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Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry
A definitive account of the psychology of zealotry, from a National Book Award winner and a leading authority on the nature of cults, political absolutism, and mind control In this unique and timely volume Robert Jay Lifton, the National Book Award–winning psychiatrist, historian, and public intellectual proposes a radical that the psychological relationship between extremist political movements and fanatical religious cults may be much closer than anyone thought. Exploring the most extreme manifestations of human zealotry, Lifton highlights an array of leaders―from Mao to Hitler to the Japanese apocalyptic cult leader Shōkō Asahara to Donald Trump―who have sought the control of human minds and the ownership of reality. Lifton has spent decades exploring psychological extremism. His pioneering concept of the "Eight Deadly Sins" of ideological totalism―originally devised to identify "brainwashing" (or "thought reform") in political movements―has been widely quoted in writings about cults, and embraced by members and former members of religious cults seeking to understand their experiences. In Losing Reality Lifton makes clear that the apocalyptic impulse―that of destroying the world in order to remake it in purified form―is not limited to religious groups but is prominent in extremist political movements such as Nazism and Chinese Communism, and also in groups surrounding Donald Trump. Lifton applies his concept of "malignant normality" to Trump's efforts to render his destructive falsehoods a routine part of American life. But Lifton sees the human species as capable of "regaining reality" by means of our "protean" psychological capacities and our ethical and political commitments as "witnessing professionals." Lifton weaves together some of his finest work with extensive new commentary to provide vital understanding of our struggle with mental predators. Losing Reality is a book not only of stunning scholarship, but also of huge relevance for these troubled times.
214 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2019
99 people are currently reading
1990 people want to read
About the author
Robert Jay Lifton
52 books226 followersRobert Jay Lifton was an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
June 10, 2019
This book is an acquired taste.
Also, I'm saddened that it's painted with such broad strokes that paragraphs like the following can turn up in it:
There are far too few references and sources provided to give way to these kinds of statements; I mean "the Chinese people"...
That kind of writing, along with the author's preference to create terms that should be avoided a lot of the time, is drab and turned me right off this book, which is a shame as its subjects—e.g. Donald Trump (and the alt-right that follows him), Aum Shinrikyō, and "the Chinese".
This could have been a triumphant book, but instead, it fell into a heap of piffles, for me.
Also, I'm saddened that it's painted with such broad strokes that paragraphs like the following can turn up in it:
One other important factor in the Chinese heritage also played a part in the evolution of reform techniques: human-centered psychological skills. No other civilization has paid so much attention to the conduct of human relationships. The Chinese family, with its characteristically complicated inner maneuvering, has been an excellent psychological training ground: in order to be “proper,” Chinese children have had to learn to be aware of the emotional currents in their milieu. And this personal emphasis has extended from the family into the rest of Chinese life: whether performing official duties or seeking personal objectives, the Chinese people have always put great stress on exerting influence upon the people involved—and there is only a fine line between influence and manipulation. These human-centered skills have been carefully nurtured over centuries, and emphasized at the expense of technical achievements. In this sense, thought reform is the modern totalitarian expression of a national genius.
There are far too few references and sources provided to give way to these kinds of statements; I mean "the Chinese people"...
That kind of writing, along with the author's preference to create terms that should be avoided a lot of the time, is drab and turned me right off this book, which is a shame as its subjects—e.g. Donald Trump (and the alt-right that follows him), Aum Shinrikyō, and "the Chinese".
In recent work I have referred to “malignant normality,” by which I mean the imposition of a norm of destructive or violent behavior, so that such behavior is expected or required of people. I came to this idea through my study of Nazi doctors. The physicians arriving at Auschwitz were expected to carry out selections of Jews for the gas chambers. That was their job. Whatever conflicts they experienced, the great majority adapted to that malignant normality.
This could have been a triumphant book, but instead, it fell into a heap of piffles, for me.
December 31, 2019
I'm not usually one to read much nonfiction, but I entered the giveaway for this book because I thought that the subject matter seemed interesting. I read it between some of the other books that I was reading for class or for fun, and I found it very informative and very thought provoking. I was largely unfamiliar with many of the subjects the author was describing, but I understood most of the points he was trying to make. There were some moments when I became lost while reading; I felt that the last two chapters of the book, specifically, were ones that required more prior knowledge than I had. Overall, the book was informative and thought provoking, and I feel that there was value in reading it and considering the subject matter presented.
