The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
michellegm15's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
As a counselor in training, a former cult member and a survivor of an abusive relationship, I read this book hoping it could give me some direction on how I can work on this field someday once I'm a licensed mental health professional. I'd like to educate others about the mind control techniques that roped me in and work with cult survivors as they recover their autonomy. (for me, that process took years) This definitely delivered. I feel that I have a much better formal, foundational understanding of these techniques than simply the patterns I've seen in my own experience and that of others. This was a great read that I could not put down, full of narrative examples. The author also gives several useful resources that I plan to avail myself of, which I hope will help me to become equipped to work in this area eventually.Â
This was also a very validating book for me. I've become more and more convinced that the group I was involved in is a destructive cult as I read this. Not a totalistic one, and not as destructive on the outskirts, but the deeper into it you get the worse it seems to get. I'm grateful that I'm out. I hope to gain the courage to speak out against the group more publicly someday, as this book did inspire me to try at some point, but they've sued and shut down mere bloggers so we shall see. The most important thing is that people learn about how this sort of mind control manipulation works so they can protect themselves against it in whatever form presents itself. It blows my mind that we educate our kids about safe driving, sex (hopefully), and drug use and never think to teach them about defending themselves against manipulation. I definitely recommend this book for pretty much everyone, because NONE of us are immune to these techniques, as I've learned personally.Â
This was also a very validating book for me. I've become more and more convinced that the group I was involved in is a destructive cult as I read this. Not a totalistic one, and not as destructive on the outskirts, but the deeper into it you get the worse it seems to get. I'm grateful that I'm out. I hope to gain the courage to speak out against the group more publicly someday, as this book did inspire me to try at some point, but they've sued and shut down mere bloggers so we shall see. The most important thing is that people learn about how this sort of mind control manipulation works so they can protect themselves against it in whatever form presents itself. It blows my mind that we educate our kids about safe driving, sex (hopefully), and drug use and never think to teach them about defending themselves against manipulation. I definitely recommend this book for pretty much everyone, because NONE of us are immune to these techniques, as I've learned personally.Â
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Domestic abuse, Racism, and Misogyny
While it mentions these various triggers, it does so in a way that is not graphic and unequivocally condemns these injustices.
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