilt: the follower splits himself into a part that punishes and another that is punished. The same subject becomes both executioner and victim in an autistic exercise of the hierarchization of violence.

Detention centers for punishment

A particular form of violence, characteristic of SPs, is that which was practiced in concentration camps. In these, an extreme and professionalized violence (and, therefore, of quality) could be administered, with the addition of confinement, complete isolation from the outside world, and overcrowding. Concentration camps are a typical institution of the totalitarianisms of the last century; first established by the Bolsheviks following their rise to power, they were copied and perfected by the Hitlerian regime.

Soviet Leninism.

"Request from the deportees of the Severo-Dvinsk region, Kotlas district, among the crowd of the Makarija camp. We ask you to address our case (to tell us) what makes us deserving of being tormented and mocked. How is it possible that we have harvested much grain and helped the State, and that we are now worth nothing? And if we are worth nothing, please send us abroad, since here we find ourselves threatened with dying of hunger and every day a revolver is pointed at our chest, and we are threatened with being killed. A woman has been run through with a bayonet and two men have been killed; in ten weeks one thousand six hundred people have perished.

The masses ask you to send a commission to inspect us and see how we live. A good peasant gives his livestock better shelter, but we are standing in water with sand falling in our eyes and we never change our clothes or footwear; there is not enough bread, we are given three hundred grams, there is no hot water, and if everything continues like this for one more month, there will not be much left of us.

[...] We ask the Central Executive Committee to see the state in which the kulaks of Makarija find themselves: our huts are falling apart, we live in great danger, our huts are full of excrement, people are dying, we carry thirty coffins a day. We have nothing — no firewood to light a fire in the huts, no hot water, no rations, no bath to keep ourselves clean, and barely three hundred grams of bread, that is all. With two hundred and fifty people per hut we fall ill from the very air we breathe, especially the babies; this is how innocent people are tortured"(118).

Nazism.

"Concentration camps emerged in 1933 (Dachau, Oranienburg, Buchenwald), immediately after Hitler's rise to power. The Führer considered them necessary to neutralize his main political opponents; to that end he enacted a presidential decree introducing the concept of 'Schutzhaft' (protective custody)"(66).

I am aware of more than one cult group that has centers where the most unruly members are confined and where punishments are meted out in abundance. There are also APs in which it is the entire group that withdraws from the world and shuts itself away in something resembling a concentration camp.

Cult groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"The deserters commented on the kind of life they had led in Jonestown. They were given only rice and a little vegetable at the three daily meals…" (61).

Domestic tyrants and jealous husbands frequently demand that their wives limit to the utmost their outings from the conjugal home. This limitation, in the most extreme cases, reaches a total prohibition on going out. A situation not so different from that of the AP-kulak.

Delusion of jealousy. Clinical case.

- He only allowed me to leave the house on rare occasions and always in his company. When he went to work he chained me up to prevent me from fleeing.

Reign of terror

The consequence of the persistent application, profuse and indiscriminate, of violence is the emergence of a reign of terror.

Soviet Leninism.

"In mid-1922 the civil war had ended and Russia was in ruins. It seemed that the cruelty was finally going to come to an end. [But] Lenin made clear that 'although coercion is not our ideal' the Bolsheviks cannot live without it, even when it comes to ideas, points of view, or the human spirit. He recommended the death penalty, commutable under mitigating circumstances to deprivation of liberty, or deportation 'in the case of propaganda or agitation or membership in or assistance to organizations that support the international bourgeoisie that does not recognize the … communist system'. This proposition was later incorporated into the vile article 58 of the Criminal Code, with the consequent millions of people to build and then populate the concentration camps" (118).

Nazism.

"This new form of terror, whose main weapon was confinement in a concentration camp, operated through a complex bureaucracy, and in accordance with official norms and regulations that, while sometimes ignored in practice, established a certain degree of system and control" (Noakes, cited in 47).

When mid-twentieth-century sociology grouped Nazism and Marxism-Leninism into a common category — totalitarianism — it was doing nothing more than acknowledging the numerous similarities between those two apparently antipodal regimes. In both, a single party firmly entrenched in power could exercise its dominion over the entire population through iron control of the media and through terror. This deliberate use of terror as a background policy of the State stood in sharp contrast to the liberal-democratic ideals that had gradually prevailed over the course of the previous century, and departed equally from the traditionalist ideal of a society organically structured into estates living in harmony. The two totalitarianisms also resembled each other in the methods by which the population would be terrorized: a political police force specializing in the repression of dissent, unrestrained by any judicial oversight, executions, and the establishment of concentration camps, in which torture was practiced and forced labor was carried out under subhuman conditions.

Soviet Leninism.

"Lenin successfully tested a series of new experiences for authoritarian political movements [...] the introduction of systematic terror, with the institutionalization of permanent concentration camps for political prisoners, in which large-scale forced labor and a policy of liquidation were combined [...] the liquidation or elimination of entire classes and categories of people" (88).

Nazism.

"In the Third Reich, any form of political opposition was extremely risky and dangerous. Nazi totalitarianism imposed a reign of terror hardly surpassable. Proof of this is the 600,000 people interned in concentration camps for political reasons, and the 12,000 death sentences for the same cause" (122).

But we must not lose sight of the fact that the establishment of a climate of terror through the use of violence (or threats) is not an exclusive characteristic of SPs. Terror is often present in mGPs and APs, in which a persistent fear prevails of becoming a victim of the most severe punishments, for actions or omissions committed, for insubordination, or for treason, or without knowing why.

Sectarian Groups. C.E.I.S.

"There, physical punishments were almost daily... If you did not comply with the rules that existed there, you knew your punishment was already coming, and you could not leave either because you were afraid that something might happen to your family. It was constant oppression, a fear that made you live solely to comply with what he told you. You could not reflect or think about this or that, you always had in mind the beating or that something might happen to your family" (95).

Sectarian Groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"5. Any objection to his dictates was considered a 'betrayal'. Reverend Jones stigmatized anyone who left the organization with the label of 'traitor'. He firmly and earnestly maintained that the punishment deserved for desertion was none other than death. The fact that members of the Temple were frequently subjected to severe corporal punishment lent the threat a terrifying air of reality" (Sworn statement by Deborah Layton Blakey, cited in 56).

Hierarchization of sex and marriage

The members of APs often find their capacity to freely and autonomously decide in the realm of romantic and sexual life diminished. As in other aspects, hierarchization is expressed in the form of stable, general-character norms as well as in the form of orders transmitted from person to person and of a more changeable nature. The interference of authoritarianism in sexuality manifests itself equally in prohibitions and in obligations, so that, paradoxical as it may seem, there exists a connection between those groups that compel absolute chastity and those that, on the contrary, demand promiscuity. In both cases, individuals and couples cease to decide for themselves.

Let us repeat it once more. Hyperhierarchization entails a greater tendency to give orders, but also a greater tendency to obey. Extreme degrees of authoritarianism are only possible where there are extreme degrees of submission.

We can distinguish, somewhat artificially, two domains in which authoritarian interference occurs:

That of sex proper; the amount of sexual activity, specific sexual practices, the moment, the place, and the person or persons with whom relations are maintained, etc.

That of decisions relating to the formation of couples and to marriage; initiation, termination, rules of cohabitation, etc.

The control of sexual activity

Let us begin with the first domain, that of sexuality proper.

Some APs compel asexuality in absolute terms, which includes the practice of chastity, as well as the complete annihilation of any sexual conversation, fantasy, dream, or desire. In the vast majority of cases, these are religious groups.

Messianic movements. Mother Ann Lee (18th century).

"During her stay in prison, she has a decisive revelation: Christ will not return if men and women continue… making love. In other words: the sexual act is an offense to God, a perversion of the mystery of Creation.

From that time until her death, Ann Lee would impose an absolute and fierce chastity upon her disciples" (11).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"It is forbidden to see oneself naked in the mirror. One must sleep on one's back with hands on top of the blanket. TFP members practice absolute chastity. Sexual matters are taboo and cannot even be mentioned. Members were advised to enter the bathroom briskly, without hesitating, without taking pleasure in touch or gaze, resisting the devil. Members have ten minutes to shower, shave, and brush their teeth. The haste causes them to come out with conspicuous cuts on their faces" (93).

Castration, as carried out in the suicide group Heaven's Gate, represents a drastic step forward in the definitive annihilation of sexuality.

Messianic movements. Kondraty Selivanov (18th century).

"Being a simple peasant from the Orel region, he joined the heretical sect of the khlysty, the flagellant Christs, in 1770. Let us recall that the sulfurous khlysty actively practiced self-torture and trance. Our man thus belonged to a particularly exalted group, run with an iron hand by Akulina Ivanovna. Akulina was no ordinary person. According to unverified rumors, she was the secret daughter of Tsar Peter the Great. In any case, she soon noticed this young, silent peasant who remained at the back of the church without uttering a word. It should be noted that Kondraty had gone so far in his faithfulness to the Lord that he had … emasculated himself. Was Akulina aware of this? One day, during a session of whirling dances and collective trance, she turned to Selivanov and declared: 'God has arrived!'

Next, he has several visions in which Kondraty appears clearly as an incarnate god. Then, our castrated man also begins to prophesy. His message is simple: he proposes to his audience… castration. Unfortunately for him, the khlysty seem little desirous of cutting off their sexual organ. But Selivanov is not discouraged. He creates his own movement and openly proclaims himself 'Son of God' and 'Redeemer'. His mission: to exterminate the serpent from all the earth. His weapon: castration.

And it works! A new religious cult has been born. Very soon he finds a general in the person of the peasant Alexander Ivanovich Chilov. For years, Chilov has moved from one cult to another without ever finding the ideal place. Among the castrated, he finally discovers his vocation. He emasculates himself and becomes the 'forerunner' of Kondraty, his main ally"(11).

In religious groups the prohibition of sexuality is related to its association with sin or with the idea that it represents a materialism that would oppose spiritual progress. But the authoritarianism of paranoid contagion groups equally allows them to demand chastity even when there is no fundamental objection to sexuality and for purely pragmatic reasons. This is the case of Mao's young Red Guards, who after the Cultural Revolution were sent to carry out agricultural work in the people's communes. It was simply a matter of avoiding pregnancies and eliminating a factor of distraction from revolutionary duties. The same utilitarian sense was behind the Maoist rule by which Party officials slept at their workplaces, being allowed no more than one day a week for the enjoyment of sexuality. This type of partial restriction of sexual activity is more common than the demand for total chastity.

Crisis cults. The Delaware prophet (19th century).

"In the account of John McCullough, captured at the age of eight and adopted by a Delaware family, we read that the doctrine of the Delaware prophet prescribed mainly that in order to wash away sins one had to take emetics and abstain from having sexual relations"(63).

One might anticipate that some PAs will demand the exact opposite of asexuality: a hypersexuality, an increase in the frequency of sexual activity. However, I am not aware of any PA in which such an imposition occurred. But this demand is indeed frequent on the part of paranoid husbands, and especially jealous ones. It is a complaint that can be heard with a certain frequency from their women-victims. It has also been described on occasion in acute psychotic episodes.

Acute psychoses. Clinical case.

"After the birth of the child, the patient began making greater sexual demands than previously" (9).

The authoritarianism of the PCG, which sometimes regulates the frequency of sexual activity, can likewise determine what type of sexual activity takes place.

Acute psychoses. Clinical case.

"He began asking his wife to engage in sexual activities different from their usual ones" (9).

Sectarian groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"One of the individuals belonging to the planning committee had fallen asleep during a long speech — Jones was sometimes interminable. They tried to wake him, but there was no way. Steve Addison, as that tired white man was called, was forced, as punishment, to perform an aberrant sexual act with a woman. He became dizzy and was beaten. He suffered a concussion and his nose swelled to twice its natural size" (61).

The control of sexual partners

More common than control over the type of practices is interference in the choice of sexual partenaires. In this regard, the existence of precise norms is common. It is very frequent in some groups to insist that sexuality may only be permitted within marriage; any other sexual partner is inadmissible. These groups may be willing to prevent concupiscence by the most forceful means.

Cult groups. Moonies.

"When we hold power in this country," he said, "we will reform the Constitution and maintaining sexual relations with anyone other than one's assigned partner will be punishable by capital punishment. He added that sex that was not centered on God was the greatest sin that could be committed; consequently, if a person was incapable of overcoming temptation, the best thing that could be done for them was to strip them of their physical body. In this way we would be doing them a favor and it would be much easier to lead them onto the correct path within the spiritual world. I thought about all the married people outside the movement who were destroying their spiritual bodies every time they had sexual relations. I never stopped thinking about the genocide that could be unleashed if we seized power in the United States" (44).

Self-sexuality may also be prohibited.

Cult groups. Hermetic Philosophical Institute.

"The truth is that those who habitually masturbate become unsociable, sad, surly and forgetful, and experience a deterioration of character and willpower" (8).

(In this case, the group's influence is not exerted through direct norms or orders but by imposing beliefs that ultimately influence sexual behavior). On the other hand, not all PCGs impose puritanical attitudes: the principles imposed may be quite the opposite.

Cult-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"Free sex was one of the cell's principles. It was obvious, he said, that revolutionaries operating underground cannot go out into the street and find sex in a normal way. Consequently, each person in the cell had to attend to the needs of the others. No one was forced to have sexual relations. But if a comrade asked another, it was 'comradely' to say yes" (46).

Alongside this authoritarian interference through normative means, a more direct and personal interference also occurs on the part of authority members. In the mildest variant, the AP requires those wishing to engage in relations to first ask for permission.

Cult groups. El Patriarca.

"Sexual relations are controlled —states former inmate Evaristo Roig—, and only they (the monitors) can grant permission (to engage in them). If someone is caught engaging in them without permission, the couple is separated into different centers" (95).

Cult groups. C.E.I.S.

"Within the CEIS cult it is always some guide (a sort of second-order guru who oversees the 'therapies' of a set number of cult pupils) who authorizes or not, for the members, the indiscriminate sexual pairings that characterize their intimate lives" (95).

Increasing its authoritarianism, the paranoid contagion group does not limit itself to authorizing but rather chooses who must form the sexual couples.

Cult groups. C.E.I.S.

"In the 'therapeutic' communal sessions, bed partners are even drawn by lot in an unusual cult of bisexual promiscuity"(95).

Sectarian groups. Otto Muehl's commune.

"They also claimed that every couple's relationship is constantly repressedsystematically, thatsexual contacts are compulsory and regulated by computer..."(111).

Modification of prior taboos, principles and orientations

Surely the most striking manifestation of authoritarianism in the choice of sexual partners has to do with thetype ofpartenaire, such that the adept may substantially modify their prior sexual orientations. In some cases this involves the imposition of group sex.

Unspecified sectarian group.

"When it was over, P. said that we were going to do a love exercise, which he called 'Blind Love'.

He turned off the lights, and in the dark, we had to move around the room. After a few seconds he told us to offer each other love.

[...] Before long, those 'Blind Love' gatherings turned into full-blown orgies, although we never knew for certain who we had been with"(7).

Crisis cults. Keekhwei: Ramkokamekra prophetess (20th century).

"Certain demands imposed by Keekhwei seem sociologically significant. Among them we shall distinguish the prescription of collective sexual relations and the ostentatious breaking of traditional sexual taboos" (103).

Messianic movements. Jacob Frank (18th century).

"[...] on Yom Kippur, the Frankists have the custom of making love as a group under the direction of the messiah" (11).

Mandatory group sex constitutes a phenomenon that, while not frequent, is indeed quite exclusive to paranoid contagion groups. No less curious is the induction, under the influence of the group, of homosexual activities in individuals who had previously shown an exclusively heterosexual orientation. Or the "curing" of homosexuality in adherents of groups that condemn it. These are significant changes, often rapid, and ones that outside the cult environment would have been difficult to conceive.

Not to mention prostitution, for the purpose of raising funds or furthering proselytism (I am aware of at least three groups that have forced their female adherents to prostitute themselves).

Cult groups. Children of God.

"-Fucking is nothing -writes David in one of his pseudo-religious letters- What is a little fuck between friends if he needs it? Nothing! It helps him feel better. Show him the love of God. Tell him: 'I love you because God loves you, and Jesus loves you and the Virgin Mary loves you and my husband loves you; we have the love of God and we give it to you" (95).

Fortunately, few paranoid personalities force others to break the taboo of sex with children. The only case I am aware of is that of the Children of God.

Control of stable partners

Let us now examine how hyperhierarchization manifests itself in the realm of couple formation and marriage. There are different variants that can be grouped into three blocks: prohibitions and restrictions, authorization requirements, and active impositions.

Unspecified sectarian group.

"Over the years, he claimed that those who were married 'lost their devotion and only thought about their wife.' For this reason, he legislated strict rules against marriage, declaring that if someone fell in love they would be expelled from the community for seven years. Not even that could prevent members from falling in love. Finally, he ruled that anyone who fell in love would be permanently expelled from the community and would not be allowed to speak to their male or female friend again. For those who had given up everything in their lives to be part of the community, this was perceived as a terrible threat. As a result, men and women feared one another. Couples who wished to join the group but were already married had a few years to overcome their sexual needs"(59).

Without going to such extremes, paranoid contagion groups may limit themselves to temporary prohibitions on marriage, forcing members to postpone it for a set period of time.

Maoist Leninism.

"For five, ten, fifteen years, or an entire lifetime, depending on the return of each person's influences within the circles of power, former Red Guards have been confined to rural labor camps, villages, provincial units, and border areas. They have remained separated from their families by hundreds or thousands of kilometers, have lived at subsistence level, their studies cut short, they have been entirely deprived of sexual relations until their late authorized marriage, they have seen their boyfriends and girlfriends and coupled with their spouses only during the New Year holidays, and have left their newborn baby with the grandmother because they had to return to their distant workplace"(99).

It is common in small sectarian groups —almost the norm— that any marriage or romantic relationship requires authorization from the group's leader.

Sectarian cults. Community Chapel.

"Consequently, members of Community Chapel were asked to comply with the following two rules 'in order to be in this church': '(1) A divorced person cannot date or begin to build a relationship with a person of the opposite sex without first obtaining permission from the pastor. Send your request for said permission to his wife, to whom he has delegated oversight of that area…" (36).

Cults, less frequently, also tend to establish the need for authorization before the start of stable relationships.

Maoist Leninism.

"After mutually listening to the sincere account of their lives, my father said he was going to write to the Party Committee for the City of Jinzhou requesting permission to 'talk of love' (tan-lian-ai) with my mother, with a view to future marriage. Such was the mandatory procedure. My mother assumed it must be similar to the permission requested from the head of the family, and in fact that was exactly it: the Communist Party was the new patriarch" (54).

Or for its termination.

Nazism.

"... His wife, Magda, also heard about the matter and eventually considered divorce. In fact they had already been living apart since Magda had forbidden her husband to set foot in the country house at Schwanenwerder. After Marta Goebbels had visited Hitler to ask his permission to divorce, Hitler intervened..." (117).

As might also be expected, the AP will attempt to intervene in the determination of who forms couples. In the Moon cult it is the leader himself who, guided by his spiritual power, determines who marries whom.

Messianic movements. Jacobina Mentz (19th century).

"On May 18, 1872 she ends up declaring herself the reincarnation of Christ. She chooses twelve apostles, among them her husband, and annuls all existing marriages. She then remarries her disciples according to her own whim, which, incidentally, allows her to wed the young Rodolfo Sehn" (11).

Cult groups. Shilo.

"At Shilo an average of four hundred people lived, and all aspects of their personal and family life were subject to Stanford's authority. Although there were families at Shilo, in practice family life was restricted. Parental authority was diminished as it was Stanford and his ministers who made all final decisions [...] Even the initiation and dissolution of marriages fell under Stanford's authority. He arranged marriages and carried out 'separations'. He sometimes divided families by sending one of the spouses to the other side of the ocean for several years" (36).

Sexuality in the service of leadership

Beyond the fact that the authoritarianism of paranoid contagion groups marks a tendency to normalize the sexual and affective life of their members as well as toward greater supervision and control on the part of those who occupy a position of preeminence, also characteristic of paranoid contagion groups is the tendency toward the establishment of situations of privilege (hierarchically determined) in the area of sexuality and affectivity. I will distinguish four specific manifestations:

1) Hierarchical asymmetry.

2) The officialization of privilege.

3) Sexual exploitation of children.

4) Rape.

5) The paranoid contagion group as a brothel at the disposal of the leadership.

1) Hierarchical asymmetry implies a tendency on the part of leaders to sexually exploit their subordinates…

Sectarian cults. El Patriarca.

"... it is extraordinarily symptomatic that El Patriarca should coincide with the practice of many cults in which it is normal for some community leaders, or organization leaders, to take advantage of their positions to force sexual relations with female residents in rehabilitation. In this regard, we already mentioned some testimonies from former female residents of El Patriarca who accuse the highest echelons of the organization"(95).

(…) as well as toward a greater availability on the part of the latter to be exploited.