September 9, 2022
Living up to its title, this book provides good insights into the nature of cults along with political and religious extremism. Lifton argues that they are, essentially, the same phenomena. The book contains updated essays from Lifton's other writings and, as such, seems like a good introduction to his work. Topics covered are The Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Aum Shinrikyo cult responsible for the sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system, Nazi doctors, Trump, along with nuclear and climate cults. Most chapters are very interesting although the quality does seem to drop off as the book gets closer to the end.
The two chapters on the Chinese Cultural Revolution provide a good introduction to its history along with insights into Mao's life and conjectures regarding his psychology. The techniques used during the Cultural Revolution have been used many times throughout history, and continue to be used, but Lifton argues that Mao implemented them the most systematically and on the largest scale. Lifton conjectures that it was Mao's sense of his own pending death that caused him to instigate the Cultural Revolution and that he wanted young people to be the guards due to a combination of the fact that they were still young and, hence, pure enough to cleanse Chinese society and to set an example that perpetual revolution was possible.
Many of the tactics used during the Cultural Revolution do seem to be similar to woke tactics used today. Lifton's description of the Red Guards as wandering bands of zealots roaming the country in search of evil to stomp out seems to apply well to today's woke although, of course, on a less violent scale. It did make me wonder, however, just how far the woke will be willing to go if a charismatic leader ever emerges among them.
The chapter on the Aum Shinrikyo cult was also fascinating as it seems to be the most extreme cult possible. Aum saw people of the world as evil who could only, maybe, be saved from their evil by being killed by members of the cult. Aum, to this effect, sought to obtain nuclear weapons and hoped to start a nuclear war as part of a program to cleanse and save the world. After nuclear war they imagined that members of cult would be magically guided to food not contaminated by radiation. The other aspect of this cult that seems as extreme as possible is the notion that there was only the guru: all others existed merely to ultimately merge with him. Another key learning from studying Aum, is that unlike other cults its guru was not bound to prior religions. This meant there were no restraints, at all, as to what was ultimately permissible towards it ultimate goal.
The chapter on Nazi doctors was also strong. In this chapter Lifton argues that the Nazi biomedical community was one of the most Nazified and was considered by Hitler and considered itself to be the key vanguard responsible for purifying the German nation. Lifton states that the doctors who performed the selections at Auschwitz were the ultimate symbol of the Nazi regime. He also documents how rather unremarkable the doctors were: not striking one as particularly evil (unless you knew of their work) and neither particularly brilliant nor stupid. Echoing something others have noted, Lifton uses them as the prime example of how almost anyone can ultimately rationalize doing what an extreme regime or cult asks of them.
Before reading the chapter on Trump I braced myself. When reading other academic writings on Trump I have ended up thinking that academic writers merely end up showing themselves to be just as prone to group and polar thinking as anyone and have, hence, just ended up producing low quality work. This even when writing on topics they are paid to approach with supreme objectivity. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Lifton did not fall victim to this "Trump Derangement Syndrome". Indeed, Lifton argues against the notion that Trump is a fascist thinking him lacking, and incapable of, holding the rigid ideology and discipline necessary to be a fascist. He argues that Trump is not even a populist. Rather, Lifton argues, Trump, without actually being psychotic, is just as solipsistic as someone who is, with constantly changing beliefs regarding reality which he thinks he can make true by stating them. Lifton casts Trump's followers as being resentful of elites who look down upon them.
