Troubled teens need to be wary of cults that prey on their insecurity; but parent advocates like Sue Scheff™ provide important anti-cult education.
Education is best defense against teen cults
A cult is an organized group that bases its existence on a specific goal or belief system that if follows with an obsessive, unhealthy compulsion. Cults are cohesive, tightly knit groups that reject the outside world and its belief systems in favor of their own specific vision of certain beliefs. Sue Scheff’s experience with troubled teens reveals that this is the exact type of group that can easily prey on teen alienation and confusion.
Cults appear similar to mainstream political or religious organizations, which makes them so good at recruiting troubled teens in their ranks. Cults differ from other normal groups in their fanatical commitment to a specific idea and their need to isolate members from the outside world
Cults remove the individuality of their members in favor of strict leadership from a charismatic cult leader who demands total control of members’ lives. Cults begin as a way escape the mainstream world, a world that is confusing to troubled teens, and they offer teenagers an answer to their confused and conflicted emotional state. Struggling teenagers only see a group of people that watch over each other and appear happy, and it seems positive, but once they take the first step cult brainwashing can begin.
The idea of brainwashing is essential to proper cult function. Once a cult entices a teen to enter its doors the subtle brainwashing techniques begin. Cults systematically break down the member’s individuality and shape them into a new person that is wholly devoted to the cult. Sue Shceff’s troubled teen experiences reveals teen susceptibility to this brainwashing because they have so many unresolved and confused emotions that the cult can pretty upon.
Cult success is based on skillful deception. Cult’s will usually not identify their true nature or aim, or tell teens how much effort and time will be spent if they join. Cult leaders use psychological tactics to weaken their followers and alienate them from other support groups like family, friends, or school, so the follower only has the cult to rely on. Cult leaders also restrict information, such as censorship of television or newspapers, in an effort to further isolate members and ensnare them further into their rhetoric.
By breaking down teenage identity and isolating these troubled adolescents from the outside world, cults can discreetly undermine individuality and take over a teen’s life before either the parent or the teen understands what’s actually happening.