Swedish bookstores has a limited selection of books on undue influence, manipulation and cults. The American Association ICSA – International Cultic Studies Association has a lot of literature and also a journal with scientific articles. ICSA also has a youtube channel that covers many areas. Below are tips on movies and podcasts as well. Here you can find links where you can find out more.
The ambition is to spread more information about social influence and undue influence, and different perspectives so that you can form your own opinion. There is a huge difference in how research can be carried out and interpreted. What questions are asked, to whom and what answers you get. There is a great deal of disagreement between researchers. The list, which does not claim to be comprehensive, is provided for informational purposes only. This means that I do not necessarily share the views expressed.
Social influcence, coercive control and mind control
- Churches that abuse – Ronald M Enroth
- Combatting Cult Mind Control – Steven Hassan
- Cults in our Midst – Margaret Thaler Singer
- Feet of Clay – Anthony Storr. En bok om karismatiska “gurus” från Jesus till Freud och David Koresh. Psykologen Storr tittar på personlighetsdrag som är gemensamma och deras stora makt de hade över sina följare.
- Hallucinations – Oliver Sacks.
- Misunderstanding Cults: Searchin for Objectivity in a Controversial Field. ed. Benjamin Zablocki & Thomas Robbins (2001).
- Obedience to authority, Stanley Milgram (Harper Torchbook, 1983)
- Influence – Robert Cialdini
- Releasing the Bonds – Steven Hassan
- Terror love & brainwashing: Attachment in cults and totalitarian systems – Alexandra Stein
- Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism – Robert Jay Lifton
Personal development and alternative theraphy
- Crazy Therapies – Margaret Thaler Singer och Janja Lalich.
- Enlightment blues – Andre van der Braak (om gurun Andrew Cohen)
- See movies and documentaries below, like the Vow, about NXVIM.
Support and rehabilitation for former members and their loved ones.
- Coping with cult involvment: a handbok for families and friends – Livia Bardin
- Cult Recovery: A Clinician’s Guide to Workning WithFormer Members and Families. Editors: Lorna Goldberg, William Goldberg, Rosanne Henry, Michael Langone. 2017. (This landmark, 500-page book, with chapters from leading clinicians and researchers, describes the current state of the art in helping people adversely affected by a cultic dynamic, whether in a cult, mainstream religious denomination, psychotherapy, family, or other interpersonal relationship.)
- Recovery from abusive groups – Wendy Ford
- Recovery from Cults – red. Michael Langone
- Walking Free from the Trauma of Coercive, Cultic and Spiritual AbuseA Workbook for Recovery and Growth – Gillie Jenkinson. Gillie Jenkinson, PhD, is an accredited psychotherapist, international speaker and a director of Hope Valley Counselling. For over 25 years she has specialised, as therapist, researcher and trainer, in the challenges faced by those who have experienced coercive, cultic and spiritual abuse.
Children in cults and similar environmens
- Breaking their Will: Shedding light on religious maltreatment av Janet Heimlich
- Cults in our Midst – Margaret Thaler Singer (ett kapitel om barn)
- Recovery from Cults – Michael Langone (ett kapitel om barn)
Personal stories and books with cultic themes
- Enlightment blues – Andre van der Braak (om Andrew Cohen)
- In the shadow of the Moons: my life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s family – av Nansook Hong.
- Fog Island – Mariette Lindstein. The first book in a triologi inspired by her 25 years in the church of Scientology
- The mother of God, 2009, av Luna Tarlo. She is the mother to the selfhelp guru Andrew Cohen –
Leadership and organizational development
- Feet of Clay – Anthony Storr. En bok om karismatiska “gurus” från Jesus till Freud och David Koresh. Psykologen Storr tittar på personlighetsdrag som är gemensamma och deras stora makt de hade över sina följare.
- Terror love & brainwashing: Attachment in cults and totalitarian systems – Alexandra Stein
Films and documentaries about cults and high control groups
- Going clear – documentary, Netflix about the church of Scientology
- Holy Hell . Netflix documentary, 2016 – A cult in Carlofornia
Leah Remini Scientology and the Aftermath, en serie där högt uppsatta f.d. medlemmar träder fram - The Master 2013 – a film based on how Hubbard started Scientology.
- Ticket to heaven 1981- drama based on the Unification church / The Mooneis. Youtube.
- The Handmaid’s tale – Netflix. A drama based on a fictional USA run by a cultic group
- The Vow, HBO 2020. A documentary abour NXVIM, a self help group that turned into a cult. The leader is sentenced to 120 years in prison.
- Wild wild country, Netflix. A documetary about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho), and his personal assistant Ma Anand Sheela and how they establish the group in Oregon, USA.
Podcasts
- Born again again – about leaving a christian church
- Cults – about different cults.
- Generation Cult – denna podd handlar om de som vuxit upp i olika sekter och sedan lämnat.
- IndoctrinNation – by Rachel Bernstein. She has worked with survivors from different cults in almost 30 years.