Lifton argues that Trump is, ultimately, afraid of his base. Although Trump is clearly not as extreme as Shoko Asahara, the founder of Aum, Lifton argues that Trump is psychologically dependent on his base. In the chapter on Aum, Lifton describes how when Asahara was revealed not to be a guru his followers viciously turned on him. Until this point Ashara did not have psychotic breaks but losing his followers’ belief finally triggered them. Lifton feels it reasonably likely that Trump’s base will turn on him. Lifton conjectures that failing to build the wall could trigger this. Even though this possibility did not play out it did solve a mystery for me:
I always wondered why Trump simply did not play it cool when he lost the 2020 election. After all, it seems extremely likely that, if it had not been for covid, Trump would have won in 2020 in a landslide. So why not just play it cool, take snipes at Biden for anything that went wrong, whether within his control or not, and run again in 2024? Why claim "massive election fraud" and risk what seemed like a safe bet? From Lifton's conjecture regarding being afraid of his base, I have to wonder if Trump worried that losing an election would break his spell on his followers and cause them to turn on him once they saw he could not deliver? Indeed in Sam Harris's recent interview with David French, French describes how many of Trump followers of the evangelical bent support him so strongly because they feel, at some level, that his unlikely wins in 2016 showed that he has divine favor and that he is on a mission to save the nation from various evil forces such as the radical left and the deep state.
Unfortunately, the close of the book is not that strong. In the section on "nuclearism" Lifton seems amateurish. A minor example is how he misinterprets the notion of “complementary” in quantum mechanics. More serious is his consideration of why the "nuclear priesthood" built so many weapons. Was it really because of religious reverence for the weapons or, for the reasons that seem more apparent from their writings: that in a nuclear war or leading up to it we do not really know what will happen so why not keep all options on the table? How does the cost of building weapons compare to the cost of being wrong if they are not built?
The sections on climate change are stronger. Here Lifton thinks it will be one of humanity's greatest challenges. Climate change is real but how will we deal with both the cults of deniers and the cults of "pending climate change causing the end of the world" extremists that are likely to emerge?
The books ends with Lifton's notion that the way to fight cultism is by emphasizing the "protean self". This sounds good, in theory, but there are too few specifics provided. Lifton invokes post-modernism here suggesting that modern and, presumably, Enlightenment thinking would do more to contribute to the less mature and polar thinking necessary to enable cults and other extremism. Then, on a hopeful note, Lifton discusses how, although they will not project it outwardly, even in the most extreme cults and under the most extreme political cults there is always resentment toward the extremists that people keep internal while finding ways to go on living with the contradictions. It is always there ready to burst and turn on the cult or extremists. Lifton also describes how cults and extremists most dangerous days are early on although there always remains a danger that the early fanaticism will re-emerge.
I found the book gave good insights into the polarization and extremism from, yes, both the left and right that we see today. There also seem to be some definite predictions, although none 100% certain, that we can make. One thing, however, that I would have liked to see is looking at cults more from an evolutionary point of view. Why did man evolve to be prone to such extremism? Ultimately, Lifton says that he sees cultism more as a cultural and historical phenomena than a personal one. Perhaps combining this with evolutionary conjectures could give even more insights?
The two chapters on the Chinese Cultural Revolution provide a good introduction to its history along with insights into Mao's life and conjectures regarding his psychology. The techniques used during the Cultural Revolution have been used many times throughout history, and continue to be used, but Lifton argues that Mao implemented them the most systematically and on the largest scale. Lifton conjectures that it was Mao's sense of his own pending death that caused him to instigate the Cultural Revolution and that he wanted young people to be the guards due to a combination of the fact that they were still young and, hence, pure enough to cleanse Chinese society and to set an example that perpetual revolution was possible.
Many of the tactics used during the Cultural Revolution do seem to be similar to woke tactics used today. Lifton's description of the Red Guards as wandering bands of zealots roaming the country in search of evil to stomp out seems to apply well to today's woke although, of course, on a less violent scale. It did make me wonder, however, just how far the woke will be willing to go if a charismatic leader ever emerges among them.
The chapter on the Aum Shinrikyo cult was also fascinating as it seems to be the most extreme cult possible. Aum saw people of the world as evil who could only, maybe, be saved from their evil by being killed by members of the cult. Aum, to this effect, sought to obtain nuclear weapons and hoped to start a nuclear war as part of a program to cleanse and save the world. After nuclear war they imagined that members of cult would be magically guided to food not contaminated by radiation. The other aspect of this cult that seems as extreme as possible is the notion that there was only the guru: all others existed merely to ultimately merge with him. Another key learning from studying Aum, is that unlike other cults its guru was not bound to prior religions. This meant there were no restraints, at all, as to what was ultimately permissible towards it ultimate goal.
