Warping Reality: Inside the Psychology of Cults

De: Wind Goodfriend, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Wind Goodfriend

Many of us have a deeply personal drive to seek inner fulfillment. We want to grow as individuals, explore our own potential, and make an important and lasting contribution to the world. It’s easy to run into groups that promise to help us along the way, and some of these groups are sincere. When a group, or even a charismatic individual, promises to help us meet our goals but then corrupts our good intentions for their own gain—when they exploit people in an organized fashion—that’s when you may have become a member of a cult. And it can happen much more easily than you might think.

In the 12 fascinating lectures of Warping Reality: Inside the Psychology of Cults, you will learn about some of the most widely known cults of modern times. But unlike any standard news reporting or documentary about the Peoples Temple, The Manson “Family,” The Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, Children of God, the Unification Church, and NXIVM, your expert, Dr. Wind Goodfriend, will help you explore the psychology of these cults. How could these cult leaders have committed such heinous crimes under the guise of “helping” members in their development?

In this course, you will not only learn about cults, but you will also meet two former cult members who are willing to share their stories. They explain what led them to join these groups, what they had hoped to get from the groups versus the reality, and why they each stayed for over a decade before walking away.

It is not the cult members who were interested in cult membership to abuse and betray others, but it is the cult leader who has lied to, manipulated, and used their members in fraudulent and violent ways. Learning about cults and the psychology of their leaders is the best way to limit their control over our communities, loved ones, and ourselves.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 The Great Courses (P)2024 The Teaching Company, LLC

cults through he eyes of a feminist

I find it odd that on the one hand she claims that the scale created makes it hard to identify cults but whenever I apply the scale it actually makes it shockingly easy. Instead rather than backing up her arguments she  simply states it is a fact. In the psychology of cult leaders she focuses solely on men. Which is odd since both one of her guest speakers and a number of cults I could go over had female leaders. She also leaves out black leaders and yes America has had a few. She's clearly using the intersectional lens to make sure that her presentation remains palatable to those who preach intersectionality. The light triad is somewhat interesting because it's simply describes the harm reduction of morality of evolutionary psychology. Chapter 9 not only has a graphic warning annoying on its own but then proceeds to point out how all the literature demonizes men while saying yes this is normal and good. Funny how something that's talking about cult psychology is giving into thoughtless group think. Not only does she downplay the sufering of men but goes on to site the now infamous 1 in 3 women statistic. Patriarchy does come up in this chapter and the author tries to excuse this lie into by claiming that she's just going based on the cults and the literature. The problem with this excuse is that she chose which cults and literature would be followed. While she does acknowledge men can be abused she spends most of this apology focusing on non-binary and the lgbtq alliance. The misandry against men is further excuse by pointing to abused women and saying respect their lived experiences. She also supports the changes that affirmative care would require for the language. The end of the book is basically a support manual for women and talks about at length the strength women have shown in the face of PTSD.

The author does several other interesting things throughout this book. She tries to use a form of gnosticism to get her ideas of interpersonal dysfunction between couples and graft that on to cult psychology. As above so below as below so above. 

The end of this book is actually quite funny unintentionally. When she talks about how cults create a conspiracy theory about how psychologists and doctors are in fact evil and must be resisted while simultaneously touching on multiple times patriarchy theory over the book.