"Imagine attending on a whim a life improvement seminar promising personal transformation. You decide to embrace its central teaching that you are 100% responsible for everything in your life, hoping for genuine change. You alone are responsible for the turns your life takes. Initially, the message may feel empowering for some individuals. No more playing the victim. No more blaming others. You alone decide what happens to you."
"Many cults teach that "there are no victims", that you choose suffering. Such a doctrine serves abusers by making victims blame themselves for abuse, rape, or exploitation. The teaching, often presented as "empowerment", actually creates self-blame and shame. You're devastated, and not just by the assault but by the crushing belief that you somehow attracted the attack. Your coach tells you that people often decide to take risks, such as going out at night, to teach themselves to set firm boundaries."
Many groups teach radical responsibility, asserting that individuals choose or attract their suffering. That doctrine reframes abuse, rape, and exploitation as self-inflicted, prompting victims to blame themselves. The teaching is often marketed as empowerment while producing shame and confusion. In seminars that promote total personal responsibility, survivors can be questioned about why they "decided" to have traumatic experiences, shifting accountability away from perpetrators. Variations include claims that karma, past-life choices, or unconscious attraction determine current harm. The doctrine enables abusers, undermines boundaries and consent, and operates as a destructive form of psychological manipulation in high-control groups.
Read at Psychology Today
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