The chapter on Nazi doctors was also strong. In this chapter Lifton argues that the Nazi biomedical community was one of the most Nazified and was considered by Hitler and considered itself to be the key vanguard responsible for purifying the German nation. Lifton states that the doctors who performed the selections at Auschwitz were the ultimate symbol of the Nazi regime. He also documents how rather unremarkable the doctors were: not striking one as particularly evil (unless you knew of their work) and neither particularly brilliant nor stupid. Echoing something others have noted, Lifton uses them as the prime example of how almost anyone can ultimately rationalize doing what an extreme regime or cult asks of them.
Before reading the chapter on Trump I braced myself. When reading other academic writings on Trump I have ended up thinking that academic writers merely end up showing themselves to be just as prone to group and polar thinking as anyone and have, hence, just ended up producing low quality work. This even when writing on topics they are paid to approach with supreme objectivity. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Lifton did not fall victim to this "Trump Derangement Syndrome". Indeed, Lifton argues against the notion that Trump is a fascist thinking him lacking, and incapable of, holding the rigid ideology and discipline necessary to be a fascist. He argues that Trump is not even a populist. Rather, Lifton argues, Trump, without actually being psychotic, is just as solipsistic as someone who is, with constantly changing beliefs regarding reality which he thinks he can make true by stating them. Lifton casts Trump's followers as being resentful of elites who look down upon them.
Lifton argues that Trump is, ultimately, afraid of his base. Although Trump is clearly not as extreme as Shoko Asahara, the founder of Aum, Lifton argues that Trump is psychologically dependent on his base. In the chapter on Aum, Lifton describes how when Asahara was revealed not to be a guru his followers viciously turned on him. Until this point Ashara did not have psychotic breaks but losing his followers’ belief finally triggered them. Lifton feels it reasonably likely that Trump’s base will turn on him. Lifton conjectures that failing to build the wall could trigger this. Even though this possibility did not play out it did solve a mystery for me:
I always wondered why Trump simply did not play it cool when he lost the 2020 election. After all, it seems extremely likely that, if it had not been for covid, Trump would have won in 2020 in a landslide. So why not just play it cool, take snipes at Biden for anything that went wrong, whether within his control or not, and run again in 2024? Why claim "massive election fraud" and risk what seemed like a safe bet? From Lifton's conjecture regarding being afraid of his base, I have to wonder if Trump worried that losing an election would break his spell on his followers and cause them to turn on him once they saw he could not deliver? Indeed in Sam Harris's recent interview with David French, French describes how many of Trump followers of the evangelical bent support him so strongly because they feel, at some level, that his unlikely wins in 2016 showed that he has divine favor and that he is on a mission to save the nation from various evil forces such as the radical left and the deep state.
Unfortunately, the close of the book is not that strong. In the section on "nuclearism" Lifton seems amateurish. A minor example is how he misinterprets the notion of “complementary” in quantum mechanics. More serious is his consideration of why the "nuclear priesthood" built so many weapons. Was it really because of religious reverence for the weapons or, for the reasons that seem more apparent from their writings: that in a nuclear war or leading up to it we do not really know what will happen so why not keep all options on the table? How does the cost of building weapons compare to the cost of being wrong if they are not built?
The sections on climate change are stronger. Here Lifton thinks it will be one of humanity's greatest challenges. Climate change is real but how will we deal with both the cults of deniers and the cults of "pending climate change causing the end of the world" extremists that are likely to emerge?
The books ends with Lifton's notion that the way to fight cultism is by emphasizing the "protean self". This sounds good, in theory, but there are too few specifics provided. Lifton invokes post-modernism here suggesting that modern and, presumably, Enlightenment thinking would do more to contribute to the less mature and polar thinking necessary to enable cults and other extremism. Then, on a hopeful note, Lifton discusses how, although they will not project it outwardly, even in the most extreme cults and under the most extreme political cults there is always resentment toward the extremists that people keep internal while finding ways to go on living with the contradictions. It is always there ready to burst and turn on the cult or extremists. Lifton also describes how cults and extremists most dangerous days are early on although there always remains a danger that the early fanaticism will re-emerge.
