#cult-exit-strategies

#cult-exit-strategies

Deborah Green, a frail 71-year-old woman, was the self-described general of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, a cult that operated for decades.

These films that I'm making, says Dretzin, that other documentarians are making, are often more effective than the legal system at affecting change; psychological change and also sometimes systemic and criminal change.

People talk about Jeffrey Epstein as though he's special or as though he's mysterious in some way. That takes away from the truth of it, which is that there are lots of people like him.

'You have documented projects called MK-Ultra and other variations of mind control that focused on creating splits and multiple personalities, couriers, spies and Manchurian candidates capable of assassinating world leaders,' said Ross, who specializes in trauma-related disorders and has spent decades studying dissociation and memory.

Seyfried's performance as Ann Lee lets the viewer in on the production of faith-particularly, an overt faith. Bearing witness to such performance leads to basic questions about people and the way that we live.

Real change rarely happens through debate or persuasion. Instead, transformation grows out of relationships, shared struggle, cognitive dissonance, and practice. Together, Kelly and Lewis explore what organizers can learn from the science of neuroplasticity, the role of rupture and confrontation, and why movements need to focus less on 'changing minds' and more on creating conditions where people can unlearn harmful beliefs and step into collective action.

Depression is insidious. For people suffering from depression, joy is elusive. Depression is not only a general feeling of sadness or being down and out. It is a serious condition and needs attention. People suffering from depression cannot just get over it and move on. They need support, healing, and to discover the epicenter of their pain.

The idea is simple: make yourself as uninteresting as a grey rock. No emotional reaction, no personal information shared, no visible changes in your demeanor. It's an intentional reduction of emotion. You respond briefly, neutrally, and without giving the other person something to hook onto. It's not about being cold; it's about being boring enough to be safe.

been ignored, neglected, minimized, or dismissed by mainstream psychology but can no longer be denied or avoided without serious consequences. As C.G. Jung (1961) presciently put it, "Today we need psychology for reasons that involve our very existence. . . . We stand face to face with the terrible question of evil and do not even know what is before us let alone what to pit against it."

Words such as 'relationship,' 'affair,' 'involvement,' or 'seeing each other' imply mutuality and consent. In the context of child sexual abuse, these implications are false. A child cannot legally or developmentally consent to sexual activity with an adult. Describing abuse using relational language risks distorting the inherent power imbalance and shifting perceived responsibility away from the adult perpetrator.

What concerned me most was the lack of acknowledgment of how this trend overlaps with the rise in coercive control. One of the first warning signs of an abusive partner is encouraging someone to isolate from family and friends. How confusing must it be for people to see that behaviour supported in online messaging. Isolation is a major red flag for domestic abuse, and we should be helping young people to recognise that.

Tomás had lived in the city for about 20 years, but he grew up in Venezuela, where family life could be intense, political opinions were spoken openly, and knowing when to speak and when to stay quiet was often a matter of survival rather than preference. Daniela grew up in a very different family. Her parents talked constantly-about politics, values, and what they believed was happening in the world.

For decades, addiction treatment in the United States has relied on a familiar explanation when people relapse: recovery is hard, addiction is chronic and setbacks are part of the process. That narrative is often delivered with compassion, but it can obscure a more troubling reality. Many treatment failures are not personal shortcomings. They are predictable outcomes of how recovery is currently designed.

We've all been there: Someone asks if you're okay, and even though your world feels like it's crumbling, you manage a weak smile and say, "I'm just tired." It rolls off the tongue so easily, doesn't it? Like a reflex we've perfected over years of practice. I used to be the queen of this response. During my worst anxiety spirals in my twenties, when deadlines loomed and my chest felt tight,