Engineering Belief: Dana Logan on Cults, Wellness, and Abuse

Professor Dana Logan ‘07 spoke on Wednesday, November 20, about the complexities of defining and studying cults in her talk, “It Was Never About the Snakes: Synanon, Cult, and the Devil in Religious Studies.” Logan, a Reed graduate in religious studies, currently teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. 

The lecture centered around the status of cults within the discipline of religious studies. Religious studies typically eschews the term “cult” to designate certain groups because of its potential to alienate and dehumanize people. Instead, Logan explained how academics use the term “new religious movement” to describe what would typically be thought of as cults. One result of the deemphasis on cults can be that it denies the lived experiences of people who survived abuse from what they would deem as a cult.

Logan focused on the example of Synanon to explore her theory of cults, citing it as an instance where the designation of cult can be productive in describing the formation of a specific belief system based in both religion and pseudoscience which was implicitly supported by the government. Synanon began as a drug rehabilitation organization in the 1950s, founded by Chuck Dederich to apply the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous to other types of drug addiction. Throughout the course of its existence, Synanon adopted various religious and therapeutic aspects as coercive tools to ensure group conformity. 

One striking aspect of Synanon was its use of “The Game,” a form of attack therapy where a group would harshly criticize an individual as a rehabilitation tactic. The Game exemplified one of Synanon’s core principles of individual submission to the collective. During the mid-1960s, Synanon expanded the Game to non-addicts and people outside of the organization, where it was used in the workplace and as a social tool, generating revenue for Synanon in the process. 

Synanon underwent an evolution in the 1970s from a treatment center into a more actively religious organization. Logan detailed some of the most sensational aspects of Synanon as it developed in this overtly religious phase, such as requirements for members to shave their heads, have abortions, and swap marriage partners, but cautioned against putting too much weight on these practices. Logan established that the assessment of a cult should not be based entirely on non-normative sexual practices, as this can become problematic when these practices themselves are construed as abusive.

The conversation around Synanon went hand in hand with brainwashing in the cultural consciousness. During the Cold War, the concept of brainwashing emerged as a propaganda tool associated with the Soviet Union and communist indoctrination. Accusations of brainwashing were also leveled at non-standard religious groups like Hare Krishna, where they gained a racial dimension, reflecting fears of white people being thought to be indoctrinated into “foreign” and nonwhite religions. Adherents of Synanon adopted these accusations of brainwashing as a positive self-description, reinterpreting brainwashing as a kind of spiritual cleansing process.

Synanon also engaged in what Logan termed “religious spatial containment” as a form of resocialization. Being a lifelong resident of a Synanon center was seen as necessary to fully benefit from their teachings, creating an environment where people were virtually trapped in the group. Synanon had a history of support from the government, as Synanon centers became a place to send people for rehabilitation and even incarceration.

Although Synanon itself has disbanded, its practices and philosophies still exist today throughout the various social welfare and rehabilitation organizations it influenced. During its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Synanon was widely embraced by the government and the general culture as a successful form of rehabilitation, leading other treatment centers to adopt similar models based on the idea of containment. These legacies prompt greater consideration of the role of these institutions in defining psychological wellness and treatment in the United States.

Logan concluded her talk by reminding her audience of the hotly contested history of the term “cult,” and the specific reasons why she believes the word can be useful in describing cases like Synanon where specific pseudoscientific and religious practices are used for mental health treatment under the auspices of government institutions. As Logan stated, Synanon is noteworthy within religious and cult studies in that it “pioneered social experimentation as a form of religion,” where “belief itself could be engineered.”