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Defining Ritual Abuse
Pamela Perskin
There is some disagreement within the mental health community regarding the legitimacy of the term “ritual abuse.” Some believe that the term is too emotionally charged, religious, and unscientific. Using the term “ritual” connotes religious context for many. Some have proposed alternate phrases such as “organized abuse,” “sadistic abuse,” or “structured abuse.”
I prefer the term ritual abuse for two reasons. Firstly, that is the term introduced and used by many of its victims. Secondly, it is more accurate and less ambiguous than the alternatives. My co-author, Randy Noblitt, and I define ritual abuse as abuse that occurs in a ceremonial or circumscribed manner and where the abuse causes traumatagenic dissociation and/or establishes or reinforces control over dissociated states already in existence. This rather simple and unembellished definition appears to satisfy in concrete terms what its alleged victims and perpetrators report. The term ritual trauma does not make the assumption or the judgment that the experience was abusive, but does involve the assumption that the experience was traumatic (e.g., the sun [gazing] dance of North American Plains Indians.)
We define ritualistic abuse as being like ritual abuse, but not all the above criteria can be proven or demonstrated. (For example, there may be evidence of a ritualistic killing where only the body is found. The possibility that dissociated states may have been created or controlled during the criminal act is unknown.)
Some ritual abuse may occur within a cult or cult-like setting. But exactly what is meant by a cult? It is said that all religions started out as cults. If you were to ask the man on the street his definition of a cult, he would likely tell you that it described anyone’s religion other than his own. There are actually many types of cults. The following classification of destructive cults is reproduced from the book Cult and Ritual Abuse: Its History, Anthropology, and Recent Discovery in Contemporary America, Noblitt and Perskin, 2000, pp. 215-217.
- 1. Destructive religious cults are associated with a particular religious practice, belief or system of rituals and may be further subdivided as follows:
a. Destructive apocalyptic cults promote fear and paranoia along with unfounded predictions that the world is about to end. Destructive apocalyptic cults may be distinguished from apocalyptic religions in that the former utilizes abuse, exploitation and mind control methods. Examples would include the Branch Davidians, Order of the Solar Temple, and Aum Supreme Truth.
b. Destructive pre-industrial cults meet the criteria for destructive cults and also embody the traditions of pre-industrial cultures (e.g., African and New World vodoun and Santeria sects). Although some such religions may be considered destructive cults, one should not automatically assume that all are. Again, the criteria of abuse, exploitation, and mind control are essential to defining a cult as destructive.
c. Destructive demonic cults meet the criteria for destructive cults and also promote the worship or reverence toward a malevolent deity, spirit or principle (e.g., Satanism, Luciferianism) or those cults, which use others’ fears of demons to manipulate or control them. - 2. Fraternal organizations which meet the criteria for destructive cults. These groups are often secret and may espouse particular philosophic, religious, or sociopolitical ideals (e.g., the Bizango of Haiti, the Egbo, or Leopard Society of West Africa, and various subgroups within Masonry and other quasi-Masonic groups may meet these criteria).
- 3. Destructive sociopolitical cults would include the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Brotherhood, and Neo-Nazi groups. I would include the Christian Identity movement here even though, technically, it is a religion. However, it is not clear that the religious aspects of the Christian Identity movement are as cultish as are their racist values and politics.
- 4. Organized crime groups which function as destructive cults exist for the primary purpose of supporting criminal activities where there is a need for utilizing mind control procedures because of the nature of the crime (e.g., child prostitution and pornography may require such mind control procedures if the perpetrators are to produce children who appear to be enthusiastic about the sexual activity which would normally be aversive to them). Even though coercion is presumably commonly used in criminal groups I don’t think it would be appropriate to categorize all crime organizations as cults. However, when there is evidence of trauma-induced dissociation and programming, I would classify such a group as a destructive cult.
- 5. Government and intelligence-related destructive cults refer to the alleged organized use of cult mind control procedures surreptitiously conducted by individuals within government agencies (e.g., CIA) to further their purposes of intelligence gathering and the facilitation of other secret operations. Unfortunately, the United States government has allowed itself to become enmeshed in a complex organization of secret information and procedures which would allow unethical or illegal activities to occur without the knowledge of the general public (e.g., the Iran-Contra affair, the Watergate break-in, the use of United States citizens as guinea pigs for radiation research, etc.). Furthermore, because of the existence of what is called Sensitive Compartmented Information within the various national security and intelligence agencies, it is possible to have secret information and operations to which other individuals with Top Secret security clearances have neither access nor the capacity to scrutinize. Essentially the intelligence community is “dissociated” because of the way in which information has been “compartmented.” Given this network of government enforced secrecy it may be difficult or impossible to fully or accurately assess many of the complaints of abuse made by survivors. Nevertheless, these reports should be seriously investigated.
- 6. Experimental destructive cults are groups that conduct coercive mind control research, typically without the victim’s consent. An example would be the work of Donald E. Cameron, M.D., a past president of the American Psychiatric Association. Donald Cameron conducted experimental mind control research on unsuspecting psychiatric patients in Canada that was funded by the CIA.
Cult abuse can be defined as any abuse perpetrated by a cult. Cult abuse is similar, but not identical, to ritual abuse. The differences between these two definitions are that cult abuse does not necessarily cause dissociation of identity, and ritual abuse is not necessarily always carried out in a cult.