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"Three days later, Gelina played Cupid once again. 'Cin wants to fuck you,' she whispered to me. Her murmurings, on which I had difficulty concentrating, indicated that Cin's decision to sleep with me was a great honor; Cin was the cell leader, a man with whom all the sisters wanted to sleep, and having sexual relations with Cin would bring me closer to the other sisters..."(46).

The tendency toward establishing this type of relationship seems to be a relatively universal phenomenon in paranoid contagion groups, from which not even those with puritanical principles are exempt — groups that may even prove more tolerant of these behaviors than of other, lesser infractions of their own rules.

Sectarian cults. Jehovah's Witnesses.

"In the case of a well-known elder (a high-ranking leader) in the Jehovah's Witnesses congregation of Tarrasa, for example, his 'scandal' should consist not so much in his having lived in concubinage for five years with a female member of the cult — behavior that everyone knew about and deliberately ignored, despite the fact that group doctrine penalizes such conduct with immediate expulsion — but rather in the fact that, precisely in his capacity as a furious repressor of other people's lives, he went so far as to expel members of the cult on charges, with no possibility of rebuttal, of smoking in secret"(95).

The sexual and emotional relationships that so frequently arise in paranoid contagion groups between those in command and those under their authority, despite being consensual on both sides, appear to stem from a degree of manipulation that exploits the credulity — already described — of the cult member.

Unspecified sectarian cult.

"He also told me that the secret of every household lay in the mother being a true wife who could manage a home, raise her children, and, above all, please her husband in every way.

When he asked me whether I wished to achieve that, I quickly answered yes.

He then offered me the possibility of teaching me everything himself, personally, since he said that my sensitivity was special and that he could not leave that task in the hands of one of the 'elder brothers.'

I remember going back to my room that night feeling very happy, thinking about the special affection that P. felt for me... Within a few days I had already become his lover"(7).

Moreover, the relationship is often confined to the strictly sexual sphere, with the hierarchical bond otherwise remaining intact. It is an asymmetrical relationship, in which it is only one of the parties who decides when the relationship begins and ends, when sexual contact takes place, what practices are involved, and so on — all according to that party's own convenience.

Maoist Leninism.

"But while the relationship lasted, Mao expected from them the same fidelity he demanded of everyone, so that they even had to ask his permission to marry, which he only granted when he had already tired of them"(28).

Sectarian groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"He would send his secretary to provide him with carnal access to men or women. Al Mills, who came to hold a leading position in the commune, confirmed: 'He used to call one of us. "Father regrets having to do this, but he suffers from this tremendous urge and if you could..."'(61).

The asymmetry also manifests itself in the fact that only one of the parties may be possessive and demand fidelity from the other. It is very common among jealous husbands to allow themselves an intense extramarital sex life. In clinical practice, I have been able to observe the same attitude in some jealous women.

Another expression of inequality and sexual privilege lies in the circumstance that only one of the parties determines what type of sexual acts will take place. I have heard fairly frequently, from the mouths of victims of domestic tyrants, that their husbands sought to have relations with more than one woman at a time, including themselves.

The dynamics of theopen bar for leaderscan also affect third parties, who find themselves forced toput up with their jealousy.

Maoist Leninism.

"Sometimes, Mao would resume the relationship without caring about the fact that they had gotten married"(28).

Sectarian groups. The Davidians.

"The messiah of Waco employed Machiavellian methods of persuasion until he succeeded in getting his followers to offer him their own wives and daughters for sex" (97).

2) Some paranoid contagion groups, especially those of a religious orientation, openly establish differentiated norms for the leader and for the followers. For the latter, prohibitions and restrictions tend to predominate; for the leader, quite the opposite. Taken to its fullest expression, the members of the group would be forbidden any form of sexual activity while the leader would have complete freedom to do whatever he wished with whomever he wished.

Sectarian groups. The Raschimura Group.

"Until the end of 1980, sexuality was totally prohibited in the cult except for Raschimura himself (the leader), who slept indiscriminately with any of his seven favorites (called 'mothers' in the cult)" (95).

In other cases, only more limited privileges are recognized for the leader. Such as that of initiating the virgins of the group into sexual life.

Other paranoid groups. The sebastianisms of Pernambuco (19th century).

"Joao Ferreira had himself called 'his holiness the king', and one of his wives (he had seven) bore the title of queen. The right to celebrate marriages was conferred upon the priest of the cult 'Fray Simao', with the king reserving for himself the jus primae onctis, which he called 'the bride price'. Polygamy was permitted to all members of the community, who numbered around three hundred" (103).

Sectarian groups. The commune of Otto Muehl.

"According to his claims, at the El Cabrito estate in La Gomera, as well as in Friedrichshof, Austria, Otto Muehl reserves the right to deflower young women when they are still minors. In Austria, sexual relations with minors who have turned 14 are lawful. Young women who initially refuse are subjected to pressure by Muehl and the group in general. At the daily meetings in the commune, Muehl and others exert pressure by ridiculing and humiliating in a kind of public tribunal those who refuse to comply with the 'internal order', which includes sexual submission to the painter" (111).

3) The sexual use of children within the domestic sphere is a phenomenon that, in some cases, is associated with paranoid clinical presentations.

Paranoidism in general

"[...] have cited sexual deviations of greater importance, describing many cases of incestuous fathers. In almost all of them, the most consistent psychological finding was the presence of severe paranoid traits" (110).

Sectarian groups. Hare Krishna.

"In Hare Krishna, in Spain —and in other countries—, there are testimonies regarding the existence of cases of sexual abuse of minors carried out by executive members of the cult" (95).

Sexuality involving children can occur with the collaboration —by action or omission— of the remaining members of the paranoid contagion group. A patient told me how, as a child, she had been invited (by the deputy director) and forced into homosexual relations with the director of the "house" in which she lived. With unusual frequency, the incestuous relations of domestic tyrants are consciously ignored by their wives and the remaining members of the family.

Folie à famille. Case of supernatural healers.

"When the daughter expressed that she was afraid of being pregnant, the mother admitted with great hesitation that for several years there had been an incestuous relationship between her husband and her daughter, which, like her, the son had been forced to witness on several occasions"(77).

4) Authoritarianism can equally justify the use of violence when the victim of sexual exploitation resists. This is how domestic tyrants habitually act.

Paranoia.

"[...] coercive sexual behaviors toward family members [...] were common" (57).

In sectarian groups, episodes of active collaboration in rapes sometimes occur. A patient recounted how he had been raped by the leading priest of the group, with other followers having collaborated in restraining him. Other researchers of the cult phenomenon have learned of similar accounts.

Unspecified sectarian group.

"One night I refused to have relations with him..., and he raped me while two 'elder brothers' held me down..."(7).

But it must be stressed that in small sectarian groups with a high degree of paranoidism, rape is the exception, and the sexual exploitation of the adept can occur without violence because there exists a particular acceptance of it when it is the —or a— leader who carries it out.

5) The AP as a brothel at the disposal of the leadership.

Maoism offers us a curious but illustrative example of sexual privilege. On the one hand, a fairly strict sexual morality was imposed on the population, and especially on public officials; victory over the enemy, the achievement of revolutionary objectives, and birth control were all top priorities.

Maoist Leninism.

"When a Vietnamese song and dance company came to visit China, a presenter announced to the few fortunate people who were able to attend their performance that one of the songs they would hear, in which love was mentioned, referred to the 'affectionate camaraderie between two comrades.' In the few European films that were authorized — almost all of them from Albania and Romania — every scene in which men and women appeared in close proximity was censored (to say nothing of scenes in which they kissed)"(54).

Maoist Leninism.

"The Cultural Revolution also gave rise to the emergence of a large number of militant puritans, mostly young women. Another girl in my group once received a love letter from a sixteen-year-old boy. She replied with a letter of her own in which she called him a 'traitor to the revolution': 'How dare you think about such shameful things when class enemies are still roaming free and people in the capitalist world continue to live in a pit of misery!' This attitude was shared by many of the girls I knew at that time"(54).

As time went on, and especially with the introduction of the life of soldier Lei Feng as a model to be emulated, the gradual militarization of society and a progressive rejection of "femininity" would be imposed, reaching its fullest expression during the Cultural Revolution. What was expected of young Chinese women was that they behave like battle-hardened tomboys.

Maoist Leninism.

"Since Mao had appealed to the militancy of young women, femininity was condemned during the formative years of my generation. Many girls tried to talk, walk, and act like aggressive tough men, while ridiculing those who did not. In any case, there was hardly any opportunity to express femininity. To begin with, we were not allowed to wear anything other than shapeless trousers and jackets in blue, grey, or green"(54).

But in the circle of Mao and the communist leadership, things were different.

Maoist Leninism.

"It took me many years to understand the purpose of those parties. The Central Garrison's Workers' Cultural Troupe had been organized by Wang Dongxing, and its aim was to provide entertainment for the central garrison itself and for Mao as well. The troupe comprised a set number of girls selected for their physical appearance, artistic talent, and political loyalty. In time, the function that those parties served, as well as that of some of the women who took part in them, became too evident for me to ignore"(28).

Maoist Leninism.

"The dance parties that had until then been held every Saturday began to take place twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The number of musical bands and 'workers' cultural troupes' for the parties also increased, which considerably raised the number of women available to Mao. With Wang's return, the air force, the Peking military region, the general political department of the People's Liberation Army, the Second Artillery Corps, and the Railway Construction Corps all provided musical troupes, singers, and dancers for Mao's greater delight"(28).

In fact, local officials, in their servile eagerness to please the Great Helmsman, went so far as to transform themselves into veritableMadammeswho strove to offer their leader the finest selections of attractive young women.

Maoist Leninism.

"Knowing the weakness Mao had for women, the public security authorities of Shanghai wanted to introduce the president to the most famous actresses and singers in the city. But Mao showed not the slightest interest in any of them; they were too old, too affected, and too worldly for him. He preferred them younger, less experienced, and also easier to manage. Thus, the Shanghai authorities organized for him every night performances by various cultural troupes made up of younger and more innocent women to inspire in him a greater devotion"(28).

But the officials were not the only ones to perform that function.

Maoist Leninism.

"It was also during this period that he became a devoted follower of the sexual practices of Taoism, which also served him as an excuse to seek in sex, beyond pleasure, a way of prolonging his life. What satisfied him most was sharing his bed with several women at once. He asked his bedmates to introduce him to more women to share in the orgies, always in the interest of his longevity, his physical vigor"(28).

We have a curious precedent in the pre-Marxist socialism of a century earlier in which the group, rather than offering brothel services, acted as a matrimonial agency for its leader.

Reformers. Enfantin.

"On November 30, 1831, he announced in a manifesto addressed to the 40,000 adherents of his doctrine, that after having kept 'the development of his thought' for fifteen months, he was becoming the sovereign pontiff, the living law, the Messiah. The somewhat grotesque originality of this religious manifestation was the search for the female Messiah who was to give the male Messiah his full development. This capital discovery merited sacrifices, and during the winter of 1832 the adherents of Saint-Simonianism freely remitted several hundred thousand francs consecrated to the search for the ideal woman" (26).

Symbolic hierarchization, cult

Anabaptist Messianisms. John of Leiden (16th century).

"And, [after proclaiming himself Messiah] despite the fact that money no longer plays any role, a messianic coin is minted for the occasion. Jan Bockelson [John of Leiden] now dresses in sumptuous robes and wears rings, as well as numerous jewels. Divara is proclaimed queen. The two spouses have a court, and an entire retinue accompanies them everywhere. The whole of the royal entourage numbers two hundred people.

In the marketplace they erect a gold-trimmed throne and the king goes there regularly to proclaim his decrees. He arrives on horseback, bearing scepter and crown. Around him his ministers and subjects press close. On either side of the throne stands a page: one holds a copy of the Old Testament; the other brandishes a sword" (11).

Reformers. Robespierre.

"[...] we know to what extent he had arrived at this type of idea: when he received at his home the admirers who rushed in en masse, he would sometimes greet them with a simple gesture through a glass door and considered them satisfied if they could contemplate one of his busts displayed in his drawing room. He tolerated that a kind of cult be celebrated in his honor and saved from the scaffold Catherine Théot, who became the high priestess of the great man. Women lacking both beauty and youth brought to their tributes a dusty perfume of the sacristy and sang homilies, of which history has passed down to us the following:

Only Robespierre has found the ideal formula for the citizen.

Only Robespierre embodies it exactly, without excess or omission.

Only Robespierre is worthy of leading the Revolution"(26).

Hierarchical systems allow gregarious animal species to avoid continuous conflicts. As the baboon horde advances across the savanna, fights will not break out every time an appetizing piece of food is found or when a female enters estrus. Hierarchy resolves problems such as determining at any given moment in which direction the horde should advance, or who must yield to whom when the paths of two specimens cross. When night falls, it is also known which individuals will sleep seated in the most comfortable forks of the acacia tree. Hierarchy makes it possible that through occasional fights that confirm or modify hierarchical status, confrontations are avoided on each occasion when individual interests clash.

But when a male presents his rump to another male of superior rank (as though he were a female in estrus), and the latter mounts him, or when a wolf rolls onto its back before the dominant male (in the manner that wolf cubs do), this is neither a fight over status, nor a use of hierarchy to obtain a privilege. It is simply a way of harmlessly reaffirming each one's position.

Human societies have at their disposal an extremely wide repertoire of means through which to stage and make evident status. Having until now examined hierarchical differences in access to privileges, in the possibility of taking advantage of or exploiting those of lower rank, or in the exercise of power, I will now speak of those activities whose sole purpose is to express and make evident the differences in power among the members of the group (and especially of the leader), as well as the power of the group as a whole over each of its adherents.

Without being fully satisfactory, the term that best alludes to this set of activities and attitudes is, surely, cult.

Cult: Religious homage (68).

Homage: Act held in honor of a person. // Fig. Submission, respect (68).

Crisis cults. Apiawaiki (19th century).

"In the course of the nineteenth century, numerous prophets put forward analogous claims, but we are ignorant of the details of their doctrines and the success of their sermons. The only one of whom tradition has preserved a more precise memory is a young man, Apiawaiki, who led an uprising in the region of Ivú in 1892. This messiah, who considered himself Tumpa (God), established a cult in which his divine person was worshipped. He led the Chiriguano to believe that they would be invulnerable and immortal: the enemy's firearms would shoot not lead, but water, and would be unable to harm them. All Christians would die or be driven from the country" (103).

Despite the unequivocally religious connotation of the term cult, it must be borne in mind that it can constitute an entirely secular phenomenon.

Maoist Leninism.

"Mao's most important work, or at least his most distinctive, may well be the Cultural Revolution. And of it the most striking aspect is the cult of personality of the supreme leader" (87).

Soviet Leninism.

"No saint, no autocrat or warlord ever received as much veneration [as Lenin]"(118).

Closely related to the cult, but perhaps pointing somewhat more to the subjective and emotional component, we speak of devotion.

North Korean Leninism

"North Korean official media yesterday called on the population to show 'an even more complete devotion to the Government of the beloved leader Kim Jong-Il'. Kim, fifty-two years old, was appointed in 1980 as the successor to his father..." (32).

Sectarian groups. Otto Muehl's commune.

"There are no religious rites or metaphysical projects in the Gomera commune; the stock market and investments are discussed more than politics. The liberating ideology of the past has been replaced by devotion to the patriarch"(111).

Height

The simplest way to mark differences in rank consists of physically placing oneself at different heights, something that is particularly appealing to all kinds of totalitarian leaders and sectarian groups.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"At the meetings he organizes at his home, during which he holds forth at length, he sits on a sofa, while his followers listen to him ontheir kneesfor two or three hours"(93).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"Plinio does not sit at the same level as the others. Always on a special throne, upon three platforms" (93).

The bullish vocation that leads the LP to place himself higher is also what drives him to represent himself as higher than he really is.

Soviet Leninism.

"Despite standing only 167 centimeters tall, Stalin always had himself painted as a giant. He was almost 30 centimeters shorter than his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, but in all the paintings of the era on display in Lahti, they appear as though they were the same height" (108).

The greater height may be imposed by the leader or sought by his followers.

Sokagakkai.

"Toda explained to the group that the true significance of the Kasahara incident lay in demonstrating the way in which True Buddhism would prevail over heresy. The question-and-answer session lasted an hour, but the time seemed to vanish in an instant. Toward the end, the young people lifted Toda onto an improvised palanquin and sixteen determined members carried him to the Main Temple. As they advanced, they intoned the melody of the plains of Wu-chang: their voices sent echoes up the slopes of Mount Fuji, resounding solemnly through the hazy veil of the spring moonlight" (52).

A greater height stages a greater command, but it also implies the possibility of being seen, of making oneself present, of not going unnoticed.

Sokagakkai.

"At half past seven, following the organization's banner hoisted by a standard-bearer on horseback, Josei Toda entered, mounted on a white steed. So that everyone could see him, the members of the Youth Division had traveled through the district in search of what they considered a suitable mount" (52).

Rituals

Secondly, the cult expresses itself in the form of rituals, a series of motor sequences codified in which homage is paid to the leader or to the symbols of the group.

American nationalism

"In countries where no monarchical regime existed, the flag could become the virtual representation of the State, the nation and society, as in the United States, where in the last years of the 1880s the custom of honoring the flag as a daily ritual in schools throughout the country began, until it became a general practice" (50).

French nationalism.

"The authorities were never interested in popular religious life; at most, they believed, at first, that it was possible to attract the masses toward the new revolutionary faith, whose discourse, whose symbolism, and whose ritual owed so much to Catholicism" (121).

Attitudes of dominance and submission manifest themselves above all in extraverbal language. Thus, the submissive person tends to hunch over and shrink and avoids the expression of hostile attitudes. Paranoid contagion groups tend to ritualize this language of submission, which is made evident through bodily bows and prostrations (in which the forehead is brought down to the ground). Let us look at some examples.

Inclinations.

American nationalism.

"Just as Japan fetishized the portrait of the Emperor in times of war, Americans have also fetishized their flag. A patriotic pamphlet from 1900 declared in openly religious terms that the United States should 'develop, define and protect the cult of the flag, and that the symbol of said cult —the Stars and Stripes— must be kept as pure as the emblems of all religions

[...] The American flag is found practically everywhere in public spaces, including churches, and must be handled according to a meticulously prescribed ritual, which details even the manner of folding it. The flag is 'worshipped' by displaying it, pledging allegiance to it and, on some occasions, kneeling before it and kissing it" (31).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"In their 'general calls' the members receive messages from the Founder over the telephone, with loudspeakers making his words audible to the entire audience. They do so on their knees, with rosaries and all manner of relics" (93).

Nueva Acrópolis

"One must kneel before the leaders and commanders [...] he who does not kneel before the gods cannot stand before men" (89).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"You don't shake Plinio's hand, you kiss it" (93).

Prostrations.

Sectarian groups. Moonies.

"... it is a very important ceremony that members practice every first Sunday of the month and on the four sacred days the group observes... Members make three bows until their face touches the ground, before an altar bearing a portrait of Sun Myung Moon, and recite a six-point oath by which they commit to being faithful to God, to Moon and to the motherland... Korea" (44).

Titles

The assignment of titles is a specifically human way of signaling rank differences.

North Korean Leninism

"The formidable patriarch is Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader; the invincible steel commander immortalized in thousands of statues, seals, pedestals, monuments and surrealistic proclamations. An octogenarian chief - 'hero of the Korean race'- who withers before one's very eyes" (5).

Soviet Leninism.

"It occurred to no one to think about the possibility of influencing the development of society. The collective destiny rested solely on the wisdom of Stalin, 'our father', 'our sun', 'our infallible guide" (55).

It is extraordinarily common for the leaders of paranoid contagion groups to grant themselves high-sounding titles that denote their character as unique and extraordinary beings. For example, the PC is recognized, plain and simply, as God.

Other paranoid groups. Tata Dios.

"Shortly after, he proclaimed himself redeemer of humanity and envoy of God. His numerous disciples called him Tata Dios, that is, 'Father God'; they knelt before him and worshipped him" (103).

Cult groups. Gnostics.

"Samael Aun Weor [...] He also had himself called Kattan Umaña Tamines, Planetary Logos of Mars and Great Avatar —divine incarnation— of the Aquarian Age, although his real name is Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez, Colombian by birth" (89).

Or he is recognized as his envoy.

Cult groups. Great White Brotherhood.

"She calls herself María Devi Christos or Seventh Messiah, and the cult of the White Brotherhood she leads has asked its approximately 150,000 followers to gather in Kyiv on the upcoming November 24 [...]" (81).

If he wishes to remain in the secular realm, the LP can proclaim himself king, of whatever, but king.

Anabaptist messianisms. John of Leiden (16th century).

"[...] in September, by incontestable divine decree, the former tailor John of Leiden had himself anointed king of the people of God, of the new Zion in a lavish ceremony" (28).

And just as the expansionist spirit leads nations to aspire to become empires, the LP with loftier ambitions proclaims himself king of kings.

French nationalism.

"By taking the title of emperor instead of that of king (May 18, 1804), Napoleon reaffirmed his European ambitions, deliberately evoking Charlemagne, whose authority had extended over all of Germany and Italy" (121).

Or, more modestly, he contents himself with being the supreme authority over those who sit in judgment of others.

