Them and Us: Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat

In this expansion of his 1990 book The Wrong Way Home, UCSF psychiatry professor Deikman persuasively links cult thinking to patterns of behavior and thought found in everyday life-and, with no qualitative differences, to the terrorist groups that threaten that life. He argues that bizarre cults such as those of Jonestown and Waco are not utterly alien, but are extreme forms of behavior and thinking so common that ""almost all of us might be seen as members of invisible cults."" The core of cult thinking, says Deikman, is the dependency dream, the universal wish to be protected by a strong, wise parent ruling over a close family-epitomized by a Peanuts cartoon as the ""wish to ride in the back seat of the car."" This fantasy is dangerous because it is unrealistic and entails hostility toward outsiders, characterized as ""Them."" In a chilling case study of two cult members, Deikman explores four basic cultish behaviors: compliance with the group; dependence on a leader; devaluing the outsider; and avoiding dissent. But he spends more time showing how these behaviors operate in established religion, business, government, media, and other ""normal"" venues. He makes suggestions for escaping cult thinking (such as fostering dissent) and applies his research to the seeming thinking behind al Qaeda-like movements.. The book has flaws, including weak updating (many references are no fresher than the 1980s) and a set of political touchstones that may alienate some readers. But his central point is well taken: that cult thinking is both pervasive and worth resisting. (Nov. 15)