Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults

Heaven's Gate, a secretive group of celibate 'monks' awaiting pickup by a UFO, captured intense public attention in 1997 when its members committed collective suicide. As a way of understanding such perplexing events, many have seen those who join cults as needy, lost souls, unable to think for themselves. This book, a compelling look at the cult phenomenon written for a wide audience, dispels such simple formulations by explaining how normal, intelligent people can give up years of their lives - and sometimes their very lives - to groups and beliefs that appear bizarre and irrational.

Looking closely at Heaven's Gate and at the Democratic Workers Party, a radical political group of the 1970s and 1980s, Janja Lalich gives us a rare insider's look at these two cults and advances a new theoretical framework that will reshape our understanding of those who join such groups. Lalich's fascinating discussion includes her in-depth interviews with cult devotees as well as reflections gained from her own experience as a high-ranking member of the Democratic Workers Party. Incorporating classical sociological concepts such as 'charisma' and 'commitment' with more recent work on the social psychology of influence and control, she develops a new approach for understanding how charismatic cult leaders are able to dominate their devotees. She shows how members are led into a state of 'bounded choice', in which they make seemingly irrational decisions within a context that makes perfect sense to them and is, in fact, consistent with their highest aspirations. In addition to illuminating the cult phenomenon in the United States and around the world, this important book also addresses our pressing need to know more about the mentality of those true believers who take extreme or violent measures in the name of a cause.

Only 25 signed editions available.

Reviews

“Bounded Choice makes an important contribution to our understanding of extreme commitments in general and should be read by all scholars of new religious movements in particular.”

― American Journal of Sociology

“Fascinating. . . . Lalich combines inside knowledge of the everyday life of cult members with a scholarly capacity to clearly illuminate the intricate social processes involved in cult formation. Lalich is perhaps our best available interpreter and theoretician of the cult phenomenon.”

― Skeptical Inquirer

“Fascinating”

― Qualitative Sociology

“Her writing offers an emotionally honest and compelling insider’s perspective of this political cult. . . . Highly recommended.”

― CHOICE

“Provides a needed and important bridge between autobiographical accounts written by former cult members and research-oriented analyses of cultic groups written by scholars. . . . A compelling and informative reading, highly recommended for scholars and interested readers of all kinds.”

― Cultic Studies Review

Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships

3rd Edition

Updated and revised, including a new section on the Troubled Teen Industry

Cult victims and those who have experienced abusive relationships often suffer from fear, confusion, low self-esteem, and post-traumatic stress. Take Back Your Life explains the seductive draw that leads people into such situations, provides insightful information for assessing what happened, and hands-on tools for getting back on track.

Only 25 signed editions available.

Reviews

"Take Back Your Life is a must-read for everyone who wants to understand the powerful appeal that cults have for so many ordinary people, using so many disguises, with so many subtle tactics. This book's wisdom is vital for us all."

– Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Stanford University

"Take Back Your Life is a book I have continuously and highly recommended to my clients since it was first published. As a therapist who has worked for over thirty years with those who have endured manipulation, coercion and emotional abuse, this book is a wealth of information and highlights specific scenarios that are both incredibly powerful and profoundly relatable to this population. Dr. Janja Lalich is a gifted writer who writes with wisdom, experience and compassion."

– Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSEd, Host of IndoctriNation Podcast

"For many years there has been no book I have recommended more to the many cult survivors I have spoken with than the original version of Take Back Your Life. I am thrilled that Dr. Lalich has given us a newly updated version of this brilliant, indispensable volume. Until now there has been no single book more comprehensive, more insightful and more helpful for those recovering from cult trauma than this-and now it is even better than before. Given the dramatic rise in cults and cult-like groups I've seen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this new edition could not be more needed, more timely and more welcome."

– Daniel Shaw, Psychoanalyst and Author of Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation

"This book has been the most important resource in my healing journey. It puts language to how abuses of power can corrupt any group and how to recover once you are able to extract yourself. It's the first thing I recommend to fellow cult or abuse survivors."

– Sarah Edmondson, Author of Scarred: The Cult That Bound My Life, Podcaster, A Little Bit Culty

Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over

We think of cults as bizarre, inexplicable, or otherworldly places that only strange people inhabit, but cults and other abusive and high-demand groups (and relationships) are actually quite commonplace. In fact, the behaviors, social pressures, and authoritarian structures that create cults exist to a greater or lesser extent in every human relationship and every human group.

In the first in-depth research of its kind, the author interviewed 65 people who were born in or grew up in 39 different cultic groups spanning more than a dozen countries. What’s especially interesting about these individuals is that they each left the cult on their own, without outside help or internal support. In Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over, the authors craft Lalich’s original and groundbreaking research into an accessible and engaging book, the first of its kind focusing on this particular population.

Reviews

"ESCAPING UTOPIA is a must read book for everyone concerned about the real nature of human nature. Authors Lalich and McLaren do a brilliant job in revealing the various psycho-social mechanisms by which cults attract, deceive and bind recruits into their "families," at great personal costs-- and how to help them exit."

– Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

"This is a unique and valuable book.The authors have taken a much-neglected subject: the fate of children growing up in cults who leave knowing little or nothing of the world outside their cult’s boundaries. The book is largely based on interviews with 65 of these former cult members from a wide variety of different types of cults. But the material is thematically unified by the authors’ profound theoretical understanding of cult dynamics gained through many decades of studying cults from both inside and out. This accessible and nuanced account of a controversial subject will be the standard reference on its subject for many years to come."

– Benjamin Zablocki, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University

"By using contemporary scholarship to elucidate the abuse, then the resiliency, of young adults who left abusive cults, this study accomplishes the unusual task of creating an immensely accessible book for the general public, current and former members, and academics. Nothing else like it exists."

– Stephen A. Kent, Sociology Professor and Adjunct Professor in the Interdisciplinary Program in Religious Studies, University of Alberta.

"Lalich and McLaren, both of whom are former cult members, have written the definitive work on the hidden world of those children and teenagers who grew up in cults, managed to get out, and start their lives over. With sympathy and understanding, Lalich and McLaren recount the struggles of 65 different individuals and their grief, pain, and suffering. It is a beautifully written story about the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. A well-developed theory of how cults operate and affect their members is presented to help us understand and guard against friends and family members being drawn into their orbit and how to help them, if they are."

- Scott G. McNall, author of The Problem of Social Inequality and the forthcoming Cultures of Defiance and Resistance University of Montana

"This extremely well-written and necessary book is, however, a good start, and will give hope – and practical advice - to those who are on their own journey to freedom. And once again, I salute the many heroic former cult members who got out and started over, both in these pages and out there in the world."

– Lynn Picknett, Magonia Review