I found the book gave good insights into the polarization and extremism from, yes, both the left and right that we see today. There also seem to be some definite predictions, although none 100% certain, that we can make. One thing, however, that I would have liked to see is looking at cults more from an evolutionary point of view. Why did man evolve to be prone to such extremism? Ultimately, Lifton says that he sees cultism more as a cultural and historical phenomena than a personal one. Perhaps combining this with evolutionary conjectures could give even more insights?
January 6, 2022
I love Lifton, but I didn't find this book as compelling as I had hoped. Much of the "good" stuff was reprints from his previous writings. The rest of it was attempts to somewhat awkwardly apply it to things happening now. While there are many ways I see to apply Lifton's previous work, I felt that this failed to give appropriate nuance and lacked the depth of analysis I have come to expect of Lifton's writing. He also seemed to think at times that only narcissists can start cultic movements while at the same time acknowledging that there is a human tendency to resort to fundamentalism as a reaction against and attempt to control chaos and such--those seem to contradict, and he wasn't able to provide strong evidence that every cult leader is a narcissist.
November 19, 2019
I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway.
I wanted to like this book. But it wasn't easy to read. Words almost seemed out of place. It seems no new studies were added to this. It's all stuff that is older. I don't know what I expected from it, but whatever it was this book doesn't have it.
I wanted to like this book. But it wasn't easy to read. Words almost seemed out of place. It seems no new studies were added to this. It's all stuff that is older. I don't know what I expected from it, but whatever it was this book doesn't have it.
February 5, 2021
Dated, choppy, insufficiently footnoted, and jargon-laden.
September 18, 2024
Since Robert Jay Lifton wrote the invaluable volume THE NAZI DOCTORS, I decided to check out his other books and, well, Lifton ain't exactly a thinker who can break out of the box of generalizations, obvious observations, and other banalities. He is far better when he simply documents (as in THE NAZI DOCTORS) rather than attempting an overarching theory. I mean, with all the available literature and all of the evil incidents that have plagued humankind over the centuries, it's not all that hard to come up with fresh ideas on cults and religious zealotry. But what do we get here? "An important way to understand Trump and Trumpism is as an assault on reality," begins one essay. Thank you, Inspector Obvious! The best essay in this volume is on Aum Shinrikyo -- the dangerous group that injected sarin gas into Tokyo subways in 1995 -- but, even here, Lifton's "conclusions" on megalomaniacal guruism aren't especially enlightening -- even though he does offer a decent overview of this fringe cult. Overall, a greatly disappointing volume.
April 24, 2020
Deep but dense
Content is very interesting but the writing style is heavy and difficult to slog through. More of an academician's cup of tea. Good psychological
and political insights into cults.
Content is very interesting but the writing style is heavy and difficult to slog through. More of an academician's cup of tea. Good psychological
and political insights into cults.
November 1, 2019
The language is clunky & a fair share of the collection is older than I am, but there's some interesting information & it's fairly obvious why the topic is being brought up right now.
September 3, 2024
Most of this book is commendable, especially if not exposed to the concepts and ideas. The parts about the Chinese thought reform and that it never went away continuing at least through 2019 are unsettling to say the least. The solution is valid as well. Essentially, by your own person with a healthy skepticism of all things including your own beliefs.
However - and I have found this with many writers across the spectrum - when you do a work like this tracing your subject across time, the problems start when they get closer to their own day. The emotions and passions are felt in way not felt for peoples who foreign to us either by time or culture. The author is fantastic with a disinterested, objective analysis of China, Nazi Germany, a Japanese cult, and so on up until we reach the year of the writing which is 2019. Then, its an awkward attempt to fit his thesis into modernity.
Lifton does a better job treating the issues and people of his day than many, but I almost wonder if they should come up with a of a rule where authors like this do not deal with their current political leaders. There are so few of us who can really and truly take a step back and accurately make an analysis of a living figure. Something like, wait 10 years until the figure has the left the stage.
