Steven Hassan and His Books: My Experience

In this post, I would like to give my personal experience. I first learned about Steven Hassan in 2003 when I read his book Releasing the Bonds which is his second book. I found some interesting and helpful things there, such as materials on phobias and triggers. However, generally, I was not really impressed with that book and found it to be hard to read. I thought that I may understand it better if I read the first book. Finally, in 2006, I read his first book Combatting Cult Mind Control.

The impression that I got from it was quite complicated. I did not like the way how he wrote that book. In my opinion, he boasted too much about his unique and best method of interventions. I suspected that Hassan wrote that book in order to advertise himself. I did not like the idea that every person who left a cult needs to get special counseling according to his method and otherwise will never be able to get rid of post-cult problems. He even gave examples of people who after living a normal life for a long time, suddenly got problems caused by their membership in cults. It sounded very frightening. I did not like the idea that all the former members of cults should be diagnosed with Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DSM-IV 300.15) because to me it meant that all the people who left cults were mentally sick.

However, this book also gave a good explanation to my own experience. I liked his mind control theory and also recommendations that he gave to former members of cults. Generally, I considered that book to be helpful. So, my impression of reading of that book was mixed. I think Hassan reached his goal of advertising himself through this book because after I finished, I was very upset that I would not be able to go to him for counseling. I even thought that I would never be able to get rid of the post-cult problems. After I finished the first book, I re-read the second book and understood it much better.

I concluded that since I could not go to him for counseling, at least, I could follow his recommendations. One of his recommendation was to write down cult experience month by month. He recommended it as a very effective way of getting rid of post-cult problems. I followed this recommendation. I cannot say that it was very pleasant to me to remember all my experiences. One time I had a serious floating doing this exercise which I did not have neither before nor later, though later I had some less serious episodes. However, I believed that it would help me to recover and continued. After I finished this whole process, I could not tell that all my problems were gone. Well, probably, this practice helped me to understand my experience better and to feel less pain remembering about my negative experiences. However, I did not get rid of that completely as he seemed to promise.

Later, I read some chapters from Cults in Our Midst by Margaret Singer and Janja Lalich and also the book Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse (edited by Michael D. Langone). I found these two books more helpful. For example, in chapter 12 of Cults in Our Midst there is a very detailed description of post-cult problems. In Hassan's books, many of these problems are missing. Then, in the same book, I found very encouraging words for myself:

Coming out of the cult pseudo-personality is about reeducation and growth. Self-help through reading can be invaluable for those who live far from knowledgeable resources such as exit-counselors, cult information specialists, former member support groups, and mental health professionals.
(Cults in Our Midst, chapter 12)

It was very encouraging for me to find out that I still had a hope for recovery without being counseled by Hassan or other counselor trained to use his method. I also appreciated that in Cults in Our Midst and Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse there is no boasting and self-advertising.

In the end of his both books, Hassan encourages all the people, especially former cult members, to join anti-cult activism. I had no idea about doing that before. However, the ending chapters of his books are very inspiring. I checked his website and found out that he asked people to send him information about cults. I sent him about 50 to 60 pages of information about the group where I was. In the beginning, he was very interested and wrote me that he wanted that group to be exposed. He also encouraged me to make my own website and publish my information there. However, later, he wrote me that he did not want to be sued by that group. To me, this meant that my labor for him was in vain. It was also quite remarkable that he feared to post my information in his website because of the risk to be sued. However, he encouraged me to make my own website and thus be under the same risk.

Later, I found out that at one time, Margaret Singer was invited to a lawsuit initiated by that group and prepared to testify against that group. Eventually, she did not testify because the situation changed. However, I made a conclusion that Margaret Singer was much more bold person than Steven Hassan.

Actually, I followed his advise and made the website. This time, it contained 110 pages of information. I re-wrote some materials, but most of them were new. Then, I announced it in Hassan's freedomofmind group and informed Hassan personally. I did not got any positive feedback. Hassan did not reply either. Well, he involved me into all that activity against the group where I was, but then lost any interest. Eventually, I made a decision to delete my website. All this story gave me an impression that he uses people for his benefit, manipulates them, and does not care for them.

Everything that I wrote above is my own personal experience. I understand that people's experiences are different. I do not say that everybody experienced the same as I did. However, in my experience with Hassan and his books, there were a lot of negative points that cause me to make quite a negative conclusion regarding Hassan.

I began to seriously doubt in Hassan's theory in April 2007 when I found out that his BITE model confuses mind control and religious experience. Also, at that time, I had an idea that he invented his theory of mind control only to make money. I doubted that mind control exists at all. Later, I read other literature on mind control and came to conclusion that in spite of Hassan's negative sides, his theory still was more or less true. Now, I have much more issues with his mind control theory that I will write about later.