Crisis cults. The Melanesian cargo (19th c.).

"The 'prophet', called 'Ndungumoi', granted himself the title of Navosavakandua or 'great judge..." (13).

In any case, the varied titles of the LPs very often allude to their quality as chiefs.

Cult groups. The Patriarch.

"The paranoid drift of Engelmajer... has led him to take his final formal step into the elite of semi-celestial beings. Engelmajer, now, is already The Pastor" (95).

There exists a varied repertoire of creative titles…

Leninism. Shining Path.

"[...] He was the doctor puka inti (red sun) for his followers during the years of struggle and recruitment at the University of Huamanga. And he was also the doctor champú, the one who brainwashed people" (42).

(…) as well as multifaceted individuals prone to the accumulation of multiple titles.

Paranoia.

"He is the clear heir, reformer, Prince of Peace, emperor and pope in one person, Messiah..." (61).

Cult groups. Omkarananda Swami.

"...master of circumstances and of the world, philosopher and teacher of humanity, writer and mystic, the one who has experienced the Truth" (95).

Although titles primarily identify LPs, some groups use title-like identifiers to place each follower at their corresponding level in the pyramid.

Cult groups. El Patriarca.

"And, until the status of 'reintegrated' is reached, every resident has a number added after their name, which is the number of months they have been admitted to El Patriarca; for example, 'L. E. A. 13M Cádiz and M. S. P. 29M Barna,

arrange a program on radio Antena 3'. The more months of residency, the more status is obtained within the mythical scale of the organization" (95).

Noble feudal knights granted themselves titles —noble titles— to which they attached enormous importance and which, while distinguishing them from the common people, marked the levels of hierarchy. Napoleon's anachronistic transformation of the administrative ranking into a ranking of noble titles (influenced by the spirit of a Romanticism that directed its gaze toward a past —that of the Franks— which had been mythologized) expressed that same insistence on signaling hierarchy.

French nationalism.

"The creation of a nobility (March 1808) was not merely the logical evolution from the initial principalities, nor a means of rewarding favorites or important persons. The titles consecrated the hierarchies of functions, and each grade of honor corresponded to the grade within the administration: ministers, senators, councillors of state, presidents of the legislative body and archbishops became counts; and the presidents of the electoral colleges and of the highest tribunals, the bishops and the mayors of the 3 'good towns' became barons. Progress in service to the state could be publicly recognized through promotion from chevalier to baron. Prefects and generals could be rewarded with various titles within the hierarchy, according to the value Napoleon placed on their services"(121).

Robes and insignia

It is very characteristic of LPs to make their hierarchical position known through their attire, which prevents any possible confusion with their subordinates. The hierarchical position of the remaining members of the group can also be marked by uniforms specific to each level or, more discreetly, by insignia, in the manner of military personnel.

Sokagakkai.

"The Finance Department functions as something of an elite group within the Gakkai. Membership is voluntary and selective: if applicants demonstrate a firm belief and a solid theological knowledge, their financial situation is investigated and they are interviewed by the leaders; should everything prove satisfactory, appointment by Gakkai Headquarters follows. With the appointment comes a distinctive Gakkai lapel badge in gold, in contrast to the lead badge worn by the rest of the members. Members of the Finance Department are required to contribute a minimum sum to the Gakkai annually. At the present time this sum is 8,000 yen (approximately $22); given that the estimated number of members of the Department is two million people, the annual income through this channel is at least $40 million"(119).

For the warrior elites of all times, the horse, weapons and armor, beyond their usefulness in combat, always served to mark the distance from the subjugated peasant populations.

Omnipresence

One more difference between submissive and dominant behavior —in gregarious species— is the following: the submissive specimen keeps watch on the dominant one, observing its movements, careful not to offend it and ready to step aside and always yield the way.

The dominant individual, on the other hand, shows indifference to what others do, to their presence or absence, and moves freely, occupying space in a haughty (tall, upright) attitude.

In paranoid contagion groups, images of the leader (who cannot physically be present everywhere at once) tend to occupy every space. The images make him visible to everyone and signal, without stating it, his authority. These reproductions always demand respectful treatment. Thus, an important manifestation of the cult of the leader is the omnipresence of his image, in the form of portraits and sculptures.

Nazism.

"The official photo of the Führer… was required to appear in all schools, offices, and public departments of the Reich" (122).

These portraits and sculptures are placed everywhere and in great numbers.

Maoist Leninism.

"Thus, portraits of Mao sprang up like mushrooms everywhere…" (87).

German nationalism.

"The German Government, despite the innumerable tons of marble and stone, did not manage to consecrate Emperor Wilhelm I as the father of the nation, but it took advantage of the unofficial nationalist enthusiasm that erected hundreds of 'Bismarck columns' after the death of the great statesman, whom Emperor Wilhelm II (reigned between 1888 and 1918) had dismissed"(50).

North Korean Leninism

"The formidable patriarch is Kim Il Sung, the Great Leader; the invincible steel commanderimmortalized inthousands of statues, stamps, plinths, monuments and surrealistic proclamations"(5).

But most especially, the reproductions are placed in the most prominent positions, in the places of honor.

Sokagakkai.

"He is currently the Honorary President and in ceremonies his photograph occupies the place of honor next to the altar. His books fill the shelves of the bookshops" (45).

Maoist Leninism.

"Mao died in 1976. Until then, the cult of his personality was a 'veiled' imposition by the party on the institutions of the nation. Rare was the university, factory, institute or regiment in which a monument dedicated to the Great Helmsman did not appear. For this reason, at the entrance to the mythical Forbidden City of Beijing, the ancient palace of the emperors, the Sons of Heaven and lords of the Empire of the Centre, a large portrait of Mao presides over the gateway to the history of China" (66).

The omnipresence of the leader also invades paper, both in the form of images and of writings.

Sectarian groups. The Patriarch.

"If we allow ourselves to be guided by the official biography, repeated ad nauseam in all the books, pamphlets and magazines published by the Association, Lucien Engelmajer was born in Frankfurt on November 27, 1920" (95).

The image of the leader tends to displace or replace all other images. The paranoid contagion group and its leader do not tolerate anyone being able to overshadow them.

Soviet Leninism.

"Lenin himself was not responsible for the absurdly inflated cult that would surround his name during the Soviet period, although he was not entirely innocent either. When in August 1918, for example, it was decided to erect a monument in Moscow on the very spot where an attempt had recently been made on his life, he did not protest, and only a year after the Bolsheviks had seized power he was already posing for sculptors. In 1922, monuments to him were erected in his native province of Simbirsk, in Zhytomyr and Yaroslavl. He found it perfectly natural: instead of monuments to the tsars, it was not a bad thing to have statues of the leaders of the revolution" (118).

The cult of persons, whether religious or secular, also manifests itself in the tendency to carry their image. Followers wear prints or garments bearing the portrait or the words of their leader.

Maoist Leninism.

"On the walls, dazibao (wall posters); badges on our chests" (87).

The name of the leader also tends to be used profusely, in such a way that it becomes impossible to forget it.

Soviet Leninism.

"There was no town, however far from the route it might be, where the office of the kolkhoz director, the club or the square did not have its Lenin in plaster, cement or bronze. There was a network of Lenin museums, 'Lenin rooms', commemorative sites, roads, libraries, streets, collective or state farms, regions and villages bearing Lenin's name. The gigantic central Lenin museum had branches almost everywhere, in addition to the large number of house museums and apartments where Lenin or members of his family had lived. On the Yenisei glided a museum boat; not to mention the museum farm, and the museum fisherman's hut in Razliv and the museum funeral train. Abroad, spaces consecrated to Lenin were created"(118).

Ultimately, the leader's presence reaches even into intimate space, that which no one — other than the adherent themselves — can see.

Nueva Acrópolis

"JAL is with us, in our work, in our studies. Let us engage in internal dialogue with him."(89).

I have previously commented on the insistence of paranoid contagion groups on filling space with their visual symbols as well. Characteristic is the proliferation of flags, colors, emblems and other graphic symbols that identify the group. In this way, the authority and weight of the paranoid contagion group as a group is permanently kept in mind.

Transformation into superhuman beings

Representations frequently give the leader a superhuman air, bringing him closer to the world of the gods.

Maoist Leninism.

"In its eight acts, more than 3,000 actors and singers brought to life an epic that narrated the birth of the new China. In the culminating scene, 'The Sunflowers Facing the Sun', the corps of sunflower dancers danced in honor of a great red sun rising on the horizon, merging with the effigy of Mao"(87).

North Korean Leninism.

"In some images his heir Dear Leader levitates alongside him"(5).

Immortalization

Just as statues and portraits allow the leader to be worshippedeverywhere, the preservation of his relics and personal objects allows him to continue to be veneratedalways. The aim is to find formulas with which to immortalize his presence.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The followers zealously keep "relics" of Plinio (his scapular, the soap with which he washed his hands, hair, nail clippings, pieces of his shoe...) which they care for devoutly, kiss..." (93).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"One of the passions of TFP followers is the exchange ofsouvenirsof the leader" (93).

Soviet Leninism.

"There was still no talk of mummifying the corpse. A grave had already begun to be dug in Red Square when the Burial Commission proposed prolonging the display of the mortal remains and postponing the interment, thus allowing the absurd idea of mummification to emerge[...]

At the beginning Stalin did not express his opinion on the subject of mummification, but after reflecting on it he came to think about the creation of a Bolshevik relic, whose propagandistic impact could be exceptional"(118).

Pilgrimages

The need (felt by the adept) to express their submission before the leader and the need (felt by the AP) for said submission to be expressed leads followers to travel to the place where their leader is found (as is almost always the case in the world of sectarian groups) to see and be seen by the LP, and leads the APs to organize and institutionalize such journeys, as well as to push their members to participate in them.

In SPs it is taken for granted that any public appearance by the leader must draw genuine human tides out into the streets.

Nazism.

"The Minister orders that, in addition to his call to the population to come out and receive the Führer, the Berlin morning Press must carry editorials underlining the importance of the day and asking Berliners to give the Führer a unique reception" (10).

Anyone familiar with the world of sectarian groups knows that visits to the leader, even when he is found at the antipodes, form part of the obligations more or less imposed by the vast majority of these groups. SPs also encourage pilgrimages to the place where the leader is found… or his mummy.

Soviet Leninism.

"The temporary mausoleum, just like the permanent one later, was quick to transform itself into a place of pilgrimage[...] for true communists…"(118)

Stalin was not wrong, and Lenin's corpse in Red Square was transformed into a mandatory visit for the numerous communists coming from every corner of the planet who converged on the holy city of secular egalitarianism.

Leninism. Shining Path.

"Past midnight on September 17, Guzmán and the Dincote police officers began the second conversation with an account of his trip to China in 1965, when the Shining Path leader was 31 years old. The delegation was not granted the opportunity to meet President Mao. Guzmán says he does not remember the names of his traveling companions, but he refers to the 12 hours he spent in Moscow at a hotel, during a stopover on the trip to China, time he used to visit Lenin's tomb" (16).

Maoist Leninism.

"We went to visit Lenin's mausoleum to lay several wreaths of flowers before the glass coffins of Lenin and Stalin, an experience I found unsettling. The bodies of the two Soviet leaders were shrunken and dry, and I was told that their extremities had rotted and had to be reconstructed with wax. How could I have imagined that twenty years later I would lead the team responsible for preserving Mao's body" (28).

Pilgrimages to sacred places or those of high symbolic value for the paranoid contagion group respond to the same dynamic. Cults create festivities in which members congregate at specific locations to pay homage to the heroes of the past or to collective symbols. Almost all cult groups pressure their followers to travel to their spiritual center, which usually coincides with the place where the leader preaches or once preached.

Sokagakkai.

"NSA members sometimes visit the main temple of Nichiren Shoshu, called Taiseki-ji. Located at the foot of the beautiful Mount Fuji in Japan (in the city of Fujinomiya), the main temple is approximately a three-hour drive west of Tokyo" (120).

Sokagakkai.

"A pilgrimage is a brief period, sometimes only one night, of intense socialization — both open and implicit. The pilgrims attend the midnight prayer service, in which the mass chanting of scripture creates a trance-like atmosphere; this preparation is followed by small seminars with readings on theology"(119).

Selective attention

Submission equally obliges one to be permanently attentive to — and focused on — the leader.

Sokagakkai.

"President Ikeda is almost always followed by journalists from the Seikyo Shinbun [the Sokagakkai's daily newspaper], who write about his every move. When he went to China in 1984, the trip was covered by two reporters and two photographers. When Ikeda met with important Chinese leaders, his activities were largely ignored by the secular Japanese press, although many journalists from other newspapers covered the trip and attended Ikeda's press conference. However, the Seikyo Shinbun gave headline coverage and in-depth follow-up to every aspect of the trip to China"(78).

Sokagakkai.

A quick glance at the March 93 issue of the Soka Gakkai News magazine reveals that of its 31 pages, 23 are taken up by an article by the president himself or by another series of brief articles that track his activities, meetings, conferences and encounters.

"Being attentive" carries with it the imperative not to be distracted or tofix one's attention on anything else.

Nazism.

"The fact that while the meeting between the Führer and the Duce was taking place in Munich, a radio broadcast was transmitting a recipe for preparing a salad, has aroused the anger of the Munich population"(10).

Paranoidism in general.

"The patient is the center of his wife's attention, with the children being relegated to a secondary role" (110).

Adulation

The members of paranoid contagion groups feel the need, and may be under the obligation, to express to the leader their regard, admiration, and submission. They do so through chanting...

Francoism.

"[...] and daily we would chant in the courtyard a hymn whose lyrics and tune have not been erased from my memory: 'War on the fatal sickle / and on the destructive hammer / Long live our caudillo / and imperial Spain!" (42).

Maoist Leninism.

"In 1968 the red guards marched defiantly with their gleaming insignia while singing:

"How brightly shines the badge of Chairman Mao! / We, the red guards, hold our red commander in our hearts. / Following very closely our supreme commander, Chairman Mao, / we advance at the vanguard of the Cultural Revolution" (87).

[...] and they do so in writing.

Nazism.

"We often hear the sound of your voice

and we listen in silence and clasp our hands,

because each word penetrates our souls.

We all know: Soon he will come, at last,

who will free us from misery and oppression.

What is one year for the age of transition!

What is a law that seeks to restrain

the pure faith that you have given us and

the decisive impulses to our young life!

My Führer, you alone are the way and the goal!" (Baldur von Schirach, cited in 122).

Cult groups. The Patriarch.

"Thanks to Lucien I have, we all have, this possibility.

Thanks to all the activities of the Association

we take advantage of this fortune that Lucien has given us." (1).

They may equally murmur or mentally repeat the praises.

Cult groups. TFP.

"In itself, it is entirely legitimate to compose and privately recite a litany to a person who has not been canonized or beatified, as is clearly established in the studies mentioned above. There is therefore no basis for raising the question of the legitimacy of said litany [the one dedicated to their Founder]. According to the doctrine and laws of the Church, it was entirely in order" (14).

Nazism.

"[...] and they even directed prayers to the Führer. The League of German Girls, for example, created this particular version of the Lord's Prayer: 'Adolf Hitler, you are our supreme leader. Your name makes the enemy tremble. May your Third Reich come to us, may your will be done on earth…" (31).

Gifts

There remains another manifestation of the exaggerated cult rendered to the group and its leadership to be discussed. This concerns offerings, with a dynamic very closely related to that of the "hierarchization of material goods" which I have already addressed previously.

Crisis cults. The shakers of Puget Sound (19th century).

"Slocum's disciples built a church in his honor. There he promised..." (63).

Sokagakkai.

"The daily care of the Gohonzon is a vital part of your practice [...] Each morning you must clean the altar area and offer fresh water. It is suggested to make edible offerings such as fruits, as well as any type of green plant branches, candles and incense" (120).

Crisis cults. Overá, Guaraní leader (16th century).

"He had instituted a public cult that was to be rendered to his person and the faithful were obliged to make offerings to him" (103).

Devotion

Let us not forget, in closing, the emotional component associated with these submissive behaviors. There is no doubt that, wherever a reign of terror exists, for many they bear a close connection to fear. But more often, especially when intense paranoid contagion exists, submissive behaviors are associated with emotions of a positive tone.

Maoist Leninism.

"For the majority of Chinese people, being able to see Mao with his impassive demeanor atop Tiananmen was a unique occasion, the most uplifting, exciting, and stimulating experience they could ever hope to have. The few privileged individuals who managed to shake his hand would then go several weeks without washing their hands, and their friends and acquaintances would even come from afar to be able to touch the hand that had touched Mao, thus partaking in a experience that was superior and almost mystical" (28).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"In their meetings, the members tell each other, over and over again, enthralled, episodes from the life of Plinio Correa de Oliveira, which they call fatinhos" (93).

Hierarchization of time

For the member of the paranoid contagion group, time is the property of the group. This means that the hours of the day must be used as little as possible in the satisfaction of personal appetites, needs and ambitions, and as much as possible in working in and for the group and its objectives.

Sectarian groups. Phoenix Valley Church of Christ.

"Her disciplers also told her to stop exercising, something she did four or five times a week, unless she was using it as a means to spread and share the Good News. Her exercise regimen was seen as 'too self-centered" (36).

As in other areas, the paranoid contagion group has sufficient authority to regulate the time of its followers (through written rules or through the personal influence of its leaders) and it makes use of it.

Sokagakkai.

"The member leads a normal life at home and at work, but Soka Gakkai expects the true believer to devote a significant amount of time to Gakkai-related activities. Normal activities include gongyo or daily prayer, attendance at various neighborhood meetings (zadankai) that are normally held monthly, the study of the basic teachings of Nichiren Shoshu (syogaku), shakubuku or proselytizing and pilgrimages (tozan) to Taiseki-ji" (78).

Cult groups. Phoenix Valley Church of Christ.

"While she was part of Phoenix Valley Church of Christ, Barbara's life was very busy. After classes and work at the hospital, every evening was packed with activities. On Mondays and Tuesdays she and her friends would go 'door knocking' (street evangelism) or 'comb' the local walkways. On Wednesdays they went to church. Thursday there was 'Bible talk' night (as they called it). On Fridays they had activities with visitors. On Saturdays she had 'date night', in which all the single members of the church were supposed to meet up in groups. On Sunday evenings there were Bible talk leader meetings or activities with roommates. With such a schedule there was no room for activities outside the church.

In addition to these evening activities, Barbara was told that she had to set aside an hour of quiet time with God every day. Since she had to be at the hospital by six thirty in the morning, Barbara got up at quarter past four to have her 'quiet time" (36).

Sense of duty

The AP equally expects the adept to act on their own initiative, tirelessly and with zeal, in favor of the group's objectives. Active identification active with these constitutes the sense of duty. This is also manifested in certain delusional conditions.

Paranoia.

"He believes in his 'calling', in the mission he must fulfill" (60).

The utopian dreams of some paranoiacs and passionate idealists envision a society in which men place duty above any other motivation, all sharing, moreover, a common code of obligations.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"The word finance is a word for slaves; it is unknown in the city. In a truly free country, citizens do everything themselves: with their arms and not with money. Far from paying to be relieved of their duties, they would rather pay to fulfill them" (100).

In the same vein, the enormous demands that APs make on their followers are regarded as an unavoidable duty.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"Tragic is the hour in which, to preserve the values of culture and civilization, it is necessary to defend even the rational condition of man itself. We will not retreat from that duty" (18).

The contradiction between service to the cause and personal desires is revealed with clarity in the discourse of some paranoiacs.

Hitler.

"Speer, you are my architect. You know that my wish was always to be an architect. The World War and the criminal revolution of 1918 prevented it. And the Jews! The 9th of November was the result of their systematic undermining activities. His voice became more strained, high until it became a hoarse staccato. I saw him return to his old frustration. An old man, in fact defeated, standing in the snow unleashing his rage, his poisoned resentments. 'It was the Jews then too. They even organized strikes in the munitions factories. For that reason alone we lost hundreds of soldiers just in my regiment. It is the Jews who forced me into politics" (Hitler, cited in 122).

In a similar way, APs also urge their followers to renounce selfish motivations, this being an almost universal reference in the discourse of sectarian and totalitarian groups.

J.O.N.S.

"We need all militants to strengthen their sense of action. For we were not born for a slow, educational labor, but for daily achievements. And only by presenting Spaniards with an example of sacrifice, activity, and selflessness can the successes that the Party seeks and needs be achieved" (71).

Hyperactivity

The excessive sense of duty, when it descends from the plane of words to that of deeds, leads IPPs to the need to be permanently active.

Delusion of grievance.

"This excessive and continuous activity..." (104).

Leninist-sectarian groupuscule. SLA.

"We did jogging in the room, somersaults, and shooting practice with BB guns. The exercises became much more intense and weapons practice increased [...] We were in action all day, from morning until night" (46).

A curious survey made this increase in activity objective.

Cult groups. Moonies.

"Commitment was also reflected in the number of weekly hours they worked in a regular job, in a care-related task, or in courses. They reported an average of 67 hours, compared to the 41 hours prior to joining" (38).