It’s curious that he only deals with Donald Trump when he has a plethora of postmodern examples at his disposal. By my account, the postmodernists match five of the eight deadly sins he lists. The dogma, the language, the mystique, guru, simplification of all problems into incredibly oversimplified phrases, modern day phrases of dismissal comparable to the old bourgeois dismissals, attempts to manipulate language and to obtain control of the means of communication.
In sum, I think if interested in the topic read his original on Chinese thought reform.
However - and I have found this with many writers across the spectrum - when you do a work like this tracing your subject across time, the problems start when they get closer to their own day. The emotions and passions are felt in way not felt for peoples who foreign to us either by time or culture. The author is fantastic with a disinterested, objective analysis of China, Nazi Germany, a Japanese cult, and so on up until we reach the year of the writing which is 2019. Then, its an awkward attempt to fit his thesis into modernity.
Lifton does a better job treating the issues and people of his day than many, but I almost wonder if they should come up with a of a rule where authors like this do not deal with their current political leaders. There are so few of us who can really and truly take a step back and accurately make an analysis of a living figure. Something like, wait 10 years until the figure has the left the stage.
It’s curious that he only deals with Donald Trump when he has a plethora of postmodern examples at his disposal. By my account, the postmodernists match five of the eight deadly sins he lists. The dogma, the language, the mystique, guru, simplification of all problems into incredibly oversimplified phrases, modern day phrases of dismissal comparable to the old bourgeois dismissals, attempts to manipulate language and to obtain control of the means of communication.
In sum, I think if interested in the topic read his original on Chinese thought reform.
November 23, 2019
I won this book for free as a Goodreads Giveaway. Thanks to the publisher and The New Press for the book!
Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this book. I went in expecting a read that would cover cultism in a way that would expand my knowledge and understanding of how it works and to be fair I did get that. The book itself though is a very slogging read and at times is incredibly confusing and often ends up being a boring read.
This book seems to be a collection of excerpts of this author's earlier work from as early as 1961 to more modern times like 1999 and 2018 and some new writing from this year commenting on that work. I found the works focusing on how cults work in the first part of the book to be the most confusing to read. These chapters, and most of the book, require a lot of stopping and thinking that turns a relatively short book, 192 pages, into a long read. The other parts which covered specific cults such as Aum Shinrikyo and the cult of Trump I found to be more interesting reads.
If you're interested in how cults work I imagine there are better works out there, possibly even one of this author's other more in-depth books that this one contains excerpts from. I cannot reccommend this book but it could end up being your cup of tea if you don't mind some clunky writing and a slog of a read to learn about cults. I personally did gain some new knowledge from the book but it was very tough to get through.
2/5
Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this book. I went in expecting a read that would cover cultism in a way that would expand my knowledge and understanding of how it works and to be fair I did get that. The book itself though is a very slogging read and at times is incredibly confusing and often ends up being a boring read.
This book seems to be a collection of excerpts of this author's earlier work from as early as 1961 to more modern times like 1999 and 2018 and some new writing from this year commenting on that work. I found the works focusing on how cults work in the first part of the book to be the most confusing to read. These chapters, and most of the book, require a lot of stopping and thinking that turns a relatively short book, 192 pages, into a long read. The other parts which covered specific cults such as Aum Shinrikyo and the cult of Trump I found to be more interesting reads.
If you're interested in how cults work I imagine there are better works out there, possibly even one of this author's other more in-depth books that this one contains excerpts from. I cannot reccommend this book but it could end up being your cup of tea if you don't mind some clunky writing and a slog of a read to learn about cults. I personally did gain some new knowledge from the book but it was very tough to get through.
2/5
April 26, 2020
Good but brief (192 pages). Lacks new material but overall entertaining and meaningful.
Pros: Engaging, well written, and well researched. A handful of 20th century examples of Cultist behavior (Aum Shinrikyo, Nazi Doctors, Chinese Thought Reform, Trumpism and “malignant normality”).
Cons: 3/5 of book is old essays with new introductions. Chapter on Trumpism and recent social networks and media influence too short to warrant much attention. Mainly a compilation of 3-5 of Lifton’s famous essays on individual cults.
