Reading Along with Prudence, Part 1: Hassan's Combating Cult Mind Control

Like many serious Strike readers, I read the preview of The Running Grave last August. During Strike and Robin's first visit to Prudence, she gives them a copy of Steven Hassan's Combating Cult Mind Control (CCMC), urging them both to read it before Robin undertakes her mission. Interestingly, though we see Strike spending a couple of nights reading the book right after Prudence gives it to them, we never see Robin, the psychology student with an interest in mind control, reading the book, reacting to it, or recalling elements of it once she is undercover in Chapman Farm. Given how many techniques that Hassan describes that the UHC uses, it is odd that Robin never specifically recalls or recognizes any. It was clear from the earliest descriptions in the preview that JKR/RG drew heavily from Hassan's BITE model when designing the fictional cult. I listened to the audiobook of CCMC last September as a way of filling up some time between the preview and the actual book publication.  

Hassan's book both expands one's enjoyment of The Running Grave and teaches a lot about modern day abusive cults and what separates them from legitimate religious, political and business organizations. Dr. Hassan recently commented on TRG on his own Twitter read. This reminded me that I wanted to do a chapter-by-chapter review of CCMC, with a specific look at how parts of the The Running Grave were informed by this volume. In particular, multiple aspects of the fictional Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC) appear to be inspired by Hassan's recruitment into and rapid rise in leadership in Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, or, as they called themselves in Hassan's day, the Moonies. 

Strike and Robin likely read the 2015 edition, although it is possible that Prudence gave them an earlier edition. I listened to the audiobook of the most recent edition, published in 2018 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre. Readers can also access the original 1990 edition here. 

So, without further ado, let's start the read-along with Prudence. 

Disclaimer:  A reminder to readers that I hold a doctorate in psychology, and taught at the university level for 23 years. I am also a licensed behavior analyst, and therefore have professional expertise in the science of behavior change. Unlike Prudence and Dr. Hassan, I am not a licensed clinical psychologist or counselor. 

The 2018 edition of CCMC has a three-part introduction. It opens with a introduction to the most recent edition, with Dr. Hassan reflecting on a successful intervention he had conducted in the spring of that year, and subsequent conversations in the airports with people who had not heard of many of the most famous cults of the 1970's and 80's, including the People's Temple of Jonestown and the Unification Church. He reviews multiple characteistics of cults that turn up in the UHC: recruiting people through decption, isolating them in a remote location, changing names and clothes, restricting access to food and information, instilling irrational fear of outsiders, and making false promises. Interestingly, Hassan brings up something in the beginning that TRG readers will only learn about in the end: the cultic nature of perpetrators of human trafficking. The final secret revealed about Chapman ("Peddler") Farm is that they are in the business of "peddling" human beings in the form of their baby-selling racket. The success of wealthy organizations such as Scientology in silencing their critics through lawsuits and harassment of journalists is also addressed. 

The foreword to the 2018 edition also includes an explanation of why Hassan more regularly uses the term "undue influence" to describe the process of "controlling people by hijacking their rational thought process."  Previous editions used the term "mind control" to refer to this type of exploitation instead. Interestingly, the term "undue influence" appears only once in TRG, as part of one of Will's letters to his family, undoubtedly prepared with the help of UHC leadership:

The Church has arranged for me to be assessed by a doctor who will testify that I have full capacity and that you are the ones trying to exert undue influence on me.  

Hassan defines and describes the process he uses to help people free themselves from undue influence. He uses the term "strategic interactive approach, " which Hassan believes is a better descriptor that terms like "intervention," "exit counseling" or forceful "deprogramming." He describes it as a process that "helps people detect and remove the virus of mind control on their own." As we learn more about this approach in later chapters, we will look at the ways it resembles, and does not resemble the process Prudence, Robin and Flora Brewster conducted with Will. It is interesting, however, that Hassan describes his work as "helping people reclaim their integrity and free will" by equipping them to "remove the invisible chains of mind control." I don't think it is coincidence that "Will" was chosen for the name of the young man our detectives set out to free from the UHC. 

The second foreword to the book is the one published in the original edition in 1988 and is written by the late Dr. Margaret Singer, a Berkeley professor who provided counseling to ex-cult members, including many ex-followers of Jim Jones. She praises the book for its descriptions of how mind control is induced and the way it takes readers "from the first telephone contacts with desperate families to the final outcome of his interventions. This is not unlike the structure of TRG itself, with its prologue of the desperate letters of Sir Colin and Lady Sally to Will, and the epilogue reuniting the family by the riverbank at the Edensor home. 

The final introduction is Dr. Hassan's preface to the original paperback. It is primarily advice to cult members and their families as to how to approach the book to get maximum benefit in recognizing and escaping a cult situation. He cautions potential cult members not to let others in the grup know they are reading the book, and to, if possible, get away from the group for a few weeks to read the book and conduct independent research. After seeing what Robin endured at Chapman Farm, the wisdom of that advice is pretty obvious. 

Notably, Hassan says "Truth is stronger than lies, and love is stronger than fear" while reminding readers that, "no spiritual organization would ever use deception or mind control or take away your freedom." This recalls Robin's words to Emily in Norwich: "It's not all opinions or memories. There is truth." Hassan also gives advice to family members that the Edensors should definitely have heeded: "Avoid overreacting and getting hysterical...Be careful. Instead of sounding the alarm, adopt a curious but concerned posture. Try to avoid confrontations and ultimatums."

My next post will begin the journey through the book proper, but I think it is clear, even from the prefaces, that TRG owes a lot to CCMC.  

As always, comments and reactions are welcome.