The fact of concentrating so much energy over a prolonged period of time on a single goal often allows IPs to achieve surprising accomplishments.

Paranoia. Clinical case.

"A simple peasant's son who believed himself to be emperor and pope in one person and later even immortal, in the course of a few years, before my eyes, learned to read acceptably no fewer than eight different ancient and modern languages using rather scarce means and all of this in order to preparehimself for his most elevated calling" (60).

Although when activity becomes too dispersed in pursuit of too many objectives at once, efforts prove less fruitful. This is what occurs in some delusional disorders when megalomania prevails.

Delusion of grievance. The Aub case.

"[...] he undertakes matters of the most diverse kinds: at times he manufactures files, at other times he concerns himself with fashion; he embarks on some forty invention patents; he discovers, as he claims, more than one procedure for the manufacture of glass. Subsequently he improvises as a chemist, invents an explosive substance that no fortress can withstand. At the same time he concerns himself with social matters, works on a dictionary of synonyms, composes verses, pamphlets" (104).

One difference between the hyperactivity of the AP adept and that which is properly manic lies in the fact that the former requires conscious effort and stems from pressure exerted by the leadership and the group, whereas the latter has a greater degree of spontaneity.

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"Apparently his talk with Cujo produced a profound effect on that young man. That very day Cujo changed. He did more push-ups, he no longer slipped away, he threw himself into his combat exercises with a surprising ferocity. Soon everyone was congratulating him on his new self-discipline and dedication to fighting" (46).

Sokagakkai.

"At the customary gongyo ceremony held at the central headquarters on the first of January, he had expressed only gratitude for the hard work carried out the previous year, asking the members to work even harder in the coming year..." (52).

Paranoid hyperactivity presents, on some occasions, with a striking disruption of time organization, such that the IPP comes to lose the normal periodicity of the wake/sleep cycle and even the regularity of meals. The great importance he attaches to his objectives is what leads him to sacrifice both sleep and food.

Paranoia. Aimée Case.

"Let us note, with regard to her somatic background, that the life the patient led during her stay in Paris, working in her office from 7 in the morning until 1, then preparing for her baccalaureate, frequenting libraries and reading without measure, was characterized by an evident intellectual and physical surmenage. She ate in a very defective manner, sparse and insufficient so as to be quick, and at irregular hours. For years, but only from the time of her stay in Paris, she had drunk five or six cups of coffee daily, prepared by herself and very strong" (63).

However, this tendency toward temporal disorganization may be limited by the imperatives of social life and working life. Also, the opposite tendency also occurs: many APs impose a rigid and meticulous schedule and mark absolute regularity in circadian habits.

Exclusivity

Sectarian groups demand of their members such absolute dedication that it inescapably comes at the expense of their professional, social, and even family life. This tendency, however, is normally limited by the group's practical inability to sustain them financially. Paranoid husbands do the same with their wives, who are also forced to give up their professional, social, and family lives in order to devote themselves to his exclusive service. The figure of the Leninist "professional revolutionary" responded to an identical dynamic.

Leninism

"More than the intelligentsia cited by Marx and Engels, Lenin relies on an unprecedented force whose theory he develops from 1902 in What Is to Be Done?: the revolutionary party. The Leninist party is constituted around a core of 'professional revolutionaries,' that is, of men who devote not only their free evenings to the revolution, but their entire lives" (29).

Any other duty loses weight and holds no value.

Sokagakkai.

"Any moment not devoted to kosen-rufu was somehow wasted time" (51).

And, consequently, the IPP disregards those other responsibilities that now it considers secondary.

Sokagakkai.

"The preparation of the convention took months. Some members left their jobs to work building floats and sets months before the event" (51).

Condemnation of rest

The consequences of an excessive sense of duty are very interesting. One of them is the hostility toward leisure and rest.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"But to vegetate, from a certain point of view, is to rest. And mere rest, even in poverty, for many individuals or even peoples, is a way of enjoying life, befitting failures" (4).

Unspecified sectarian group.

"- Only those who never stop truly live" (93).

Sokagakkai.

"I think that as a group we need to do something that we are working on together. Perhaps a large project in which each group forms part of it. I think our meetings and our participation are better when people have something to do. It is part of our culture. We have always had something to do in our organization. Here we feel comfortable, but we must take President Ikeda's guidance seriously to go out into the world and do something"(51).

In practice, these values translate into a reduction of normal daily rest time.

Leninism. Democratic Workers Party.

"After working a day that was usually thirteen hours long at my political duties, on my way home I would buy half a liter of vodka, drink half of it, and within fifteen minutes I was already asleep"(113).

Nazism.

"This one remained in the breach day and night to win new members to the Party. When by chance he went home, he limited himself to staying there just long enough to refill his backpack with provisions. The Party overflowed in those days with idealists of this category" (48).

Nazism.

"At present, the attitude of the German people toward front-line soldiers is very different from that which was generally shown toward them during the World War. Now, workers employed in the war industry accept without complaint working up to fourteen consecutive hours..." (48).

(…) as well as a reduction in weekly or annual rest periods.

Nazism.

"[...] giving up, even, Sunday rest. This would have been considered inconceivable at the time of the World War..." (48).

Sokagakkai.

"Those who devote themselves to a great cause know nothing of holidays, nor of vacations, nor of weekends. The mission comes before anything else, and the work to be done is always urgent" (52).

The determination never to rest can manifest itself in the form of a formal commitment.

Sokagakkai.

"An unprecedented campaign for kosen-rufu is about to begin. This is the true test and we must prevail. For the rest of my life, I cannot afford a single moment of negligence. I cannot fail in anything" (52).

A second derivation of the paranoid sense of responsibility is the reduction of total sleep.

Delusion of grievance.

"[...] the grievance-seeker spreads himself in all directions, takes on a thousand endeavors, writes to the figures he has in his sights, consults lawyers, requests audiences, spends nights drafting voluminous memoranda, files complaints" (104).

Sectarian groups. Church of Bible Understanding.

"It was Traill's custom to hold meetings until late at night that could end between 1 and 5 in the morning. Members were expected to function and work normally the following day. Leaving these meetings for any reason was discouraged, even to use the bathroom" (36).

Mystical delusion

"Bigot's patient, who had been a nun among the Ursulines, transferred to the Bernardines whose rule seemed stricter to her. The exaggeration of her personality soon manifested itself in the fact that, contrary to the rules of the order, she sought to prolong her prayers entire nights during which she experienced infinite ecstasies, and these prayers in solitude exerted a supreme attraction over her that no reprimand could bring to an end; she also claimed to take communion at every mass, which, as is well known, is contrary to the rites. Indiscipline and haughtiness toward those who hold the authority to command her, religious exaltation during the night with religious ecstasy — these are the elements that characterize the absolute idealism of mystical love" (26).

In fact, there are PA of a spiritual-religious orientation in which sleep deprivation figures among their practices.

Sectarian groups. Universal energy.

"According to the family of a follower, he sleeps very little. They call him at home several times during the night precisely so that he does not sleep" (93).

This is, in any case, an anecdotal phenomenon and in general the lack of sleep is simply due to the insistence on permanently doing things. Be that as it may, the end result is exhaustion, which can have dangerous consequences.

Cult groups. Moonies.

"One of the ironies of my experience with the Moonies was that the higher I rose in the organization, the closer I was to total exhaustion, which would ultimately be the cause of my leaving the group. Since I was so successful at fundraising, I pushed myself to the limit again and again.

[...] I fell asleep and woke up with a start. All I could see was the back of an enormous red truck which I was approaching at great speed. I hit the brakes, but it was too late..." (44).

There is even a peculiar alteration of the sleep-wake cycle of the IPP that occurs when his particular circumstances allow him not to adhere to a normal 24-hour cycle.

Maoist Leninism.

"[...] Mao ended up rebelling against time itself. Things as normal as sleeping or taking a bath were a waste of time. His body refused to adapt to the hourly division of the day; he stayed awake longer than anyone else and almost all his activity took place at night. If one day he went to bed at midnight, the next day he would not go to sleep until three in the morning and then until six. Each time he resisted more hours awake and there came a moment when he was capable of going twenty-four, thirty-six and even forty-eight hours without sleep, so that when he went to bed he could sleep for up to ten or twelve hours at a stretch, without any noise being able to wake him no matter how loud it was" (28).

Let us continue with the manifestations of hostility toward rest. On several occasions I have heard accounts from former members of cult groups who comment on the group's zero tolerance toward illness; the sick role, which exempts one from responsibilities and grants the right to be cared for, was simply inadmissible. It is not at all uncommon that, in the presence of physical symptoms of illness, cults blame the patient themselves, deprive them of the right to a diagnosis and treatment, punish them or increase demands upon them, and even expel them. Extreme situations of great cruelty can be heard with some frequency in the personal histories of former members.

In the APs oriented toward "personal growth," in religious ones and in therapeutic ones, we can –to a certain extent– understand that the group takes shelter in its peculiar beliefs to explain the blaming of the sick person. But we find it more difficult to understand this cruel and irrational attitude within, for example, a communist party.

Maoist Leninism.

"He suffered from edemas and hepatomegaly, as well as a profound depression. On several occasions he was immediately admitted to hospital upon returning from his trips. During the summer of 1961, he spent three months hospitalized [...] The Party was displeased with him. He was criticized for 'allowing his revolutionary will to falter' and expelled from the hospital" (54).

Thus , the intense effort must not be hindered by sleep, fatigue, or illness.

Sokagakkai.

"In any case, remaining a member of the Soka Gakkai entails an ongoing commitment. The new member is taught that further gains without renewed faith and practice is impossible. Any abandonment of activity will lead to a return of bad karma and misfortune. Consequently, it is imperative for the member to maintain all phases of daily religious practice" (78).

Tenacity

The IPP must face with determination any barrier that stands in the way of its objectives.

Sokagakkai.

"3. We, the members of the Suiko-kai, aware that we are the vanguard of the Soka Gakkai and the indispensable disciples and messengers of Mr. Toda, swear to exert our utmost effort to achieve the mission of this organization, no matter how much the times may change and no matter how far this sacred struggle may take us" (52).

Paranoia.

"It is unlikely that practical failures will discourage them" (60).

Let us recall that this unbreakable will is directed toward an end, an objective to which the IPP attaches paramount importance.

Sokagakkai.

"Yamanouchi had already fallen onto the tracks. Several station employees and members of the Soka Gakkai jumped from the platform and crouched under the train.

When they lifted him up to the platform, Yamanouchi was absolutely white. As they carried him to a nearby clinic, his lips were weakly invoking daimoku. One of his companions whispered to ask what he wanted, and in a clear, frail voice he replied: 'the kosen-rufu'(52).

Delusion of vindication.

"[...] the desire to see their cause triumph knows no bounds and completely subjugates them" (104).

To conclude, it is worth highlighting that, as might be expected, hierarchical differences can also affect the effort demanded.

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"Cin did not do gymnastics. She did not run laps with a full backpack on her back, practicing combat exercises"(46).

The leader is in a position to dictate others' time, but no one may organize his, nor demand explanations from him.

Indiscretion

In developing this chapter we will follow to the letter the concepts of Castilla del Pino, who aptly distinguishes three "scenarios" in which the person has the possibility of acting.

The first of these is the public one, that which is visible to any spectator present. When subject X does or says something on the beach, on the street, or on television, their actions and words become facts of a public nature. Everyone has the right to know about them and to form an opinion on them.

"It can be stated that the only thing belonging to each person that pertains to others are their public actions, because they are performed in public and for the public: they are, therefore, as much ours as theirs, since the public is the object of the relationship. Private and intimate actions belong to us; whoever arrogates to themselves the right to penetrate them without permission breaks into our home, violates us, and, if we are in a state of law, may even be committing a crime" (15).

The private sphere is that formed by the subject and those who, together with them, share said sphere, in which reasonable measures have been taken so that what occurs therein remains hidden from the eyes of the public. Measures that range from lowering the volume of one's voice to closing windows and curtains.

"The private space is defined by the subject themselves, who must adopt the devices that render unobservable any action that they intend to keep within the limits of the private. The private is thus characterized by its observability, but also by the simultaneous protection against the possibility of it being so" (15).

"[...] Who are the actors in the private sphere? Is more than one subject not already required, even when someone speaks of their 'private life,' as a refuge in which — this seems important to me — no one should be allowed to enter except those who, together with them, comprise it?" (15).

The intimate space is that of emotions, fantasies, sensations, internal dialogues… those experiences to the knowledge of which others cannot gain access.

"Is it not the subject themselves, split in two, who acts and who watches themselves act?" (15).

"The three types of performances I have referred to — public, private, and intimate — are characterized, respectively, in that the first are necessarily observable (visible, audible, etc.); the second could be so, given either a lack of caution on the part of the actor or the voyeurism of the observer; the third, finally, cannot be observed and can only be inferred through what the subject says or does, even through their inhibition or their silence…" (15).

Ideally, the individual chooses the setting in which they wish to perform each part of themselves.

"Performances, then, are public, private, or intimate not in themselves, but according to the space in which they unfold. There are performances that appear to be necessarily public — giving a lecture, for example — but that is the final segment of a process that must also include preparation, and perhaps even a rehearsal before an imaginary audience, which are private performances. Conversely, hatred is an intimate performance, as long as it remains within the intimate space in which one acts by feeling, fantasizing, etc., but not if it continues into the public space where one may speak of the hatred experienced or act against the hated subject. What is at stake, then, is the choice of space for the performance. If we do not like a given space for our performance, we either choose another or none at all, and in the latter case we do not perform" (15).

"Much of what we habitually make public we can make private; to do so it is enough that we arrange it: one can get married, not in intimacy, as is colloquially — though inaccurately — said, but in privacy, for example, at home, closing windows and doors so that no one can see" (15).

Although no absolute rational control over performance settings exists, so that inhibitions or inadvertence can play tricks on us.

"Every performance takes place in a context, in a situation, in a setting. It is a matter of choosing the setting in which we want a performance to occur. The term 'choice' must be taken in its weak sense: because many times the setting is imposed upon us, both when making public a performance we would wish to stage in private or in intimate terms, and conversely: sometimes we would wish to make a performance public —'telling someone off' who is hierarchically superior, for example— and we must keep it in the realm of intimacy, 'swallow it'. Other times, it is a matter of each person's own inhibitions, which lead them to hold back a certain performance in a public setting. When we give a lecture, many who did not dare to express themselves in the public setting are capable of coming up to ask us what they would have wanted to say but did not dare to say; and others hover around us without being capable of acting even in private. On occasion, the transition happens imperceptibly, as is the case with many confidences in which, without realizing it, we have allowed performances that were until then intimate —desires, thoughts, feelings, plans— to cease being so and become private or even public (so public on some occasions that they even take place on the television stage)"(15).

The indiscreet group

We are now, indeed, in a position to define what indiscretion consists of, which is nothing more than the excessive transformation of the intimate and private into public. In APs there are two types of indiscretion: that of the group as a whole and that of the leadership.

The first means that, for adherents, the boundaries that should delimit their private and intimate spaces tend to blur, merging into a single group "stage." Nothing should remain invisible to the group's members as a whole, and the adherent should not keep any of their intimate experiences to themselves.

However, this tendency to make everything intimate and private public admits some qualifications:

It is not a "public space" in the strict sense of the word insofar as non-members of the group are excluded from it; one would have to speak rather of a semi-public or large private space to which all members of the group have access but which is firmly closed to outsiders.

This is a tendency that is impossible to carry to its ultimate consequences, especially with regard to the disclosure of intimacy, given that there are strong pressures acting in the opposite direction, making it difficult for members of the AP to verbalize their thoughts and emotions.

The group's leadership is often excluded from general scrutiny.

In the messianic vision that paranoid associations have of themselves, nothing bad can come from placing full trust in the rest of the followers. The confidant need expect nothing but help and understanding from those who listen to them, kind-hearted people like themselves. Thus, the myth of absolute sincerity is one of the most characteristic features of sectarian groups. It is not uncommon for this principle to take shape in a concrete practice, namely: the holding of meetings dedicated to opening up before others. Public confessions are an important practice of sectarian groups past and present.

Crisis cults. The Baniwa Venancio (19th century).

"Another messiah, also called Venancio, a contemporary of the first, passed himself off as the Holy Father. He was accompanied by an indigenous woman, Santa María, and an indigenous man, San Lorenzo. He performed miracles, celebrated marriages, divorced spouses, and organized public confessions, dances, and libations" (103).

This practice was also institutionalized by some political sects. All militants of the CCP, as well as the entirety of Chinese citizens, were required to participate in meetings in which, in addition to the transmission of the slogans of the moment, individuals analyzed themselves and others, reviewing everything from major ideological questions to everyday minutiae and attempting to bring to light any lingering ember of bourgeois selfishness or of counter-revolutionary attitudes. Mao himself used these sessions to air publicly matters that might well have remained in the private sphere.

Maoist Leninism.

"After the celebration of the Chinese New Year of 1965, Mao set off on a trip and took his two secretaries with him. He also invited Wang Hairong, the granddaughter of his cousin Wang Jifan. On the train, Mao continued to have Zhang Yufeng as his personal attendant. By the time he arrived in Wuhan, Mao was already surrounded by many women who were constantly competing with one another to win his favor.

One morning Wang Hairong came bursting into my office and began to complain bitterly:

- How is it possible that you allow a person like Zhang Yufeng to work here? She is shameless, brazen, and treats the chairman very badly. Last night the chairman told me that Zhang was driving him crazy. The chairman is already old and we cannot allow Zhang Yufeng to insult him. If you don't want to do anything, I will report this matter to the central authority.

- Calm down, I told him. - Tell me what happened.

- I don't want to calm down. I cannot bear to watch this person insult the chairman, he said, and left my office to look for Wang Dongxing.

At that very moment, bodyguard Xiao Zhang entered my office and told me:

- The chairman is very angry. He says that Zhang Yufeng has gone too far and wants to convene a meeting to criticize her publicly(28).

These assemblies, which stood in such stark contrast to the authoritarianism and customs of Chinese feudal society, represented the expression of the new egalitarian ethic. But, as also happens in smaller APs, the absolute sincerity meetings did nothing but introduce an even greater degree of cynicism and psychological pressure into interpersonal relationships.

The attack on privacy manifests itself in an active and conscious elimination of those physical barriers that make it possible. This occurs in some sectarian groups in which dormitories are communal and no one has a space of their own. The totalitarian organizations of the last century applied this principle to their own militants during limited periods of "training" time, as well as in concentration and reeducation camps. But only in some very extreme cases, such as in Pol Pot's Cambodia, was the suppression of all privacy safeguards applied to the population on a massive scale. A partial elimination of barriers is more feasible.

Anabaptist messianisms. Juan Mathjis (16th century).

"The doors of the dwellings had to remain permanently open, though with care so that the livestock would not escape" (28).

The same hostility toward intimate and private spaces is what leads some APs to try to ensure that followers, especially neophytes, are never alone. It is not advisable that they isolate themselves in their own thoughts; instead, they must be permanently interacting with the rest of the followers.

Nazism.

"... The most characteristic form in which teacher training was carried out through the NSLB was the camp...

In these camps, writes Rolf Eilers, each teacher, due to the type of accommodation and the daily program, was continuously in the company of all those who made up the camp; any isolation was impossible" (122).

The creation of a private space, in the absence of one with sufficient guarantees of protection, is equally achieved through physical withdrawal to some solitary setting. Three friends who do not wish to be overheard can retreat to a secluded place where they can hold a strictly private conversation, protecting their secret through distance. To prevent this, some groups dictate which individuals must be with which others, so as to avoid the emergence of spontaneous clusters of privacy, especially among neophytes or dissidents.

Sectarian groups. Moonies.

"... He was the director of the work workshop. We were told that we had to remain at all times in the small groups we had been assigned. One could not walk alone around the estate" (44).

The indiscreet boss

Sokagakkai.

"When the introductions were over, Shin'ichi Yamamoto asked each one to inform him individually of the conditions of their han, their family life, and other matters, and when necessary, he gave them individual guidance" (52).

The second form of indiscretion is the one that compels the opening of private and intimate space to authority figures. Thus, the right to know about others is a right that, above all, is exercised vertically. From top to bottom, and not the other way around. It is the leaders who have the right to and the obligation to closely monitor all the members of the group.

Sokagakkai.

"District leaders must earn the respect of their members. And they, along with the chapter leaders, must observe with a watchful eye the religious progress and way of life of each of the members. If they do not do so, they will be disqualified as Buddhist leaders" (52).

French imperialism.

"[...] it is important for the government [...] to know [...] their physical appearance, qualities [...] religious principles..." (121).

For their part, the adherents must open their privacy and intimacy to those leaders who selflessly take an interest in them. The unveiling of the subject's intimacy is promoted, in some cases, through therapeutic justifications.

Sectarian groups. Scientology.

"Within the tech the process of 'auditing' stands out (defined as 'the action of asking the preclear a question they can understand and answer, obtaining an answer to this question and acknowledging them') which is purchased by sessions (220,087 pesetas for 12.5 hours), and consists of connecting to an E-meter (a device that uses the Wheatstone bridge principle, the basis of the lie detector), operated by an 'auditor' (although there is also the possibility of auditing oneself once the pertinent and extremely expensive courses have been purchased), in order to 'check' one's soul and detect engrams and other obstacles to happiness.