Pros: Engaging, well written, and well researched. A handful of 20th century examples of Cultist behavior (Aum Shinrikyo, Nazi Doctors, Chinese Thought Reform, Trumpism and “malignant normality”).
Cons: 3/5 of book is old essays with new introductions. Chapter on Trumpism and recent social networks and media influence too short to warrant much attention. Mainly a compilation of 3-5 of Lifton’s famous essays on individual cults.
Read
December 19, 2019Enjoyed the author’s discussion on Ana Marie Cox’s podcast. Old material (about Chinese Communist “thought reform,” Nazi doctors, and etc.) comprises most of the book, but new commentary highlights the themes most salient for today. Very interested in the conclusion of the book, on the embracing of the protean self as offering “a potential for change and renewal, for tapping human resiliency,” though on its own it cannot solve all our problems.
September 25, 2025
There is a lot of interesting material in this book. The struggle that I had in reading it is that it is an amalgam of older psychoanalytic/philosophical essays with new material integrated within. The older material tends to be very abstract and academic in nature, which makes it hard to understand. In contrast, some of the new material (e.g., on Trump and his tendencies), gets addressed in a way that is much more readily understood.
April 3, 2022
Overall an interesting collection of essays that explain concisely Lifton's theories and gave me another lens to look at stories with. A little disconcerting seeing parallels in media dialogue between communist China and the continuing moral panics in the US starting a few years ago and continuing till now. A bit too partisan and one-sided for the Trump essays.
Read
January 27, 2023Robert Jay Lifton is one of the biggest and most important writers of the past century. His big early work was about Nazi doctors. In this book he explores the way cults work, brainwashing at societal level, and how, say, a significant part of a country's population can get hornswoggled by a con man political leader. A great read.
August 9, 2023
Lifton is a titan in the field, and the book benefits from the reader having a background in radicalization. It is collection of previous writings recontextualized with more contemporary sections towards the end, and I wish it had more original writing for this book. I can mostly let that slide on the strength of his previous work.
July 26, 2023
I did learn a lot from this book, yet I disagree with his personal beliefs on certain issues. Nonetheless, a very insightful read into religious dollar tree, nuclear fanaticism, and overall warping of the mind.
March 4, 2024
This book is a short resume of Lifton’s previous books and an introduction of sorts to the famous psychiatrist’s ideas such as thought reform (brain washing) and his extensive study of cults and cult like organizations.
March 7, 2024
A book very pertinent to our contemporary times
I found this work to be very insightful and informative, regarding cults, both religious and political, and sometimes the combination of both.
I found this work to be very insightful and informative, regarding cults, both religious and political, and sometimes the combination of both.
September 30, 2025
Malignant Normality
Living through this reality in our nation is frightening —-as yet I see no Havel on the way. Lipton’s description of cultism plants our nation squarely in the middle of the MAGA cult.
Living through this reality in our nation is frightening —-as yet I see no Havel on the way. Lipton’s description of cultism plants our nation squarely in the middle of the MAGA cult.
February 21, 2020
Wish it was written in plainer language and had more suggestions on how to change cult culture. Very timely, includes a chapter on Trump.
March 6, 2020
Clear and straightforward
It’s not a detailed blueprint for resisting solipsistic totalism. But it points in a direction where remedies—and truth—may be found.
It’s not a detailed blueprint for resisting solipsistic totalism. But it points in a direction where remedies—and truth—may be found.
March 30, 2020
Fascinating.
Read
September 7, 2020Not very useful to me
January 20, 2021
Interesting. All but the last chapter on Trump was worthwhile. Ignore that and you have a fine short book.
January 31, 2021
Chapter 10 and the italicized updates are the most valuable material.
June 28, 2022
Very dense, and the examples used in the book felt like a negative fixation on Asia, leading to it feeling like anti-Asian sentiments
April 4, 2025
Challenging read but a necessary one
May 11, 2025
A Gripping Read
A gripping read on the subject of cult-like behaviors that distort or replace observable reality, which have come to dominate the early 21st century.
A gripping read on the subject of cult-like behaviors that distort or replace observable reality, which have come to dominate the early 21st century.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews