Newsletter: Remembering a Great Man & Celebrating a Great Life
Robert Jay Lifton, MD (1926 - 2025), Shaped Many Lives - Including My Own
This week’s livestream will be tomorrow, Wednesday, September 10th, at 2-3 p.m. EDT. We plan to livestream on YouTube, Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and others! I welcome everyone to tune in with questions and comments! Last week’s livestream was a great success; you can see the recording here if you missed it.
Robert Jay Lifton, MD, lived an extraordinary life in extraordinary times. Working as an Air Force psychiatrist studying brainwashing in China, he wrote the 1961 classic, which would change my life and the lives of so many others: Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. It was this book, containing his seminal Eight Criteria to Evaluate Thought Reform, which would help me understand how I had become entrenched in the authoritarian, high-control Moonies, and would ultimately lead me to detangle myself from the influence of that group. Later, when I met Dr. Lifton, he urged me to study psychology, telling me that while he had written about thought control, I had lived it, and he encouraged me to use my experience to help others.
During his long and productive career, he wrote over two dozen books. He spoke tirelessly against the evils of authoritarianism, nuclear war, terrorism, and brutality, while championing justice, truth, compassion, and the value of love and humor. He was my mentor and changed my life. Last Friday, I presented a Livestream talking about his impact on my life and the lives of so many others. My team and I have created a web page commemorating his life and work, with a complete list of my many interviews with him and our full collection of blog posts discussing his outstanding contributions to our field.
In this week’s episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum, I interview Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist, on “The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” She is the editor of several books, including The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, and The Psychology of Trump Contagion: An Existential Danger to American Democracy and All Humankind. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Of course, the interview video is on our YouTube channel and embedded in the Substack post.
In next week’s episode of my Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum podcast “Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR,” I interview returning guest John Collins about Vance Boelter, the Minnesota assassin, and his connection to Branham and NAR. John is the author of the aforementioned book and webmaster of William Branham: Historical Research, who grew up in Branham’s “message” cult and has become one of the leading experts on the group. The video of our talk is available in advance for our YouTube members, so now is an excellent time to become a YouTube channel member.
Last week, we posted a special Q&A blog post for our paid Substack subscribers. I answered questions about such diverse topics as how to warn your children about destructive cults, the future of MAGA, and what future careers are available in cult recovery. If you haven’t already done so, please consider supporting my work and becoming a paid subscriber; you will receive many benefits, including deep dive investigative analyses, case studies, timely commentary, special guest collaboration posts, and in-depth subscriber-only responses.
My monthly article in Psychology Today, “When Love Turns Destructive,” discusses how manipulation in romantic and intimate relationships mirrors cult tactics by using isolation, gaslighting, and conditional affection. In most cases, we can expect the influence in relationships to be positive, but sometimes a romantic partner can use the same manipulative techniques as a cult leader.
A while ago, I was interviewed for a radio program, “That’s How Every Empire Falls,” on WUSB in Stony Brook, New York. We spoke about my book, Cult of Trump, and the behaviors of voters and public figures in recent years. It was a fascinating discussion, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
We also posted a free Substack post, Breaking Through Thought-Terminating Clichés, in which I discuss the importance of recognizing loaded language (one of Dr. Lifton’s Eight Criteria), and how destructive authoritarian groups use thought-stopping clichés to control their members. Most importantly, I share a few strategies to overcome this form of manipulation; please share them widely with friends and loved ones - knowledge is power!
Finally, if you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to take our newly expanded BITE Model Survey. Especially if you’ve done the study before, these are significantly shorter, and some wording has been altered for clarity. In addition, we now ask for feedback on your experience answering both the 20-question and the 40-question surveys. We aim to eventually collect enough data to create a scientifically robust model of manipulative control; we’d even like to hear from people in healthy groups. Please set aside a few minutes, visit bitemodel.com, and let us know your thoughts. And get a number on the Influence Continuum!
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is a forensic psychiatrist and internationally recognized expert on dangerousness who has consistently been vocal on her views that President Donald Trump presents a Mental Health Emergency, which threatens our nation and the world.
Read the blog post or listen to the podcast, below:
I answer reader questions, from where MAGA is going to how to teach your children to avoid destructive cults.
Read the paid subscriber article now!
Authoritarian groups often cultivate a whole lexicon of thought-stopping clichés to control members’ Thoughts and Emotions, two key dimensions in the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control™ (Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotion control). Such phrases often serve a behavioral and informational control function, too. They shut down further inquiry and discourage people from seeking alternative information.
In my years of researching destructive cults and helping individuals break free from manipulative environments, I’ve seen time and again how undue influence can occur in romantic relationships and families just as powerfully as it does in prominent, well known cults.
As always, please let us know what you think about these pieces or what you’d like to see us discuss in the future. Thanks so much!
Robert Jay Lifton had so much honesty and brilliance. Beautiful that he helped and encouraged you. His writings are exceptionally accessible. Thank you for sharing your intimate knowledge of him. I greatly appreciate the depth and breadth of his wisdom. Which we so sorely need.
Dr Hassan,
You are hitting it out of the park over and over again.
I’m glad that you do what you do and that you do it so well.
You have helped me understand so many things that I have needed to understand.
I hope to incorporate it in my own thinking and doing, and to be able to teach it in a way that is helpful to others.