In fact, under the 'therapeutic' pretext, this process compels the student to confess (through subtle coercion) all their overs and 'hostile acts' which are, in reality, past deeds, of little or no honor, that are generally concealed, and acts carried out against other people or against the cult group itself" (95).

When the attitude is not cooperative, there is always the recourse to coercion in order to obtain the desired confidences.

Sectarian-Leninist splinter group. SLA.

"That was the day the 'interrogations' began. Cin was quite formal in announcing and conducting what he called the necessary interrogation of the prisoner. It seemed to come straight out of the movies or television: a Hitchcock film or a nightmare. All that was missing was the lamp in front of my eyes. And I think I would have welcomed it. I was beginning to feel blind.

He took me through my entire life story, my schools, my friends, my opinions, my sisters, their names, ages, where they lived, what they did; my mother and my father, how much money they had, what stocks they held, what properties they owned, how many cars, boats, planes, what each of them did every day, who they saw, for hours and hours" (46).

But it was the Chinese re-educators who achieved excellence in the technique of forcing prisoners to confess in an exhaustive manner all kinds of personal information in autobiographies that were laboriously compiled over months or years. In the domestic sphere, jealous individuals and domestic tyrants are equally prone to carrying out endless interrogations...

Domestic tyranny.

"David Adams (1989) points out that it is common for battered women to suffer inquisitorial accusations from their husbands, motivated by jealousy" (20).

In addition to interrogations, those practices in which the complete lack of respect for the privacy of group members is made evident are common.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The person in charge of discipline may enter any cell whenever they wish and without prior notice" (93).

Sectarian groups. El Patriarca.

"In a recent complaint filed by a former resident of El Patriarca, it is noted that... While correspondence is opened by the person in charge of the center or their assistants, who determine whether or not it is appropriate for the letter to reach its destination" (95).

Jealousy. Clinical case.

"Sometimes he goes to mass to keep watch over me, in case I were to go into the sacristy..."

Archives

An eloquent demonstration of the paranoid contagion group's interest in the privacy and intimacy of its members is the practice of archiving all kinds of sensitive personal information. The archives place at the leadership's perpetual disposal information that, by its very nature, tends to fade away, but which in this way is transformed into something perennial.

French imperialism.

"On the other hand, efficient administration also required identifying members of local elites who were supposedly endowed with outstanding qualities. The Napoleonic regime showed an insatiable thirst for lists of persons considered worthy of attention on account of their wealth, their family, their reputation, their talent, or other merits. Such lists were indispensable in many respects: for the appointment of administrative positions, for the classification of the wealthiest and most respectable, for gauging attitudes toward the regime, for identifying economically enterprising individuals and philanthropists, and, especially, for choosing those who were to serve as members of representative or consultative councils at all levels. In order to meet the demands of the central government, lists were compiled in every department of the thirty or six hundred persons paying the highest taxes, of the sixty 'citizens distinguished by their civic and private virtues,' or of the 'most notable' or 'prominent persons'; of candidates to fill positions on the councils of the judiciary, the municipalities, the arrondissements or the departments, or else in the local 'consultative chambers of arts and commerce' and in the 'sections of beneficence,' or, finally, in the imperial guard of honor. That ambitious and expanding administration knew no limits in its pursuit of personal information about the elites. In the final years of the Empire, the Ministers of Police (Fouché and Savary) asked the prefects for 'personal and moral statistics'; since 'it is important for the government, from the point of view of the social order, to know the most influential persons and, as fortune is, in general, what confers the most influence, it is in the government's interest to know all wealthy families without exception,' including information about unmarried daughters and their possible dowry, their physical appearance, qualities, and religious principles"(121).

Maoist Leninism.

"Even before they came to power, the drafting of detailed files on individuals' pasts had constituted a crucial part of the communist system of control. Party members' files were kept by the Party's Organization Department. The files of all those who worked for the State but were not Party members were transferred to the work units of the authorities and kept in their personnel department. Every year, each supervisor wrote a report on all those working under their orders, and each report was incorporated into the respective file. No one was authorized to read their own file, and only certain specially authorized persons could read those of others"(54).

Sometimes it is the members themselves who provide information about themselves. Some cults ask their followers to hand over autobiographical accounts.

Maoist Leninism.

"In the detailed autobiography that I had to write when filling out the party membership application..."(28).

The archived information, it goes without saying, endows the leadership with enormous power.

Sectarian groups. Scientology.

"The Church of Scientology resorts to an elegant method of coercing followers, using by now entirely real threats. The confessions obtained through the 'E-meter,' a fake lie detector, which always include the most secret and sordid aspects of the subject's life, are filed in the OSA (Office of Special Affairs), where they will remain ever ready to be used as an instrument of blackmail, not when the subject leaves the cult, but rather when they attempt to recover their money"(95).

Sectarian groups. Scientology.

"The informational material from the overs, extracted illegitimately, is carefully noted and filed in the folders (personal dossiers), kept by the intelligence department — which in Spain is known as Department 20, a section of the Civil Association of Dianetics controlled by the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) —, and is often used to dissuade those who leave the cult from filing complaints against it"(95).

Magical indiscretion

Given the tendency to attribute superhuman qualities to the LP, delirious indiscretion is a more frequent phenomenon than one might suspect.

Unspecified cult group.

"The folklore about the Guru's 'omnipotent gaze' was one of the culturally sustained mechanisms for achieving consensus. The Guru socialized his members into the belief that he was literally capable of seeingthem at any moment. He would often publicly recount activities carried out by his followers in private. Individuals who had been in the cult for an extended period of time (more than a year) reported feeling a constant sense of psychological and emotional visibility; this feeling of 'being seen' was at once a source of great oppression and security, pressure and discipline"(59).

Secrecy

It must be noted that alongside the indiscretion toward most group members there exists the inverse tendency: the secrecy of the leadership. Abusive husbands demand knowledge of the smallest details of their wives' and children's activities and thoughts, yet they neither feel obligated to be accountable nor act accordingly. Many jealous men insistently demand that their wives recount their sexual experiences with previous partners or their fantasies and desires... yet they fail to understandwhythey themselves should disclose their frequent infidelities. The leader of a cult group was kept punctually informed of the group's progress while his followers, who were proselytizing on a tourist island, were unaware that he was very close by, enjoying a luxurioussuitein an expensive hotel. And the same dynamic repeats itself in totalitarian systems:

Soviet Leninism.

"We know little of Lenin's private life. The reason is not solely the Marxist postulate about the primacy of the social over the personal, but also the desire of revolutionary hierarchs to keep the secrets of their private lives from the masses. While every detail of a minor official's life was considered essential information, the life of a Politburo member and his family constituted a State secret. Their salaries, the number of people in their service, their cars, as well as the size of their homes and dachas, were untouchable information kept in 'special archives'"(118).

Pleasures

We now delve into the last of the areas affected by hyperhierarchization; that of the enjoyment of pleasures. In this field, the paranoid contagion group tends to be tolerant of the leadership, which enjoys an abundance of all kinds of luxuries, and severe with the members situated at the lower levels, from whom austerity, sobriety is expected. Precisely, this was one of the facts that most caught the attention of observers of the cults that proliferated in the 70s and in response to which the anti-cult movement was born.

Cult groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"In the month of February 1978, Deborah, like half the colony, suffered severe diarrhea and high fever. 'Neither I nor the other sick people were given proper food to recover. I sustained myself with water and tea, until I felt well enough to return to the basic diet of rice and beans.'

For his part, Jones had his own refrigerator to eat whatever he pleased. He used to eat meat from his well-stocked pantry. He claimed to suffer from diabetes. The two women he lived with, and the two boys, one of them the young John Stoen, dined with the others, but in Deborah's words, 'they were in better conditions than the rest, because they were allowed to eat the meat that Reverend Jones kept in his refrigerator'(61).

Cult groups. The Davidians.

"Crowned as the new leader, Koresh began controlling his followers, starting with their diet. He was the only one authorized to eat meat, drink Coca-Cola and beer and sleep whenever he wished" (97).

Leninist-cult splinter group. SLA.

"Most slept on foam pads, similar to the ones I had had in the bathroom; one or two had sleeping bags, and one or two could sleep in the Murphy bed, though a spot in that bed was always reserved for our leader, the Field Marshal General" (46).

Cult groups. TFP.

"Members are not allowed to have appetizers, it is a 'worldly attachment'. The founder is" (93).

Cult groups. Set Free Christian Fellowship.

"Although he claimed to have taken a vow of poverty and asserted that he had been forced to move forty-two times during his ministry, he frequently went out for lunch and dinner, wore fifty-dollar shirts, dressed his children in expensive clothing and shoes, and bought various accessories for his motorcycles. At the same time, Pat and Kerry's weekly budget to feed twenty-five people in the communal house was two hundred dollars. Phil also had access to many different motorcycles and cars" (36).

The duality of hedonism-luxury versus austerity equally characterizes totalitarian societies.

Maoist Leninism.

"To my great surprise, I learned that Mao had organized a dance. Ballroom dancing had been banned after the revolution for being considered something decadent and bourgeois, and all the dance halls had been closed. But behind the walls of Zhongnanhai, in the enormous Spring Lotus pavilion, Mao organized a dance party every week. Upon returning from the fireworks, I learned that Mao intended to spend the entire night dancing and that he expected the same of me" (28).

Maoist Leninism.

"The fireworks ended around ten at night. None of the people who had taken part in organizing that event could tell me how much the abundant food and drink at our disposal had cost, but I learned that the fireworks alone had cost close to half a million renminbi. The monthly wage of a worker at that time was, on average, thirty renminbi. Later I came to regard those festivities as shameful extravagance, especially during the time of the 'three bad years,' when they continued to be organized despite the fact that millions of people were dying of hunger. Even then they lost all meaning for me" (28).

It must be added that this was not a degeneration of the system that set in over time, but rather that this apparent hypocrisy was present from the very beginnings of the CCP, and those who dared to criticize it were among the first victims of the purges.

Maoist Leninism.

"The writer Wang Shiwei had published some very harsh criticism against the party in Yan'an, accusing its leaders of indulging in the good life while preaching asceticism and equality [...] Then I realized that the degeneration of the party had already begun in Yan'an" (28).

The pleasant and luxurious life led by LPs (equally in sectarian groups and in totalitarian societies) is due in large part to the servile attitude of the group's members, who are always eager —and not only out of fear or self-interested calculation— to flatter their leader.

Maoist Leninism.

"From that point on we attended performances of Sichuan opera every night and the rumor of Mao's passion for opera quickly spread among the other provincial leaders. They always showed great curiosity about Mao's tastes, since all of them hoped to be Mao's hosts someday and wanted to do things right. From 1958 onward, all new provincial residences included an opera auditorium" (28).

Clinical accounts of victims of domestic tyrants reveal situations identical to those of sectarian and totalitarian leaders. It is not uncommon that while the wife and children live with significant material deprivations, the male demands expensive clothes, always clean and well ironed, uses disproportionately costly vehicles, etc. I have known more than one case in which the meals of one and the others were also different, with the male being the only one to eat cuts of meat.

Austerity

The ethic of austerity and sacrifice so common in all types of paranoid contagion groups is nothing less than the reflection of a habitual component of the IP's behavior.

Folie à deux. Clinical case.

"They deprived themselves of food and sleep, and isolated themselves from the outside world" (84).

A characteristic theme of paranoid thinking is that of contempt for the soft life and the exaltation of sacrifice and suffering.

Maoist Leninism.

"As I discovered later, Mao believed that everyone had to go through difficult situations, from his daughters Li Na and Li Min to the highest party leaders. Most of the latter were of peasant origin and had fought for many years to bring the revolution to victory, so they had already suffered their share of bitterness. But Mao also believed that they had grown soft once settled in power and given over to all kinds of luxuries. If they were not periodically exposed to suffering, they might end up forgetting the real China. In the following years Mao made sure that everyone around him, starting with me and continuing through the highest leaders, tasted something bitter in more than sufficient measure" (28).

Mao sought to model Chinese society on a pattern more archetypal than real: that of the good peasant, one of whose supposed traditional virtues was extreme austerity. It matters little that, in reality, this austerity owed more to poverty and fear of poor harvests than to any deep philosophical conviction.

The austerity prescribed by Nazi ethics also seemed to rest on the same rustic foundations, although the mythical original Aryan people were associated more with war than with agriculture.

Nazism.

"The new socialism of the German people can only arise from an elemental and primitive life. It is a socialism of duties and sacrifices. A socialism for the sons of bourgeois and proletarians who, through this system, will become German workers and soldiers. If we do not renounce hatred and envy, arrogance and comfort, luxury and refinement in all things of daily life, this ideal can never become a reality" (122).

That same renunciation is what parents and educators demanded of young samurai during the process of their training.

Warriors. The samurai bushido.

"Parents, with a severity that at times bordered on cruelty, compelled them to perform tasks that demanded every ounce of courage they possessed within themselves. 'Bears would throw their cubs to the bottom of the gorge,' they said. The sons of samurai were abandoned in steep valleys full of dangers and were urged to carry out tasks similar to that of Sisyphus. The occasional deprivation of food or exposure to the cold was considered a highly effective test for making them resilient. They would send young children, among complete strangers, with some message to deliver; they were made to rise before dawn and before breakfast had to perform their reading exercises and go to their teachers' homes barefoot during the winter cold; frequently — once or twice a month, as on the feast day of some god of learning — they would gather in small groups and spend the night without sleeping, reading aloud in turns" (81).

Austerity is so advisable that some IPPs go so far as to impose harsh deprivations upon themselves as a form of training in so desired a virtue.

Sectarian-Leninist splinter group. SLA.

"She deliberately chewed only half a stick of gum, as she said, in order to learn to live with deprivations"(46).

On many occasions, deprivations are imposed not so much for the intrinsic value of austere living as for its usefulness; the renunciation of pleasures makes it possible to avoid being distracted from work for the group and its objectives.

Querulants.

"They continued with their cases to the detriment of other areas of their lives, such as family, friends, housing, or employment. None of the individuals studied held a full-time job, and several experienced housing difficulties as a direct result of their litigation"(101).

Paranoia.

"[...] his home, his business, his fortune, all are sacrificed to his pathological impulse"(60).

Sectarian-Leninist groupuscule. SLA.

"They had banned drugs and liquor and all materialistic pleasures to maintain their discipline and military training"(46).

The renunciation of individual pleasures should not be seen as entirely altruistic, given that it is frequently demanded for the sake of the common good, which in the end should ultimately benefit the very individual who has imposed the privations upon himself.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"The axis of his conceptions lies in the development of the new and revolutionary concept of national sovereignty: for Rousseau,citizens must completely subordinate their private interests to the common good,harmoniously uniting their individual wills in the collective organism of the national State"(100).

Nazism.

"...ifwe ask ourselves what forces create and preserve States... only the following can fall under this designation: the capacity and disposition tosacrifice oneself individually for the good of the multitude"(49).

Another motive for sobriety is the avoidance of imaginary punishments.

Crisis cults. The shakers of Puget Sound (19th century).

"Several people prophesied the end of the world, generally foreseen for July 4th, the American national holiday. As a consequence of this prediction, many people gave up gambling, drinking and horse racing, which were their favorite pastimes" (63).

Frugality

The demand for austerity can prevent access to any of the pleasures that life provides, but the austerity whose imposition seems most common is that related to food. The IPP must be frugal, that is, eat little and go hungry, or consume poor-quality food prepared without a minimum of care.

Sectarian groups. The Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"22. Food was calamitously inadequate. There was rice for breakfast, boiled rice at lunchtime and rice with beans for dinner. On Sundays, we were entitled to one egg and one fritter per person. Two or three times a week, vegetables. Some very elderly and frail members were allowed to eat one egg a day. But the food improved notably whenever there was a foreign visitor" (Sworn statement by Deborah Layton Blakey, cited in 56).

Moonies.

"Subject to these conditions, members are required to work for many hours, to sleep very little, to subsist on food of the most inferior quality and utterly routine, sometimes for weeks, and to endure countless hardships for the sake of their 'spiritual growth'" (44).

On some occasions frugality simply reflects the existence of other spending priorities, always related to the overarching objectives of the AP.

Cult groups. El Patriarca.

"It should not be forgotten, moreover, that El Patriarca frequently benefits from large quantities of food (vegetables, fruits, fish, etc.) left over at the close of the day in various food markets. It is likewise the beneficiary of notable batches of canned and packaged products (in many cases past their expiration date) donated by manufacturers and wholesalers" (95).

Cult groups. El Patriarca.

"An old story this that has always been on the lips of all former residents of the Association. 'The food left much to be desired —maintains a former resident of the Pamplona shelter— and, as a rule, they had overripe fruit from supermarkets and expired yogurts that the factory gave them as donations" (95).

Soviet Leninism.

"Emissaries were sent east and west, and under Lenin's orders the Commissariat of Finance disposed of millions of rubles for 'the needs of the world revolution.' Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens were dying of hunger and disease. For Lenin, revolution was everything, and it could not be achieved without the price of countless victims" (118).

Soviet Leninism.

"Thirty-six million people suffered from hunger, deaths were counted in the thousands daily, yet on December 7, 1922, the Politburo, under Lenin's presidency, made the decision to export one million tons of wheat. Berdyaev has put it very well: 'The Bolsheviks have something strange about them. Something otherworldly. That is what makes them terrifying.' The country was starving, the civilized world was sending food aid to Russia, and yet the Government was sending enormous quantities of wheat abroad.

The famine was spreading. In the summer of 1921, the United States Government decided to channel aid to those in need through the ARA (American Relief Administration), which was headed by Herbert Hoover. The volume of aid was considerable, and the food program continued until the summer of 1923, enabling the survival of twenty-five million people in the Volga region alone. While the institution was delivering aid, the Politburo was stripping the middle classes of their valuables, plundering churches, and emptying the gold reserves amassed by Tsarism, under the pretext of buying grain abroad, when in reality the intention was to finance revolution in one place or another in the world and drive the creation of ever-growing numbers of new communist parties"(118).

As astonishing as it may seem, the frugality of the cult devotee can be the consequence of a lack of time to eat.

Sokagakkai.

"The members of the Male Youth Division had already reached two thousand. It had been eighteen months since the division was founded, on a day of torrential rain, when there were only one hundred and eighty members.All its members had worked extremely hard, sometimes without eating or sleeping,to expand the division, and the result of their efforts was seen at the first general meeting held at the Educational Hall on April 19"(52).

The most evident manifestation of the dynamics of frugality is fasting, whether total or consisting of imposing significant dietary restrictions upon oneself.

Cult groups. Universal energy.

- According to what the family of a devotee reports, in recent weeks he has lost five kilograms. He begins his meals with a lemon.

In religious groups, fasting is associated with an impulse to detach oneself from all things material, and from all impurity, so as to draw closer to an angelic or divine nature.

Cult groups. Moonies.

"I learned how to fast for three days drinking only water. Later, I would have to do three rounds of week-long fasts on water alone, as part of a purification process" (44).

Paranoia. Clinical case.

"'God is my father and the church my mother,' said a patient who through frequent fasting attempted to rid himself of all earthly feelings within his breast and thus attain an intimate relationship with God" (60).

In other cases, it is simply a matter of resignedly accepting the will of the Lord.

Cult groups. Shiloh.

"The history of Shiloh as a movement begins in the late 1890s and ends in 1920, some twenty-five years later. In those twenty-five years the movement had its moments of glory and its setbacks. When things were going well for the Shilohites, it seemed that God had truly chosen them for a special purpose. People donated money and food, buildings were erected and filled with expensive furniture and carpets. People ate three good meals a day and their faces shone with enthusiasm. But this side of Shiloh, prosperous and healthy, was a brief and intermittent period at the beginning of the movement. When there were few mouths to feed, the financial burden could be met by outside donors. As more and more followers came to understand that salvation was only assured to full-time members on the hill, the part of the compound where members lived, entire families crowded into facilities that were not prepared for them, which placed an enormous burden on the community. Simply feeding so many bodies became a great battle more often lost than won. In the autumn of 1919, children were sent into the woods to gather leaves and berries, anything that seemed edible. They accepted malnutrition with a stoic attitude, they went hungry because it was the Lord's will that they should go hungry. They did nothing to survive because God had expressly commanded them not to do so…" (36).

In PDs of a hypochondriac-naturist orientation, dietary restrictions are related rather to a vision filled with paranoid fears toward food, or its ingredients or its additives, the assessments being most often completely disproportionate or lacking in evidence. In any case, they lead to dietary habits that are sometimes dangerously restrictive, and can go so far as to cause deficiency-related conditions, especially in children. These are habits similar to those that, for other reasons, some patients with persecutory delusions develop.

Paranoia.

"This [persecutory and poisoning] delusion entails not only a progressive isolation, which had become more or less total by the time we came to know the patient, but also defective eating behaviors (selection of foods) that impair her general condition" (81).

