Under the Influence - Hardcover

Goldhammer, John D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573920061 ISBN 13: 9781573920063

Publisher: Prometheus, 1996

Synopsis

This book probes the relationship between individual members and the collective, providing fresh insights into such destructive characteristics as mind control, propaganda, hypnotic influence, loss of identity, and much more. The authorexplores innovative ways to harness the creative potential of groups without sacrificing personal autonomy. In our modern, often impersonal culture, we need to better understand our "urge to merge" and the destructive control that can be exercised when the group becomes more important than its individual members.

About this title

About the Author

John D. Goldhammer is a psychotherapist, new-age cult survivor, and author of The Save Your Business Book.

From the Inside Flap

For fifteen years author John D. Goldhammer was a member of Niscience, a New Age religious group led by Ann Ree Colton, an experience that forever changed his life. When he finally left the group, he found himself with near zero self-esteem, a lot of regret for many wasted years, and plenty of anger at his own naivete. "I felt that a gigantic chunk of my real identity had been stolen from me without my conscious consent. At the same time, I felt a euphoric sense of freedom and complete delight that now I had my life back in my own hands."

Goldhammer discovered that his was a common experience. While researching group psychology, he discovered that many different types of groups and organizations share a deadly but common theme: a typical set of destructive dynamics that has lethal implications for us as individuals, for our future, and for our environment.

Our mobile, hi-tech age has wrecked havoc with our sense of community and with our traditional relationships. Often alone, feeling rootless and disconnected, we long for meaningful connections with others, feelings of belonging and acceptance. People everywhere are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives, often losing themselves in one group after another. But groups have a dark side that destroys individual freedom and autonomy. Although not all persons are directly affiliated with a particular group, everyone is deeply affected by destructive collective influences and abuse, whether religious, political, social, or economic.

What exactly do groups offer that is so addictive and so compelling? What is it in human nature that makes us so vulnerable to group influences? What specific traps do groups fall into that are so devastating to individuals--slipping into patterns of abuse that cause them to become dysfunctional, deteriorating, closed systems in society?

UNDER THE INFLUENCE explores the self-destructive aspects of the relationship between the individual and the collective dark side, examining destructive group characteristics such as mind control, propaganda, developmental regression, loss of soul, projection and identification, existential sacrifice, and ideological totalism.

Certainly many groups are helpful and constructive forces in society. Support groups, various recovery groups, comon-interest groups, and community groups can be invaluable, provided they maintain a balance of power between individual autonomy and the group--but no group is immune from regressing into destructive patterns.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE looks at new approaches to help those caught in abusive, repressive, and addictive situations in groups, offering practical techniques we can use to extricate ourselves from the clutches of the collective mind-set. We cannot altogether escape collective influences, but we can become more aware of how this "beast with many heads" functions, and what we can do to protect ourselves from being manipulated and consumed by its dark side.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Groups have a dark side that destroys individual freedom and autonomy, aborting the individual's quest for meaning, integration, and fulfillment. Even the slightest contact can expose one to these destructive dynamics. Gradually we start classifying people: there are those in our group, those outside our group, and those who could be in our group. And there are always those inner-core people who cluster around the leader. They become our role models as we slip down the slippery slope of self-deception, ego-inflation, and collective adaptation. Before you know it, we're feeling superior and exclusive--better than the unenlightened masses. If only everyone knew what we knew. . . .

"Groups have trapped millions of individuals, destroying individual freedom of expression, enforcing collective rules and norms, indoctrinating people into their belief systems, and ostracizing those who do not conform to group values. Groups, like individuals, have both light and dark sides and therefore have the innate destructive potential to compromise individual integrity. Collective integrity in a society comes from embracing individual diversity and uniqueness, not culturing sameness." -From: Under the Influence

Edition details

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573920061
• ISBN 13: 9781573920063
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 356