------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Profile Correction [David Clark] Cult exit counselor David Clark recently wrote to coment and amend several points in our professional profile of him two years ago. (Cult Observer, Sept./Oct. 1990, p. 19 ). Mr. Clark became involved in cult work after a friend in "The Walk" committed suicide; he fulfilled all B.A. requirements at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary before leaving; he testified at Senator Dole's cult hearing in 1976 but was unable to get into the 1979 hearings; and he worked with Gregory Mull both before and during the celebrated Church Universal and Triumphant case. 2 PROFESSIONAL PROFILE: Dr. Harold Goldstein Harold Goldstein (Ph.D, University of Massachusetts, Amherst), a member of AFF' s Psychology Education Committee, has a certificate in Community Mental Health from Harvard Medical School; he has lectured at Massachusetts colleges, worked at Connecticut and Massachusetts Veterans Administration hospitals, and was chief psychologist at the Westfield, MA Child Guidance Center before moving to Rockville, MD, to join the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Like 'many of AFF's professional associates, he was essentially unaware of cults before Jonestown. As Associate Director of the Division of Mental Health Service Programs, he was among those who received many requests for govern- ment studies and evaluation of the Jonestown phenomenon. Responsibility for investigating these questions was given to the Staff College, where Dr. Goldstein, working with a small staff, made contact with "all sorts of experts" to set up a meeting on cults. Socio- logists, psychologists, legal scholars, psychiatrists, and other came, some from great distances, but because of noisy picketing by cult protesters in Nazi uniform, and backroom negotiations, the meeting was aborted after less than an hour. The Washington Post never interviewed Dr. Goldstein, but attributed to him quotes about this "secret meeting" which were in fact supplied by a Moonie spokesman. A second meeting was planned but, owing to intensive lobbying by various groups demanding a ban on government research of any sort in the "religion" area, never came to fruition. His interest in the Jonestown conundrum kept Dr. Goldstein reading, seeking historical analogues, and attending Cult Awareness Network meetings where he was moved by the stories of families suffering losses to cults. From a small start, helping a few parents to talk their children out of cults, he made further contacts and soon had many referrals. With developing expertise, he was asked to speak to public education and professional education groups, hospital staffs, psychologists, and social workers. In training clinical psychologists, he cautions that increasing conflicts between parents already struggling with loss of a child to a cult can result in multiple strains on a marriage. Now part-time at NIMH, with a private practice, Dr. Goldstein deals with a broad range of cults from extreme fundamentalist child-abusing groups to "crossover" groups seeking mainstream respectability. While the latter may appear more benign than live-in groups, they can be equally damaging. He believes that "while people want to think they're free and in control of their lives, a combination of na'ivet~, strong ideology, and group influence "can result in terrible tragedies." Dr. Goldstein faces these challenges with enthusiasm. 3 PROFESSIONAL PROFILE: Dr. William Chambers William Chambers (Ph.D., University of Horida) had a friend in graduate school who met some "wonderful people" and accepted an invitation to join them at dinner. Dr. Chambers went with his friend and saw the "driven affect and communication" of their Moonie hosts. He was impressed by the Moonies' inability to carry on a rational, intellectual discussion. He prevailed upon his friend not to return to the Moonie house. Some years later, AFF Director of Research Michael Langone visited the psychology department of the University of South Florida in Fort Meyers -- where Dr. Chambers was teaching until earlier this year -- seeking help in analyzing data AFF has collected on the nature of cults and cult membership. He found an ideal collaborator in Dr. Chambers, a psychologist concentrating in healthy personality theory, experimental design and analysis, and psychometrics, who has also an abiding interest in spiritual matters. He had been to India as a student of the Quaker's Friends World College, studied Jung's mandala symbolism and the works of George Kelley, Piaget, and R. D. Laing, and finally embraced the notion that mathematics can lead into wider epistemological arenas and enable one to address larger metaphysical questions in a rational, intellectual manner. Dr. Chambers adapted those psycho- logists' ways of looking at individuals and society to see and understand, for example, the contorted logic and low integrative complexity exhibited by members of totalitarian groups. He developed, through a number of publications, measurements of logical consistency and integrative complexity in both individuals and organizations. This work has been useful in studies of self-deception and mental health. Dr. Chambers was an ideal collaborator, then, for Dr. Langone's project to analyze AFF's survey of former cult members' experience and develop a scale to assess cults. Their analysis alms to reveal the elements of stress existing both before and after the cult experience (Dr. Langone), and to determine where a particular group falls on a cultic scale (Dr. Chambers). The rating of items expressing the cult experience suggests four dimensions against which groups can be measured: compliance, exploitation (both individual and social), mind control, and exclusion/isolation. As the results of the research are being written up, Dr. Chambers offers to work as a statistical consultant, free of charge, with other cult researchers, while be pursues a second doctorate, in clinical psychology. He plans then to begin divinity studies with the Unitarian-Universalists, partly to demonstrate that there are positive and non-deceptive ways of dealing with religious questions. ================================================================= DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0792AF.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: CO0792.TIF ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer, Vol. 9 No. 7, 1992. SORT TO: AFF CONTRIBUTOR: American Family Foundation (AFF) LOCATION OF ORIGINAL: American Family Foundation (AFF) NOTES: Back issues and selected reprints of the Cultic Studies Journal are available from the American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265. This edition of the Cult Observer was produced by an electronic scanner, making it possible that a few scanning errors could have been introduced into the text inadvertently. Please consult the printed text if there are any suspected textual inaccuracies. PROFESSIONAL PROFILES | 1 Profile Correction [David Clark] | 2 Dr. Harold Goldstein | 3 Dr. William Chambers For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 9/29/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================