Comfort

The contempt for a life of ease, characteristic of paranoid thinking, takes the concrete form of a hostile attitude toward comfort. One more way of mistreating oneself and of allowing oneself to be mistreated.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The hermits eat at long stone tables. They do so with great attention to bodily posture and gesture. The back must be straight, the chest out, and one may not look to the sides. It is permitted to raise one's eyes upward but without moving the head" (93).

As is well known, the deprivation of comfort was applied with the utmost rigor in the concentration camps opened by the totalitarian regimes of the last century.

Nazism.

"In Ravensbrück there were insects in great numbers," recounts a survivor. "The barracks were so full of lice that sometimes we found them even in the soup. The drainage pipe system was broken down, and the camp looked like an immense courtyard full of manure. It was rare to be able to change one's underwear or clothes, and even when we managed to obtain a set of clean clothes, they were always full of lice and stained with blood and excrement. We had no stockings and only wooden shoes at our disposal. We slept on dirty straw mattresses covered in excrement, and each blanket had to be shared among three. There were not enough bowls and we ate from tin containers found among the rubbish"(66).

On the other hand, the idolized LPs, well attended to by their subordinates, enjoy the inverse situation, sometimes to a degree that borders on the grotesque.

Maoist Leninism.

"Mao lay in an immense wooden bed that was almost twice the size of a normal double bed and which had been specially built for him by one of the carpenters at Zhongnanhai"(28).

Maoist Leninism.

"Everything was done for Mao. He never had to lift a finger; he didn't even put on his own socks, shoes, or trousers; even his hair was combed by someone else" (28).

Among the pleasures for which the paranoid contagion group imposes restrictions is that of moving freely wherever one wishes.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"Entry to department stores, leisure venues, museums and tourist sites is forbidden" (93).

Or the imposition of confinement in a space from which one cannot leave.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The TFP has a kind of monasticism which it calls "camaldula." The monks, for years, renounce the right to leave it" (93).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The Camaldolese confine themselves to a cell of 2 m. by 1.5 m., devoting their time to prayer and intellectual activity... they provide the organization with summaries of the materials they study" (93).

Leninist societies also imposed on their subjects the unusual prohibition of leaving as well as restrictions on the free movement within the country itself.

Other forms of austerity

The stories of members of sectarian groups frequently show how among the multiple changes observed is the one relating to manner of dress. We already know that a tendency toward uniform attire arises, but also toward humility, simplicity, and low cost. Uniformity and simplicity in dress mean that the member must renounce wearing what they like and renounce the desire to please others through what they wear.

Jealous. Clinical case

"He showed his jealousy once we were married... he did not want me to dress up..."

For LPs a different logic applies.

Sectarian groups. Moonies.

"Sun Myung Moon [...] He moves with the bearing of a small sumo wrestler, and wears $1,000 suits" (44).

Anabaptist messianisms. Jan of Leiden (16th century).

"His garments were made of rich fabrics taken from the churches, and he prided himself on dressing in cloth in which gold and purple were intermingled; his brow was crowned by a diadem in which the most sumptuous gemstones were set in finely chiseled gold. His retinue was equally lavish and offered a strange contrast with the uniform simplicity in attire prescribed to the people" (26).

Let us look at two more examples of prohibitions of pleasures, before moving on to the next section.

Cult groups. TFP.

"The only music permitted is military marches, Gregorian chant, and classical music predating Bach. All other music is revolutionary.

A passionate Beethoven music lover threw all his records into the Ebro River upon joining the TFP" (93).

Unspecified cult group.

"On one hand I wanted to have children, although in the cult they had convinced me that I was not ready for motherhood. I had always liked children and animals, but in the group they told me that having childrenaround was too much of a nuisance and that moreover I would be a terrible mother, even to a domestic animal" (113).

Pyramidalism

The image of the pyramid

If in the previous sections we have analyzed the different areas in which hyperarchical behavior is exercised, we will now discuss how this generalized exacerbation of submission behaviors and dominance behaviors confers a characteristic structure upon the group. And without doubt, the pyramid is the simile that best allows us to grasp this structure.

Nazism.

".. Viewed from the bottom up, the HJ are organized as follows.

... The 'comradeship' is the smallest unit. It includes approximately 15 young people under a comradeship leader...

The 'maniple' normally consists of 3 comradeships, under a 'maniple' leader...

The Gefolgschaft is the first major unit. It normally includes three maniples, and possesses, as a symbol of its unity, the flag.... The Stamm consists of three, and up to five Gefolgschaften...

The next major unit is the Bann, which consists of four to eight Stamm. At its head is the Bannführer...

The district consists, finally, of 10 to 30 Bann..." (Hans-Helmut Dietze, cited in 122).

A single authority proceeds from the leader and branches out to each and every member of the group, while, in the opposite direction, the lines of submission point toward and converge upon a single chief.

In contrast to this simple, triangular model, which connects the leader with each of his followers at the base of the pyramid through a direct line punctuated by intermediate commanders, the power relations in open societies are more chaotic and entangled, with the individual subject to different authorities or lines of command in different contexts (the boss gives orders at work, the traffic warden in traffic, the priest in his parish, etc.).

At this point, it is worth distinguishing between what occurs in the microgroup or the paranoid association, on the one hand, and what takes place in the SPs, on the other.

In the first case, it is not that sources of authority outside the group disappear entirely, obviously. The cult member does not necessarily stop complying with laws, or the rules of their family or their company. What happens is that those other sources of authority become totally and permanently subordinated to the primacy of the authority of the paranoid contagion group.

In the case of paranoidization, it is a population as a whole that becomes integrated into the pyramidal structure. But now, not only individuals but also organizations and social sectors must adapt to that structure, and transfer the surrounding authoritarianism to their own internal functioning.

Nazism.

"For National Socialism —writes Heinz Pohle— nothing non-political exists. From economics to art, from the sciences to sport, nothing was valued for its own function, but rather everything was subordinated to the political, that is, to what was convenient and useful for the State, the party, and National Socialist ideology"(122).

Totalitarian regimes fostered institutions that were submissive, to which the various social sectors concerned would in turn have to submit.

Nazism.

"All aspects of German artistic life were placed under the Reich Chamber of Culture on September 22, 1933. The purpose of this institution was the promotion of 'German culture' and the bringing together of artists from all fields into a single organization under the control of the Reich. Every artist had to be a member of the culture chamber of their particular field" (117).

On the other hand, any source of autonomous power that could distance itself from and interfere in that chain of command running from the state leader to each of the citizens would be considered suspect.

Nazism.

"So today I can declare without equivocation that it is necessary to regard every jurist as a being of deficient nature, or one who has been deformed by habit"(48).

Nazism.

"The Minister states that only the Party, to which the people have entrusted the political and cultural leadership of Germany, has the right to appeal to the German people at mass meetings. It must not be permitted, therefore, for old Admirals or Generals to address the German people, since they have not been entrusted with the leadership and command of the people"(10).

For this strong dominance/submission relationship to be maintained at the various hierarchical levels and to be activated under any circumstance, sufficient personal contact is required between each leader and his subordinates, who cannot be excessively numerous. Consequently, the paranoid pyramid tends to be morepointedthanflat, which prevents the dilution of authority.

Sokagakkai.

"Toda was considering important reforms in the organization, to ensure that the faith was cultivated and strengthened. Among these reforms was that of doubling the number of chapters, from sixteen to thirty-two, so that each of the members would have access to individual guidance"(52).

The clarity of the chain, in which middle-ranking commanders act resolutely in their dual capacity as subordinates and leaders, contributes to the PCG being able to respond to any indication from the leader with promptness and decisiveness.

French imperialism.

"The French administrative model was hierarchical and centralized. As Roederer said —displaying the inclination of politicians toward the new scientific terminology— that model impliedthat 'the chain of execution descends without interruption from the minister to the administered and transmits the law and the orders of the government to the furthest ramifications of the social order with the speed of electric fluid'"(121).

And, in the ascending direction…

French nationalism.

"[...] the very centralization of the system, from its creation in year VIII until the abdication, guaranteed that Napoleon was informed about the people and administrative problems in every corner of his Empire with a precision unimaginable for the bureaucrats or ministers of today"(121).

Personalism

The image of the pyramid, with a single point at the very top, at the vertex, shows us the universal tendency of paranoid contagion groups to accumulate all power in a single person.

Religious sectarian cults, in which the leader is often considered divine, semi-divine, or exclusively touched by divinity, are distinguished by the omnipresence of the images, thoughts, and decisions of the leader, so that, with few exceptions, these groups appear to be an entirely personal creation and possession. The absolute dominion of the leader is usually not concealed and becomes apparent to anyone who approaches the group with curiosity.

The tendency toward complete personalism in the leadership of the group occurs equally in all types of secular paranoid behaviors and in SP. Thus, the generality of fascist movements evolved toward a unique, absolute, and charismatic leadership.

Fascism.

"[...] all fascist movements ended up accepting variants of the Führerprinzip, leaving to the creative function of the leader much more than to the prior ideology or the bureaucratized party line" (88).

Fascism.

"Typological description of fascism

[...] Specific tendency toward a command style authoritarian, charismatic, personal, regardless of whether command is, at the outset, elective to some degree" (88).

Leninist movements also experienced the same personalist drift, almost always after having come to power (with exceptions such as Shining Path).

Soviet Leninism.

"The fictional Marx recoils at the idea of the Gulag and places the blame for it on those who put the theory into practice; only the application of his doctrines, manipulated by Vladimir Ilyich [Lenin] and his successors, had turned the dictatorship of the proletariat into the dictatorship of the party, that of the party into that of the central committee, that of the central committee into that of the politburo, and that of the politburo into that of an all-encompassing and infallible general secretary, a series of alchemical mutations that had stripped workers of power and the right to speak, metamorphosing them into a silent and submissive mass…" (37).

Soviet Leninism.

"It occurred to no one to think about the possibility of influencing the development of society. The collective destiny rested solely on the wisdom of Stalin, 'our father', 'our sun', 'our infallible guide'" (55).

Within the Leninist movement, the cult of the leader would end up being regarded as a mere "deviation" to be combated. But a strangely ubiquitous and enduring deviation.

The personalism of the PCG should not be seen solely as the consequence of an active and belligerent conquest of power on the part of the PL, which the group as a whole would passively accept. The very members of the PCG themselves may also decide to stop deciding who is going to lead them, actively renouncing the possibility of dethroning the leader.

French nationalism.

"General Bonaparte demonstrated his capacity to achieve peace, a prerequisite for stability; grateful citizens voted en masse for the transformation of the constitutional function of first consul to that of consul for life (August 2, 1802)" (121).

Nazism.

"Full powers were granted to Hitler on March 23, 1933 by the constitutional two-thirds majority of the Reichstag; the Catholic Centre voted in favor, and only the Social Democrats opposed it" (23).

Personalism versus democratic decision-making

Rousseau conceived an original democratic totalitarianism in which the general will (the decisions of the assembly of citizens), carried out by various magistrates with specific functions, took precedence over any individual right or prerogative. The general will may compel the citizen to anything, and the citizen, in turn, cannot refuse anything.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"Just as nature has given man absolute power over all his limbs, the social contract gives the body politic a absolute power over all of its own" (100)

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"As soon as the sovereign body demands it, the citizen has the duty to render his services to the State; but the latter, for its part, cannot burden them with anything that is useless to the community; it cannot even wish to do so, for according to the laws of reason, as with those of nature, nothing is done without cause" (100)

And all of this supported by an argument whose absurdity is plain to see.

Nationalist utopia. The social contract.

"[...] whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body, which means nothing other than that he will be forced to be free…" (100)

Revolutionary France made its own the Rousseauian democratic totalitarianism according to which the Nation, the citizens as a whole, would occupy the place of the former absolute monarch as the sole and ultimate source of power.

Nationalism.

"Article three of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, drafted by the French Constituent Assembly on August 26, 1789, captured, to a great extent, this idea and the Rousseauian principles on the matter by affirming that 'the principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation; no body, no individual, can exercise authority that does not expressly emanate from it'" (84).

But paranoid activation, patriotic exaltation, inexorably leads to forgetting principles and to massively depositing power in the leader, and it would not be many years before a military man from the Grande Armée, gifted and charismatic, usurped the nation (or its representatives elected and constituted in assembly) as the ultimate source of power.

In modern democratic Nation-States, it is the voters —the base of the pyramid— who install and remove their leaders, upon whom constraints are also imposed in the exercise of power. But in situations of genuine war (not mere participation in remote conflicts), in which citizens feel truly threatened, the subsequent patriotic exaltation produces periods of functional dictatorization, in which strong social cohesion is established, conflicts of all kinds subside, and society as a whole submits entirely to the leader of the moment. Democratic legality may be maintained but, de facto, submission to authority prevails above all. During wars, power tends to become personalized. Elections may be called, but almost always to ratify the current leader in their position.

When the sectarian group rehearses democratic functioning, the same functional dictatorization occurs as in nations at war: the members of the group unanimously endorsing the leader and supporting their decisions without any cracks.

Sokagakkai.

"In a conference held on September 26, he put forward the proposal that a large sum of money be raised for three ventures: the reconstruction of the pagoda at Taiseki-ji, the construction of a charnel house at the Butsu-gen-ji temple, and the financing of any legal proceedings that might be necessary in connection with the Kasahara incident. During the meeting, votes were cast on these three projects, without a single vote in dissent" (52).

Personalism versus democratic election

The fascist parties of the first half of the last century advocated personalist power in open opposition to the democratic and representative principle. Caudillism was equally advocated for the internal functioning of the parties as for society as a whole.

Nazism.

"The young movement is in essence and organization antiparlamentary, that is to say, it rejects, both in its principle and in its composition, any theory based on majority suffrage [...]" (49).

Nazism.

"The National State must work without respite to free the administration... from the principle of majority rule... thus ensuring in its place the indisputable authority of the individual" (49).

Now then, both Italian fascism and German National Socialism had elected their officers —at first— by means of suffrage.

Fascism.

"The majority of these [of the fascist movements] began with a leadership group chosen -chosen, at least, by the party elite-, and this is true even of the National Socialists" (88).

That the amalgam of ex-combatants, revolutionary socialists, syndicalists, futurists and even occultists who converged in Nazi-fascism decidedly evolved toward the Führerprinzip evidences once again that bias toward the personalization of power of which we have been speaking.

Sectarian groups are not usually known for their democratic spirit either.

Sokagakkai.

"They do not care that [...] politics is not decided by a representative body…" (51).

Thus, in the paranoid contagion group the democratic election of the leader disappears, but so does the democratic election of middle management. Changes are decided authoritatively, by hierarchical superiors, with little weight given to the opinion of those affected by them. In this way, the hierarchical structure renews itself hierarchically, redundant as that may sound.

Nazism.

"Between January and May of 1933, Hitler reorganized the entire structure of the country: he forced the different states of Germany to elect 'national' governments, and then placed at the head of each one a governor (Statthalter) of his confidence. Bavaria, which made attempts to resist, was placed under the discipline of the energetic Von Epp" (23).

Sokagakkai.

"The questions that non-members ask themselves about the clearly undemocratic way of operating are not matters of importance to NSA members. They do not care that [...] leaders are appointed, not elected…" (51).

In the selection of leadership positions, objective or meritocratic criteria tend to give way to servility; it is a foreseeable consequence of the hyper-hierarchization of the paranoid contagion group.

Maoist Leninism.

"But behind the scenes, tension within the party was growing due to insidious personal and ideological confrontations and the growing disposition of Mao to promote his flatterers without regard for their ability or talent" (28).

Personalism versus collegial authority

Paranoid leadership equally rejects the possibility of shared leadership.

Nazism.

"During the years 1920 and 1921, the propaganda of the movement was directed by a commission elected by the members in assembly [...] I refused to support such an absurdity and after a short time I stopped attending the commission meetings. I myself directed the propaganda and that was the end of the matter" (49).

Nazism.

"Also in the same diary, on December 5th, he wrote: 'In these small conferences I try to set my senior officials in motion. In them I take the trouble to explain to them in full detail and with great interest the current state of the situation and the development of events. In time I trust I will reach the intended goal.' There is no doubt that after the start of the war Goebbels continued to have the same intentions, even though the circle of collaborators convened was considerably broader. As soon became clear, he did not intend to speak at the Conferences about the most important aspects of the situation, nor to discuss with his collaborators the pros and cons of the facts, but rather what he mainly wished was to take his own position on events that might have significant consequences and to orient his listeners in the fulfillment of his points of view. Such Conferences (which were, therefore, more of a kind of military review for issuing new orders and at the same time private watchwords) were already common practice before the war in the Ministry of Propaganda and were always held behind closed doors" (10).

Closure to external influence

The image of the Egyptian pyramid, nearly hermetic and separated from the exterior by thick stone walls, is also fitting to illustrate the closure of the paranoid contagion group's lines of command to any interference or influence from outside. For the adept of the cult group, any authority external to their group ceases to be regarded as such, and in turn, these groups operate with a marked indifference toward the norms and rules of the society surrounding them. An indifference that some obsessive individuals also display.

It is in studies on nationalism where this phenomenon has been described with greatest precision. Nationalism entailed the establishment of a new loyalty — and, by extension, a new obedience — by which the Nation-State displaced any other loyalty.

Nationalism.

"She found herself inevitably linked to that characteristic phenomenon of the nineteenth century, the 'nation-State'. Indeed, in the realm of politics, Pilsudski was right. The State not only created the nation, but needed to create the nation. Governments now reached each citizen in their territories directly in daily life, through modest but omnipresent agents, from postmen and policemen to schoolteachers and, in many countries, railway employees. They could demand the active personal commitment of male citizens, and later of women as well, to the State: in fact, their 'patriotism'. In that increasingly democratic period, authority could no longer rely on the various social orders spontaneously submitting to their superiors on the social ladder in the traditional manner, nor on traditional religion as an effective guarantee of social obedience, and it needed to unite the subjects of the State against subversion and dissent. 'The nation' was the new civic religion of States. It constituted a bond that united all citizens with the State, a way of making the nation-State reach each citizen directly, and it was at the same time a counterweight against all those who appealed to other loyalties above loyalty to the State: to religion, to nationality, or to an ethnic element not identified with the State, perhaps above all to class"(50).

A concrete example:

German nationalism.

"In the Holy Roman Empire of the eighteenth century it was possible to be Catholic, Austrian and German without any conflict of loyalties. German nationalism not only transformed the meaning of being German, but necessarily gave rise to a tension with respect to other allegiances... [the religious and the dynastic]" (12).

In accordance with the principle of non-external interference, patriotic exaltation rejects the presence within the nation of organizations owing obedience to foreign powers, regardless of whether they are religious, political or economic associations. Thus, the Catholic Church, with its strong centralization around the figure of the Pope, and its transnational religious orders, have frequently suffered patriotic wrath and suspicion.

French nationalism.

"He presented to the Emperor a report that provoked the urgent convening, on October 19, 1807, of a 'small council', thus announced by the imperial cabinet:

[...]

It is claimed that they maintain relations with Rome and that they have a secret leader. Is this indeed the case? Where are they established? How many are there? What distinguishes a Father of the Faith from a Father of the Company of Jesus? How are they recognized? How many colleges are in their hands? In short, what measures must be taken to prevent associations that have in France foreign practices and correspondences?"(65).

French nationalism.

"The Emperor was a man who declared: 'Men who do not believe in God cannot be governed — they must be shot down!' But he had a horror of congregations and, above all, of the Company of Jesus, going so far as to forbid newspapers from even printing the word Jesuits. The signing of the concordat with the Holy See in July 1801 would change nothing in his state of mind: he permitted only the secular clergy. Evidence of this is found in his declaration to his Minister of Worship: 'I want no ecclesiastical congregation: it is useless. Good priests, good bishops, good clerics, well-run seminaries — that is all that is useful...'" (65).

Multinationals, to which such disproportionate powers, plots, and malicious intentions are so often attributed, are denounced (by lovers of the homeland) in contrast to the excellence of national companies and entrepreneursnational. Jews and communists, always carrying an inherent supranational connection, have throughout history aroused in nationalists the same type of mistrust.

Stratification

Stratification implies that the members of the paranoid contagion group are assigned to clearly delimited compartments (though not entirely sealed off from one another). These compartments are arranged on a scale so that it is perfectly clear who ranks above and who ranks below within the group's internal hierarchy. As we approach the apex, the floor-compartments become increasingly smaller and more exclusive.

The tendency of the paranoid contagion group is to establish a single ranking system with which to classify all members. This achieves a simplification and clear quantification of each individual's rank, and establishes with clarity the privileges and obligations that correspond to them. Let us look at some revealing examples:

Maoist Leninism.

"His personal moral crusade reached its culmination in 1953 with the institution of the rank system within the civil service. All government officials and employees were divided into twenty-six levels. The salary of level 26 — the lowest — was one twentieth of the salary received at the highest level. However, the true difference lay in the subsidies and privileges. The system determined practically everything, from whether someone's coat should be made of expensive wool or cheap cotton to the size of each person's apartment and whether it was appropriate to install a private toilet in it.

