'I'm now far healthier and better able to manage the challenges of life': the mediating role of new religious movement membership and exit

Title: 'I'm now far healthier and better able to manage the challenges of life': the mediating role of new religious movement membership and exit
Creator: Coates, Dominiek D.
Relation: Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health Vol. 14, Issue 3, p. 181-208
Publisher Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2012.697372
Publisher: Routledge
Resource Type: journal article
Date: 2012
Description: Challenging contemporary discourses of emotional damage from involvement in a new religious movement, or cult, the current study suggests that for many of the participants the experience of membership and exit helped to ameliorate previous vulnerabilities. The analysis of in-depth life history interviews of 23 former members from 11 different groups identified membership as an overall positive experience that has helped to resolve previous difficulties in negotiating the demands of mainstream society, in particular pertaining to managing tensions between community and belonging and individuality and autonomy. While some negative consequences were reported these appeared temporary in nature and are understood as pertaining to the loss of an important social group rather than long-lasting pathology associated with “having been brainwashed.”
Subject: cult; new religious movements; mental health; community; individuality
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1334139
Identifier: uon:27234
Identifier: ISSN:1934-9637
Language: eng
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