[...] With that system, in the early eighties he was still not permitted to purchase a plane ticket or a soft seat on trains, a privilege that only officials of level 14 or above could obtain. Thus, thanks to the scruples shown by my father in 1953, he found himself — nearly forty years later — one rung below the category required to travel comfortably within his own country. He could not occupy a hotel room with a privatebathroom, as such a privilege was only available from level 13 upward. When he requested that the electrical meter in his apartment be replaced with one of higher capacity, the building management informed him that this was only permitted for officials from level 13 upward" (54).

Sectarian groups. Reverend Jones's People's Temple.

"The community was built upon a structure of four hierarchical orders. The group closest to the 'father' was that of the angels; next came the planning commission and, in third place, the security forces, Jones's armed militia. At the apex of the pyramid stood, naturally, the founder" (61).

The strata are not absolutely closed, so it is possible to move from one to another, but there is a certain tendency, especially in large APs, to isolate them from one another.

Nazism.

"There were three types of schools in the Third Reich in which future political and party leaders were trained...

The most promising children from the Jungvolk entered the Adolf Hitler Schools at the age of 12, and were prepared over 6 years for high-ranking positions. The students lived in and endured a spartan lifestyle...

The Napolas, the NSDAP's educational institutions, had a special purpose. The Nazis wanted to reinstate the kind of instruction in honor that had characterized the Prussian military academies...

At the apex of the school pyramid stood the Ordensburgen. The children at the top of the party were schooled in these institutions, where the organization and discipline was similar to that of the Knights of the Teutonic Order. Only the most dedicated young National Socialists were selected..."(117).

Typical strata

Let us now examine some typical types of strata that tend with some frequency to reproduce themselves in different paranoid contagion groups, regardless of size or field of interests and activities.

1) The apex of the pyramid, where power, information, and privileges accumulate, tends to be occupied by a single individual, known and venerated by all.

2) The next stratum is made up of the clique surrounding the leader. They are the ones who serve him, inform him, and mediate between him and the rest of the group. The members of the ruling clique of paranoid personalities are those who most often bear the brunt of the paranoid leader's outbursts of rage, and at the same time are naively criticized for concealing, distorting, or corrupting the leader's message, who in this way remains sheltered within his immaculate halo of perfection. The members of the clique are those who typically take center stage in the great succession struggles following the leader's death. In some groups of Christian inspiration, the clique surrounding the leader happens to consist of… twelve people.

Anabaptist messianisms. Jan of Leiden (16th century).

"He dissolved the Council on the grounds that it had been chosen by men, whereas he had been chosen by God, in whose voice he set himself up, surrounded by twelve judges like those of the tribes of Israel"(28).

3) Some SPs create an elitist caste that is granted the monopoly on violence.

Nazism.

"Himmler's idea was that the SS should be an order, a closed community, with the appeal of a closed community. Members should be united by a common pattern of behavior, a common ethos, and common traditions that were yet to be formed. Those who had to protect the Führer and the party from any internal or external attack held a special and privileged position in the Reich"(117).

Some sectarian groups also have armed bodies entrusted with violent missions and the maintenance of order.

At the base of the pyramid we can also observe some characteristic types of strata.

4) A lower, marginalized caste, assigned the hardest manual labor (like theblacksof Maoist China) and who in some cases are forced to wear external identifying marks. This does not occur only in totalitarian societies but also in some sectarian groups.

Sectarian groups. The commune of Otto Muehl.

"Former members assert that the lower ranks of the commune, those who perform the physicalical work within it,have practically no rights"(111).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The organization in Brazil has a so-called 'worker sector' made up of individuals of low social extraction, to whom manual tasks are entrusted. The worker sector has its own headquarters, may only attend a certain type of meeting and must occupy the space reserved for it. They wear a differentiated uniform, with a striped livery and an armband on which their status is inscribed. They avoid becoming too intimate with the rest of the organization. The worker sector is assumed to have a rebellious disposition, an excessive inclination toward protest" (93).

5) A good part of sectarian groups of a certain size create a level of semi-militants who collaborate with the group economically and in a limited way in specific activities, without excessive commitment. These individuals usually have scarce information about the group they support, and are subject to a certain degree of deceptive manipulation. It would not be appropriate to consider them as part of the pyramid, given that they do not display in their daily lives the submission of a true sectarian adept, nor could they be diagnosed with a "group dependency syndrome." They should rather be considered as a transition zone between the pyramid and the rest of society.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"These initiatives have given rise to the correspondents and sympathizers of the TFPs.

They are people of both sexes who show solidarity with the entities, give them regular support and carry out with dedication different propaganda tasks of undeniable effectiveness. They are neither members nor cooperators, but friends who, among their family, professional and social relations, are prepared to spread the ideals of the TFPs and to defend them against the vile campaign of slander and lies that communo-progressivism constantly wages against the largest family of anticommunist civic associations, of Catholic inspiration, existing in the West. They also collaborate in the dissemination of TFP bulletins and communiqués through the press, radio and television.

How do the TFPs relate to the correspondents?

Through the direct assistance of their members and cooperators, when there are any in the locality, or, if not, through secretariats that maintain contact with them by means of periodic visits, telephone calls, letters, and mailings of doctrinal circulars and informational material.

What is the program that the TFPs develop with the correspondents?

Most of the time, meetings are held in the homes of the correspondents and sympathizers themselves. Associates and cooperators of the TFPs visit them, give lectures, and promote lively conversations on various matters of interest to the purposes of the entities" (17).

6) Continuing with the architectural simile, in some cases one would have to speak of a ground upon which the pyramid rests and which does not actually form part of it. I am referring to the subjugated populations.

Nazism.

"The population of these eastern zones, after the consequent measures adopted over the course of the next ten years, will be composed of people of inferior race and of practically null human quality.

This gregarious and servile population will provide Germany, annually, with the workers necessary for the most thankless tasks (road construction) ... under our direction they will collaborate in the great enterprise of the resurgence of the German people" (Himmler, cited in 122).

This behavior was not exclusive to Nazism. The European powers also deployed similar policies during their imperial period (less violent and more respectful of individuals' freedoms but, at the same time, more hypocritical since they sheltered behind a redemptive discourse). Japanese imperialism, for its part, acted with fewer scruples.

Japanese imperialism.

"When the local children crossed paths with a Japanese person on the street, they had to bow and make way for them even if the Japanese person was younger than they were. Japanese children would often stop local children and slap them for no reason at all. The pupils, for their part, had to perform elaborate bows before their teachers every time they encountered them" (54).

Japanese imperialism.

"Numerous towns on the vast plains of Manchuria were set on fire, and the inhabitants who survived were locked up in 'strategic villages'. More than five million people —approximately one sixth of the population— lost their homes, and tens of thousands died. Workers were exploited to death in Japanese mines..."(54).

Japanese imperialism.

"On June 1, 1939, the Government had announced that from that point on rice would be reserved for the Japanese and a small number of collaborators"(54).

The slaves of the warrior clans of Antiquity, described by Barbara Ehrenreich(31), constitute another good example. On them depended their sustenance, the making and upkeepof weapons and defensive equipment, as well as the maintenance of the stables. Without them they would not have been able to enjoy their heroic way of life, oriented toward preparing future wars, doing battle, and commemorating their own deeds and those of the clan.

Machismo

Misogyny

Paranoia.

"This misogyny constitutes a constant trait of paranoia..."(81).

Delusion of grievance. The Aub case.

"The daughters of L... and of M..., being of the other sex, I despise them"(104).

A contempt in which, often, the paranoid contagion groups take part.

Italian Fascism.

"This is surely the most important differential characteristic, from a visual standpoint, between Italian fascism and National Socialism. The Italian Futurists, in aligning themselves with fascism, incorporated essential elements of the avant-garde; Marinetti's manifestos express perfectly that compatibility of codes: the exaltation of violence, militant nationalism, the cult of war and of aggressive virility, the contempt toward women, the glorification of technology, of machines, of electricity and speed..."(47).

The arguments of contempt toward women tend to repeat themselves; they are the eternal refrains of machismo.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"Women have no intelligence" (93).

Sokagakkai.

"But seriously, wives tend to provoke quarrels. And when the man truly becomes irritated, he may respond to the woman's provocation by striking out at something she holds dear..." (52).

Nazism.

"Numerous examples taken from history prove that women —however intelligent they may be— are incapable of separating reason from feeling in matters of a political nature. And in such a domain, what is to be feared is the hatred of which women are capable" (48).

It is therefore strikingly common among paranoid contagion groups to find ideas that uphold male supremacy over women, as well as the materialization of such ideas through specific rules. On other occasions, we witness the display of sexist behaviors in the day-to-day life of the group, without these bearing any relation to any particular norm or belief.

From an analytical point of view, we will distinguish two spheres in which sexism manifests itself: that of women's relationships with their partners, and that of women's relationship as a whole with the group.

The inferiority of women in relation to men

The sexist tendency leads to a preference for authoritarian family units in which the head of the household exercises unquestionable power and in which it is primarily this person who is expected to be involved in the group.

Sectarian groups. Set Free Christian Fellowship.

"They think that Stacee has succumbed to the 'Christian macho' environment promoted by the Aguilars. She is supposed to 'treat her husband as if she were serving the Lord', according to Pat. She was up, serving her husband food and drink, hours after the birth of her first child. Her husband does not participate in caring for the baby, preferring to wait until the child is able to communicate with him. Speaking of her brother-in-law, Kerry observes: 'he continually goes out and does what he wants, which usually does not include Stacee'. Stacee continues to defend and protect her husband. A common complaint among former Set Free members is that many men treat women like doormats"(36).

These paranoid contagion groups opt for a patriarchal family model, and transfer their own pyramidalism to the family sphere.

Nazism.

"Every human organization, however small, can recognize only a single leader…" (48).

In the family, the leader is the man, and the woman is subordinated to him, that is, she obeys his orders, …

Sectarian groups. World Brotherhood.

"In it she said, among other things: 'Leslie, I have finally found the place that truly belongs to me in the world. God has called me to be part of the Brotherhood, who are the only true Christians on Earth. I have thrown away my jeans, because I have understood that they were part of my satanic past... A woman's place is beneath the man... so says the Word of God, and I am learning to destroy my vain ego that desires to be part of this wicked world"(44).

Other paranoid groups. KKK.

"The klanman's wife (KKK man) is simply a servant under his orders, whose mission in this world is to reproduce the Aryan race and provide him with good service" (90).

Domestic tyranny.

"The husband commanded, she obeyed, and the aggressions were all just, proportionate and provoked by her continuous failings" (75).

(…) always agrees with him…

Italian Fascism.

"Some think that extending the right of suffrage to women will provoke catastrophes, but I deny it. The female vote will exert little influence on the cordiality of the family environment, and this for a very simple reason. Namely: because, tomorrow, a woman's life will not be dominated by that episode. A woman's life will always be dominated by the love of her husband and her children. If she loves her husband, she will vote with him and for his party, and if she does not love him, she has already voted against" (Benito Mussolini, cited in 47).

Folie à famille. Case of supernatural healers.

"The father presented himself as a jovial man, conscious of his authority, who was nevertheless very domineering with his family. The mother appeared to be an introverted and dependent woman who functioned at a delayed level. Although in many respects she disagreed with her husband, she never opposed him" (77).

(…) and endures his aggressions.

Domestic tyranny.

"In accordance with the two variables mentioned above –gender and age-, the risk groups for suffering violence in private contexts are women and children, culturally defined as the sectors with less power. Said research also underlines that the statistical figures are eloquent in pointing to the adult male as the one who most frequently exercises the different forms of abuse (physical, sexual or emotional)" (20).

A peculiar facet of machismo is the tendency toward polygamy. It is not that this is a habitual phenomenon, by any means, but it can be affirmed that it reemerges with sufficient frequency to be considered significant. On the other hand, I have no knowledge of any AP in which polyandry has been practiced.

Without doubt, the variety of polygamy most familiar to us is that in which it is a privilege of the LP. This has already been set out in the section on the hierarchization of sex.

Crisis cults. Overá, Guaraní leader (16th century).

"He had numerous concubines who assisted him in the religious dances and songs" (103).

Other groups encourage or permit polygamy for all of their members.

Anabaptist messianisms. Juan de Leyden (16th century).

"First of all, and on pain of death for critics, he decreed the most thoroughgoing polygamy —May 1534—. The new Israel looked to the patriarchal society of the ancient world, but also attempted to solve the problem of the population disproportion. In that Münster chosen by God, fewer and fewer men remained.All those who had reached marriageable age were compelled to take wives without limit, and all women of marriageable age to accept the first suitor who came forward. Rivalries over accumulating wives and frequent quarrels forced a relative moderation of the law: women were granted the privilege of being able to reject odious suitors."(28).

In Nazi Germany, it was planned to authorize bigamy for members of the SS and for the National Socialist elite. Some, however, got ahead of themselves.

Nazism.

"The notion that German women, being good nationalists, should have as many Aryan children as possible, found wide favor with Mrs. Bormann (who gave 10 to her husband), as shown by the following correspondence from Bormann to his wife: 'You said that M (his lover Maja Berhens) must be a remarkable girl because she was able to convince me about the magnesium substitutes. But, sweetheart, she is not the remarkable one, I am the remarkable man! You know that at first there was nothing between M and me. I only found her attractive because she had eluded me. When I saw her again in October after years I was overjoyed, beside myself with happiness. You cannot imagine how delighted I was. She attracted me immensely. I kissed her without much fuss and lit her up like my ardent joy. I fell madly in love with her! I arranged to meet her several times and took her despite her protests. You know the power of my will, against which evidently M cannot compare. Now she is mine and I —dear companion— am now, or rather, feel doubly and happily married. Oh, my dearest, you cannot imagine how happy I feel with the two of them!'

Mrs. Bormann replied to her husband's letter: 'I love M so much that I simply cannot be angry with you. The children love her very much too. You must make sure that M has a child one year and I the next. Just one thing, sweetheart, you must be very careful with her and educate her completely. Even though she does not go to mass she cannot bear it when you attack Christianity, it makes her very angry... It would be good if at the end of this war, as at the end of the 30 Years' War, a law were passed allowing healthy and worthy men to have two wives...' Bormann added the comment: 'The Führer has the same thoughts'.

'... Experience teaches us that these relationships are often very happy. The husband, freed from minor daily irritations, would have a better temperament...' (117).

The polygamous family approaches in its structure the pyramid model. A vertex in which power accumulates and a base wider than the vertex. Several women each having a portion of a man, as opposed to a man who has several women at once. It is obviously a less egalitarian situation than that of the monogamous couple.

Inferiority of women in the group

The machismo to which the paranoid contagion group tends affects, as we have just seen, the relationship between men and women within the couple and the family. But it also influences the situation of women within the group itself. Let us see.

Differentiation of roles

A clear tendency toward the masculinization of authority can be observed in cult groups, so that a large majority of cult and totalitarian leaders have been men. Positions of responsibility and the making of major decisions relating to the group also tend to be a man's business.

Sokagakkai.

"[...] The primary leadership and chain of command are clearly masculine. It is the male leaders who make decisions at all levels. Female leaders of the same rank have an advisory role and often influence in the decision-making process, but men have the final authority" (51).

Leninism, in accordance with the feminist tradition of the labor movement and Marxism, always advocated equality between the sexes and, certainly, promoted the integration of women into the working world and always confronted those customs that manifestly reflected the marginalization of women. However, regarding the participation of women in positions of responsibility and in decision-making within communist parties… the most absolute machismo. With honorable exceptions, command and decision-making in Leninism have always been a matter for men, as it should be in paranoid contagion groups.

In the folie à famille, daily decision-making is also more frequently a male affair.

Folie à famille.

"There appear to be six typical characteristics of families that develop a folie à famille: [...] The other family members, the induced ones, are often less intelligent, women, and passive, dependent [that is, they do not make decisions], suggestible or histrionic" (40).

The preponderance of the male is also staged in ritual acts.

Sokagakkai.

"When gongyo and daimoku are chanted to the Gohonzon, all members sit on the floor facing the altar where it is located. One person leads the ritual, normally the highest-ranking male leader present" (51).

Naturally, one might think that this situation is merely a reflection of what happens in broader society, but that is not the case. Sectarian groups show a clear bias toward the masculinization of power, regardless of the degree of integration/marginalization of women in the society around them. It is absolutely exceptional for them to differ from the rest of society in the opposite direction.

Women, when they take on any responsibility within the group (which does not always happen), attend to what we might call the more domestic functions (cleaning and tidying the premises, administrative management, the communal care and education of children…).

Sokagakkai.

"The Women's Division prepares and serves the food. Members eat sitting on the floor, and then help clean the room. Some of the members of the Women's Division then clean the community center thoroughly, while others compile member statistics and NSA publications. Others practice a Japanese dance" (51).

Sectarian groups. The Davidians.

"The women were in charge of the kitchen and the teaching of the children. The men focused on the construction work to improve the building of the headquarters..." (24).

Nazism.

"It truly does not constitute any superhuman effort to teach children the alphabet. What is indeed surprising is that those primary school teachers can endure the entire duration of a lifetime, condemned as they are, year after year, to perpetually teach the same rudiments to their pupils. Physically and psychically it is the woman who best adapts to that kind of work. A mother accepts with great naturalness the inevitability of bringing her children into the world, one after another, never tiring and resuming for each one of them her role as educator. The typist performs an essentially mechanical task and starts the same things over again each day. By nature, woman is better endowed than man to teach young children their first letters. So then, why do we not endeavor to make use in such a way of the two million German women whom circumstances compel to celibacy? In that way they could devote themselves to an activity suited to their maternal instinct" (48).

War, especially, is an activity that tends to be reserved for males, and not only because of their greater muscular strength.

Nazism.

"What is stimulated above all is that which allows for increasing the activity of man and woman in their natural duties, that is to say, the combative spirit and fertility" (Buesche, cited in 47).

Warriors.

"Just as in many cultures women had to dress as men in order to become warriors, men who were poor warriors were vilified by being labeled 'women'. The anthropologist of war Maurice Davie recounts that when the Iroquois expelled the Delaware from the nation and forbade them from going to war, the latter, according to the Indian way of thinking, 'became women' and, consequently, had to restrict themselves to performing the tasks appropriate for women. In the Pomo tribe of California, when a man was too weak or sickly to be a warrior, he was turned into a servant and asked to help the women. In Cuba and Greenland the same thing happened, with the added aggravation that the man had to wear women's clothing.

Let us also consider the case of the Fang people of the Congo, in whom an unarmed man was not considered a real man and was told to 'go off and raise children'. When a group of Fang men killed someone in an ambush, they returned to the village shouting 'We are real men, we are real men, we have been to the village and we have killed a man, we are real men, real men'(31).

Nazism.

"A girl who shirks the fulfillment of this lofty duty that is motherhood, legitimate or illegitimate, in one way or another, is as much a deserter to the fatherland as the man who shirks his military service"(10).

Wives and mothers

The masculinization of the paranoid contagion group proceeds, in some cases, with a propensity tocompletely exclude females from it, with the pretension that they confine their activity to thehome and the care of children.

Nazism.

"What is above all encouraged is that which allows for an increase in the activity of man and woman in their natural duties, that is to say, the combative spirit andfecundity" (Buesche,cited in47).

Nazism.

"Girls were not spared from the strict regime of the Hitler Youth. From the tenth to the fourteenth year of life... Their training was similar to that of boys of the same age, including long marches with heavy loads and the usual initiation into Nazi philosophy. In this phase emphasis was placed on their roles as future wives and mothers of as many Aryan children as possible. Even more attention was paid to this point when they turned 14 and became members of the BDM..."(117).

Nazism.

"The education of women must have above all and above everything an absolute purpose: to shape future mothers of families" (49).

It must be remembered that this Hitlerian attitude toward women is nothing but a continuation of that historically adopted by nationalism, of which Nazism is no more than a radical emanation.

Nationalism.

"More recently, Glenda Sluga has traced, through penetrating historical research, the nature of both nations and nationalist ideologies back to their origins in the French Revolution, when in 1793, the 'legislators of the new French Republic defined popular national sovereignty in terms of male citizenship'. In the name of social order, women were returned to the private sphere as wives of patriots and mothers of citizens, just as Rousseau had recommended. Drawing on the work of Joan Landes, Sluga shows how the split between the public and private spheres that emerged from the examination of boundaries initiated by the Enlightenment not only excluded women from the invocation of universal rights made by the Revolution, but also ensured that the nation-State adopted an entirely masculine character" (107).

In small sectarian cults we also encounter those same sexist attitudes that relegate women to the domestic sphere.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"The function of women is to have children"(93).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"In the document Reflections on Childcare Services the TFP confronts socialist and feminist groups that promote the creation of a state-run, egalitarian childcare system.The organization asserts that as long as the number of mothers who must work outside the home continues to multiply, Canadian society must be considered in serious crisis"(17).

Sectarian groups. Children of God.

"WHERE ARE THE OLD-FASHIONED MOTHERS who consider that their calling from God and the ministry of their lives is simply to love a husband, have a family, cook, take care of the home, and raise children? Where are they?It seems that nowadays we don't have many of them.

CATHOLICS HAVE PLACED TREMENDOUS EMPHASIS ON MATERNAL RESPONSIBILITIES. They believe that is what women were created for, to bewives, mothers, homemakers, and to raise their children. That is their duty, their work, their calling, their ministry, their entire life.

THAT IS PROBABLY WHY CATHOLIC FAMILIES ARE HAPPIER and generally healthier.They have more fear of God and they have many children. Furthermore, they do not believe in murdering them with pills or abortions — they believe in having them! Thank God! They believe in caring for them, 'in training them in their way.' (Proverbs 22:6).

HOPEFULLY WE WOULD HAVE MORE MOMS LIKE SOME OF THOSE GOOD CATHOLIC MOMS who truly devote themselves to it and make it the work of their lives. It is not easy. It is probably one of the most difficult jobs there is, that of raising children. It requires the strength of Samson, the wisdom of Solomon, and the patience of Job!" (79).

The role of the activist devoted body and soul to the cause of the group, with their entire being and all their time, is not a valid role for women.

Sokagakkai.

"Men who embrace the Buddhist faith become more virile, and women, more feminine. It is natural for young women to marry and to enjoy their life as a couple [...] I do not want my female disciples to adopt the unnatural attitude of not wanting to marry" (52).

The objective of the seclusion of women, in addition to perpetuating the group, is to free the male for noble paranoid tasks.

Sokagakkai.

"Before the reception had concluded, Toda drew Mineko aside and gave her some advice.

-First of all -he said-, keep careful track of household expenses. If you do not, you will have failed as a wife. Secondalways smile. Your husband will have to deal with a heavy burden at work and in the Soka Gakkai. He must know that his home is safe in the hands of a good and reliable wife" (52).

Nationalism.

"Both Rousseau and Fichte, Michelet and Mazzini placed great emphasis on the different roles that each sex was to play in national education, the supportive and nurturing role of women and the heroic and military role that belonged to men…" (107).

Female immunity

It is clear that the exclusion of women from positions of responsibility and decision-making responds to a complex of machista values and an active attitude on the part of men who conscientiously exclude women from the responsibilities of the paranoid contagion group. But it is also possible that women themselves have a greater difficulty in being infected by paranoid ideals and emotions, which would protect them from greater personal involvement in group dynamics with a paranoid bias.

For example, in the Nation-State, women would historically end up gaining full citizenship and the right to vote, but their emotional identification with the respective nations whose citizenship they were acquiring, with their anthems and their flags, has always been far more tenuous than that of men. They have always been less swept away than men by patriotic fervor and have always been the first to oppose wars declared in the name of the homeland.

Nationalism.

"Nationalist regimes, especially that of Croatia (we have already denounced that of Serbia), seek to fragment and divide women. We began our protest as women against the war in October 1991, and continued immediately afterward, in early 1992, following a meeting of women from the former Yugoslav republics that we held in Italy. Thanks to the solidarity of Women in Black of Venice, we decided to initiate and promote the network of interethnic and intercultural solidarity in the Balkans region. One of the most important elements of this network are the emotional bonds that have been forged among women.

The war has given rise to problems in women's relationships. We have seen that in that situation, women take the side of those who speak in the name of nations and of the collectives they call peoples; they identify with the national cause and many of them declare themselves feminists. We can say seriously, and on the basis of our experience, that identification with nationalism means siding with those who generate war, with war criminals, with militarist leaderships, with those who appropriate our cultural heritage. I refuse to participate in what they call the 'national cause', because it is directed against me and against all women. Their concept of self-determination has nothing to do with my concept of self-determination as a woman" (109).

In the same vein, a study by Reich (94) found a markedly higher frequency of paranoid personality disorder diagnoses in men than in women.

Homophilia

The other side of misogyny is homophilia, the fascination with the exclusively masculine. The homophilia of the paranoid contagion group, in turn, has three main manifestations: (1) the exaltation of virility, (2) the creation of an exclusively masculine universe, and (3) homosexuality.

Fascism.

"Typological description of fascism

[...] Extreme insistence on the masculine principle…" (88).

Fascism.

"Another fundamental characteristic was the extreme insistence on what is now called 'male chauvinism' and the tendency to exaggerate the masculine principle in almost every aspect of activity. All political forces, in the era of fascism, were led by men and composed overwhelmingly of men; and those who spoke, for the benefit of the gallery, about the equality of women, in fact do not appear to have had much interest in them. Only the fascists, however, make a perpetual fetish of the virility of their movement, their program, and their style, which, without doubt, derives from the fascist militarization of politics and from the need for constant struggle" (88).

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"A true cult of virility is practiced" (93).

Beyond the rhetorical level, the exaltation of virility takes concrete form in certain rejections:

Sectarian groups. Community Chapel.

"For example, a Sunday bulletin warned men against unisex hair salons. 'Our church opposes any haircut for men that tends toward fashion, rebellion, or effeminacy! As a pastor I am against this trend of men getting perms at unisex hair salons. Please do not identify yourselves with effeminate, unisex, and homosexual fashions" (36).

Some APs exclude women from the possibility of joining their ranks.

German nationalism.

"Research carried out by German scholar Klaus Theweleit on the men of the Freikorps highlights that one of the greatest attractions of their way of life was that there was no place in it for women. He cites, for example, a Nazi novel in which it is said in an encomiastic tone of a Freikorps commander that he had 'no idea that there was such a thing called a woman"(31).

However, there are powerful forces that act against this exclusionary dynamic, one of them being, obviously, the proselytizing drive: the majority of men would reject joining an exclusively male group. Furthermore, the exclusion of women implies that the group renounces perpetuating itself through reproduction.

In an exclusively male context, behaviors of an erotic nature tend to appear among those who live together and associate regularly.

Sectarian groups. TFP.

"In the deeply misogynistic environment of the TFP, surrounded exclusively by men, a kind of 'couples' formed among people who enjoyed praying together, shopping together, etc. A certain delight could be observed in each other's company and in the practice of supposedly virile games that involved physical contact. Physical contact, despite being strictly forbidden, was frequent" (93).

One fact that seems to emerge from the study of the biographies of sectarian and totalitarian leaders is the high proportion of those who exhibit a strictly homosexual or bisexual inclination.

Maoist Leninism.

"But Mao's sexual activity was not limited to women. The young men who were in his service were usually strong and attractive, and among their duties was that of giving him a massage every night to help him sleep. Mao would often insist that they also massage his groin, a practice I did not learn of until 1960, when one of the bodyguards refused to oblige him. 'This should be done by a woman, not by me,' he told me before leaving. Later, in 1964, I witnessed a similar incident on Mao's train. While one of the bodyguards was preparing him for sleep, Mao grabbed him and began to caress him, trying to take the young man with him into bed"(28).

The accounts and testimonies of former members of sectarian groups point with some frequency to homosexual abuses by LPs. Nor have there been a lack of APs in which no orientation other than homosexual was possible.

German Nationalism.

"The idea of a regeneration of society through associations of young people played a very important role in Germany from before the First World War. These groups aimed to destroy the moral and social principles of the bourgeoisie; they were frequently of homosexual inspiration. The main ones were the Wandervögel and the Freideutsche Jugendbewegung, and their principal theorist Hans Blüher" (23).

Of course, it can be argued that homosexual behaviors appear systematically in all those environments, such as prisons, in which relations with the opposite sex are forbidden. And that the fact that some crisis cults have a homoerotic orientation may simply reflect the high prevalence of the same in open society. And that the existence of exclusively homosexual crisis cults responds to the same dynamic by which some crisis cults are oriented toward a single sector of the population (drug addicts, ethnic minorities…). However, admitting all these qualifications, which are perfectly plausible, one would have to contemplate the possibility that there exists a form of male homosexuality linked to hyper-hierarchization, in which hierarchical relations would be expressed through physical contact. It would be the same type of homosexuality described in militaristic societies such as the Spartan and among the fierce samurai, and which was mandatory in the army of Shaka, the legendary founder of the Zulu nation. No less suggestive may be the study of animal behavior. Among the scarce species of Primates that ventured to abandon the trees, the great majority adopted a model of social organization called multi-male society. In these societies, when a male of lower social standing feels fearful and wants to avoid aggression from a superior, he displays his rump in the manner that females in heat do, a behavior that is followed by mounting on the part of the dominant male. And in our language, anal penetration continues to be alluded to as the equivalent of aggression or humiliation…

Pseudo-egalitarianism

Hyperhierarchization inexorably entails an anti-egalitarian attitude. And quite a few PAs incorporate anti-egalitarianism into their ideology. They are consistent with their own impulses.

Nazism.

"... the parliamentary principle... undermines the fundamental aristocratic principle of nature..."(49).

Now, what happens with those totalitarian movements and sectarian groups that aspire, precisely, to build an egalitarian society? How is the contradiction resolved between egalitarian ideology and the opposing tendency driven by the state of paranoidization? Basically through three means:

By forcing equality/uniformity in certain respects (whereby the group demonstrates to itself and to others its congruence with its principles) while attaching no importance to the evident hierarchical differentiation that occurs in other areas. In Leninist states, for example, an official might receive compensation not too different from that of any other worker, but the differences were enormous with regard to access to other privileges granted in kind, freedom of movement, the exercise of violence, etc.

By justifying certain hierarchical arrangements as a transitional situation, born of necessity, on the obstacle-laden path toward the egalitarian utopia.

In the dynamic that leads to the divinization of the leader, by justifying his unique privileges on account of his character as a special being, deserving of special consideration; the egalitarian ideal does not include the leader.

Sectarian groups. Maranatha Christian Ministries.

"Members dressed alike, carried the same Bible, the same bag, wore the same glasses and got the same haircut –all in the name of 'Body unity'-. All personal objects of sentimental value were catalogued as idolatrous and were thrown away (like Doug and Sandy's wedding rings), sold at a low price or donated to the 'poor'(36).

Sectarian groups. Maranatha Christian Ministries.

"[...] Mrs. Liang [the leader] retained many of her personal belongings and unlike the rest carried a leather-bound Bible, a leather agenda and jewellery. It was thought that she was no longer subject to vanity and pride and consequently those things did not constitute 'idols' in her life" (36).

Dissolution of the family

We already know that paranoid contagion groups tend to favor a type of family unit that reproduces, on a small scale, the authoritarianism of the group itself. The family, as was to be expected, is also affected by the paranoid tendency toward establishing asymmetrical relationships of domination and/or submission. All the more so when the group ideology reinforces this (which is not always the case).

However, a second force acts upon paranoid contagion groups with regard to family units, causing them to become more unstable and more prone to dissolution. This other force acts in a much more intense manner in those groups that do not confine women to the domestic sphere and grant them a more significant role in the functioning of the group.

The extreme authority that the paranoid contagion group exerts over each of its members leaves little room for the members of the family unit to share their time or affections in an autonomous way. And it leaves little room for the couple or the family to transform themselves into an autonomous center of decision-making.

Consequently, families tend to undergo a kind of dilution within the paranoid contagion group, which renders them dysfunctional and, ultimately, incapable of fulfilling their traditional functions. Family life collides with involvement in and submission to the group, and so it ends up becoming, for the devotee, a source of internal conflict. Maoism constitutes a good example of this dynamic.

Blurring of the family through the abduction of its members; the case of Maoist China

Long before their rise to power, the Chinese Communists had already carried out a radical critique of the traditional model of the Chinese family. In that country, girls were a commodity prepared to be sold to the highest bidder. A considerable number of women suffered throughout their entire lives from the pain resulting from the cruel procedures used to obtain and maintain small feet. These served to produce a fragile and unsteady gait, which was deemed to be of high erotic value. After marriage, women's lives were enormously constrained by prescriptions that turned them into a plaything in the hands of their husbands. The Revolution called for changing that order of things and for equating women with men. Furthermore, the Communists associated the traditional patriarchal family with the nepotism and corruption that prevailed in the decrepit imperial China.

But the ideas were far clearer regarding what was to be abolished than regarding what was to replace it.

During the long years of war, the People's Liberation Army was made up of small guerrilla units that moved across the country's geography sleeping in the open air and in a state of incessant movement. But once installed in power, the CCP continued to relocate men and women at will, which made family life enormously difficult.

Maoist Leninism.

"Lillian [the author's wife] was sent to the countryside in one of these early teams, so the campaign had a special impact on me from the very beginning. With Lillian's departure, I had to take care of our two children, with John in primary school and Erchong in nursery. But I could not take care of my two children. I spent almost the entire day with Mao. What if the Chairman decided to go on a trip?"(28).

Especially during the Cultural Revolution, Mao scattered millions of families, often condemning them not to see each other for years, until the opening of the regime that occurred after his death. If they had survived at all.

The demand for time for the revolution produced the same deleterious effect on families as the interposition of space that we have just discussed.

Maoist Leninism.

"It was supposed that officials were required to work from eight in the morning until eleven at night, seven days a week, and there was always one of the two who came home so late that they barely had time to talk"(54).

Or worse still:

Maoist Leninism.

"Most government offices had been set up in large mansions confiscated from Kuomintang officials and the wealthiest landowners. All government employees — including high-ranking officials — lived in their office. They were not allowed to cook at home, and they always ate in the canteen. They also went there to stock up on boiled water, which they carried in thermoses.

Saturday was the only day that married couples could spend in each other's company..."(54).

And the fact is that, more than a mere inadvertent consequence of the Party's excessive absorption of the militant, there existed a genuine attitude of hostility toward family life that was expressed in disparaging terms such as "putting family first," one of the worst sins in the revolutionary ethical code. Doing so could mean being accused and reprimanded in assemblies, or being demoted, which was followed by a loss of privileges that, in an impoverished society lacking basic necessities, ended up affecting… the family itself.

Maoist Leninism.

"She was accused of being too attached to her family, which was condemned as a bourgeois habit and, consequently, she had to resign herself to seeing her mother less and less"(54).

The mere expression of affection could prove suspicious.

Maoist Leninism.

"In the early fiftiesa communist was supposed to devote himself so deeply to the revolution and to the people that any display of affection toward his children was frowned upon, as it indicated the presence of divided loyalties. Every hour not spent eating or sleeping belonged to the revolution, and was to be used for work. Any activity unrelated tothe revolution, such as carrying your children in your arms, was to be dispatched as quickly as possible"(54).

Sectarian groups also provide us with a multitude of examples of this suspicious attitude toward supposedly excessive emotional bonds within the family.

Sectarian groups.Church of Bible Understanding.

"The bond between mothers and children was seen as a great sin. Jean regularly separated mothers of infants from their children, even snatching them from the breast, saying: 'You are attaching your child to yourself and not to the Lord.' Supposedly, attachment to the mother endangered the child's salvation" (36).

The most pernicious fruit of this set of Maoist attitudes was the neglect and abandonment of children by their parents. Officials of the CCP had no choice but to resort to substitute figures. Children were raised by aunts, grandmothers, and peasant women hired by the party, and barely saw their parents. In all fairness, it must be recalled that the abandonment of children had been an almost unavoidable necessity during the years of war. Communist guerrilla women would abandon them in the hands of peasant families, since their way of life made it completely impossible for them to care for the children. Mao himself had to give up a son whom he was never able to recover. This practice disappeared after the civil war, but the imposition of an attitude of indifference toward children did not, and they continued to be seen, rather, as a nuisance to the performance of noble revolutionary tasks.

The Party and the Revolution always had to take precedence over family feelings, and in the event of conflict, there was no doubt as to who held priority.

Maoist Leninism.

"In late 1966, my teenage siblings and I had decided that we were fed up with being Red Guards. The children of condemned families were expected to 'draw a line' between themselves and their parents, and many of them did. One of President Liu Shaoqi's daughters devoted herself to writing wall posters 'unmasking' her father. I met children who changed their surnames to prove they repudiated their parents, others who refused to visit their detained parents, and some who even agreed to take part in denunciation assemblies against them" (54).

Blurring of boundaries through the intrusion of the paranoid contagion group

The high cohesion existing among the members of the paranoid contagion group also tends to blur the boundaries between the family unit and its cult environment. This occurs when couples or families lack spaces of their own…

Cult groups. Shilo.

"The members ate together in the enormous dining room and there were no quiet family dinners. Later, one of the buildings, Olivet, became the children's dormitory" (36).

(..) or when a promiscuity is imposed that comes into contradiction with the possessive feelings consubstantial to our species.

Sectarian groups. Community Chapel.

"The 'connections' and the 'intimate dance' almost caused Robin a mental breakdown. Instituted between 1983 and 1985, 'dancing before the Lord' evolved into a teaching with specific rules that encouraged members to find a 'connection' or dance partner. Soon after, couples were taught to look each other in the eyes, which would be called 'connecting'. Couples were taught that they had to see Jesus in each other's eyes, and that they had to love their spiritual connection in order to love Jesus. During the week, inside the church and outside of it, members were directed to spend time with their spiritual connections in a sort of 'almost-dating' relationship. As might naturally be expected, physical intimacy often accompanied these spiritual 'connections'. 'Connection-love' was supposedly more intense, and even more desirable, than marital love.

Robin graphically describes what it was like in the church during the intimate dance sessions. 'Imagine your typical forty-year-old woman who is no longer in her best shape and has six children. There she is watching her husband dance with a perfect little twenty-year-old beauty —with long blonde hair, a good bust and a small waist— in his arms, gazing at her for hours. And at the same time the wife is losing her mind'. Wives were taught that they had to 'release their husbands to the Lord' when they experienced feelings of jealousy. At the same time, Pastor Barnett made it clear from the pulpit that they should not view the connections 'carnally'. What they did physically —embracing, holding each other, caressing, kissing— did not have to be seen through the eyes of the 'flesh'. 'What is happening is that they are in a spiritual union', said the pastor. 'It looks the same from the outside, but what is really happening is spiritual, so do not judge their motives'.

God, it was said, used the connections to break down barriers and inhibitions in the congregation in order to bring about greater 'unity in the body'. 'We are going to fall in love with each other', was the message. Although this inevitably led to marital friction, members were taught that intimate spiritual experiences with members of the opposite sex, other than their spouse, could help overcome demons and envy and open the person to a deeper experience of Christ's love. In fact, participants were taught to diversify. 'Do not commit to just one person'. It was not unusual for members, including the pastor and his wife, to connect with more than one person at the same time.

Those considered most spiritual were invited to dance at the front of the church with Barnett…" (36).

In this small cult group, men too had reasons to feel jealous.

Cult groups. Community Chapel.

"Robin also recounts that the experience was so intense that she and other women experienced orgasms without any physical contact with their connections" (36).

(It is worth clarifying that this peculiar sexuality occurs within an anomalous context of mystical-religious exaltation).

It is very common in paranoid contagion groups for there to be interference in the raising of children, attempting to reduce the role of parents to a bare minimum, and trying to instill the idea that their true family, the most important one, is the group itself.

Nazism.

"Despite an ideology of conservative inspiration that praised family virtues and wanted the mother to be devoted to the home, National Socialism, on the other hand, attempted to separate children from the family as early as possible in order to entrust them to the direction of the state. Youth groups, led by Baldur von Schirach, which replaced all other associations, including scouting, educated the child, from the age of eight, within the spirit of National Socialism [...]" (23).

In the following example, we see how it is the group that assumes a function which in the most classic patriarchal family belongs exclusively to the pater familias: the punishment of the family member who misbehaves.

Other paranoid groups. KKK.

"The woman who deviates in her behavior —says the organization's manual— must be subjected to 'the gauntlet.' This practice consists of making the naked woman pass through a corridor formed by Klan women who beat the sinner with frying pans and rolling pins..." (90).

In summary, paranoid activation triggers two divergent tendencies. On one hand, exclusive submission to the male; the woman is transformed into his servant, into the mother of his children and into the rearguard that makes the man's complete involvement in the PCG possible. On the other hand, when what predominates is general submission to the group, we witness a blurring of the boundaries between the couple or the family, on one hand, and the sectarian-totalitarian environment, on the other, with the consequent ineffectiveness of the family and the tendency toward its dissolution.

Suppression of the family

The most extreme variant of the family dissolution dynamic is the one that compels its eradication, prohibiting the formation of new family units and even dissolving those already in existence. Some PAs, such as Otto Muehl's commune, preach the ideology of the end of the family because they consider it an obsolete institution (bourgeois!). Others because, the end of the world being imminent, it is unnecessary; perpetuating oneself no longer makes sense.

Sectarian groups. A Pentecostalist indigenous community in the Yucatán.

"[...] The Holy Spirit, they maintained, used the bodies of the brethren during episodes of speaking in tongues to communicate its instructions [...] ...the dissolution of the family" (41).

For those AP whose ideology rejects the family institution but does not advocate the renunciation of reproduction, the alternative to the defunct family tends to be promiscuity (free or directed by the leader, always among the group's members) and the shared raising of children (by the group's members). These are two recurring ideas, from very ancient times, in the universe of messianic groups. Some reformers drew up similar plans for society as a whole.

Reformers. Case Eduardo V.

"But the abolition of marriage seemed to him a principle emanating from morality, inevitable moreover in a society in which individual property had been abolished. The communal raising of children would allow…" (26).