Janja Lalich and Bounded Choice

Janja Lalich is a cult expert and a former member of the Democratic Workers’ Party (DWP), one of many left-wing cults that existed in the 1970s. She has been one of the people whose work has been of help to me in my recovery from cultism. She has written and spoken extensively about her experiences and a recent book of hers I read is Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults.

In this, Lalich talks about how cults psychologically imprison their members so as to prevent them from even imagining a life outside the group. In her model of cultism, cults control you not so much physically as mentally. Cult indoctrination is a two-way, continuous process, in which the person being indoctrinated absorbs the doctrine and transforms themselves in the image of the ideal cult member. Without even being told what to think or what to do, a cult member knows what the ‘correct’ attitude is and what the right response is to every problem.

The psychological entrapment of members explains why cult members find it so hard to leave. An outsider would be incredulous – surely these people know they can just walk out at any time? Of course, physically, leaving a cult is not particularly hard. What makes it difficult is the amount of brainwashing to which you have been subjected that makes it hard for members to take that leap of faith and leave an abusive situation. My own mother and others who know me have laughed off the idea that the organisation was a ‘cult’ – if that was the case, why was it so ‘easy’ for me to leave?

Of course, in a sense it was easy. I just handed in my resignation and that was that. Unlike particularly sinister cults such as Scientology, I didn’t really have to worry about IMT members coming after me or physically threatening me for leaving. In the worst case scenario I would be slandered internally to the rest of the membership as a pathetic bourgeois loser and renegade, and they would whip themselves into a hysteria over my defection. Better still, they would just forget I ever existed and I would simply vanish from their radar.

Recently, an IMT member on Twitter mocked me, saying that my defection was because I didn’t know how to appropriately leave a political organisation I have a disagreement with. He would have everyone believe that it is perfectly simple and straightforward to leave the IMT or any other cult. It isn’t as hard to leave the IMT as it is, say, Scientology, with its ‘auditing’ sessions of dissenting members and its harassment and intimidation of defectors, or even Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, which actually killed people who tried to flee from Jonestown, Guyana. But it wasn’t ‘easy’ in the slightest. This is because I was a victim of ‘bounded choice’, in which the cult’s doctrine told me that such an act was one of vicious betrayal, and a sign of my inevitable drift towards the forces of right-wing reaction. I had been indoctrinated to believe that defectors were evil and that no one ever left for good reasons. I was told that if I did not stop questioning the doctrine, I would abandon socialism altogether and become a liberal. (As it happens, that was sort of correct, but it wasn’t a bad thing – liberalism is a million miles better than Marxism). I was threatened with disciplinary measures if I proved too troublesome. I thought of myself as a good Marxist and a good comrade. I did not want to be subjected to the humiliating ‘discipline’ of this sect. But I also wanted to think for myself.

Hemmed in by bounded choice, I was theoretically free to leave, but I had been made to view myself with contempt if I made the ‘wrong’ choice. I also knew that it meant cutting off ties with old ‘friends’ and comrades, who would look upon me with disgust. Peer pressure means a lot in cults. After several days’ deliberation, I chose to resign. Maybe I would become a liberal. But that was better than remaining in this cult and having to accept their interpretation of Marxism as the only correct one. The layers of psychological manipulation to which I had been subjected started falling off. In hindsight, it does look ridiculously easy, but it didn’t feel that way at the time. I had been a member for only two and a half years, but I thought of myself as a loyal and dedicated member. I could never have imagined just months before my defection that I would end up leaving the organisation. Yet I did. Something clicked inside me, and I saw that I was being gaslighted and controlled. I knew that I had not signed up for this when I joined.

Lalich says that she does not see bounded choice as a ‘once-and-final’ thing, but as an ongoing process. Over the course of my two-and-half years of membership, I encountered crises of faith, feelings of doubt, clashes with other members of the organisation etc, that all served to present me with this phenomenon of bounded choice. At every stage I could have ‘chosen’ to leave, and paid the consequences of the emotional fallout and separation from the group. I chose to cling for dear life to this group, and remain loyal in spite of everything. Every time I was presented with a choice, I chose the group, because I had been indoctrinated to believe in nothing else but ‘the Organisation’. I got to the point where I could no longer do this. I had sacrificed enough for this organisation, and I did not want to give up even more of my critical faculties. I finally made the choice I should have made months ago, and resigned.

Had it not been for these crises along the way, and the accumulation of doubts over time, maybe I would still be in the group. Cults deliberately present these as ‘moments of truth’, in order to test your loyalty. The weak-willed are filtered out, leaving behind those who can always be relied upon to ‘choose’ the group. This is the essence of bounded choice. It is very easy for outsiders to judge cult members and say that it is easy for them to leave if they want to. No one realises the emotional and spiritual struggle that goes on inside them before they make that step. All sorts of phobias are implanted into a cult member’s head to discourage them from leaving. Lalich’s cult told them that as they were communists, no one would want anything to do with them if they left the group. In my case, I was told that I would end up deserting the left altogether. My sense of political loyalty was being abused in order to stop me questioning and thinking critically. Luckily for me, this backfired.

An analogy one could make is with women in abusive relationships. They have so many chances to leave their abusive partners. They can escape the house and go and live with parents or friends. They could even book a hotel. They may have a car that they can use to escape. They may even have savings that they can use to sustain them financially (provided their partner has not found a way to take away all of their financial independence). Physically leaving is not too hard, except in extreme cases. But the psychological strictures are such that so many women (and men, in some cases) do not do this, and remain at the mercy of their abusive partners. They operate within ‘bounded choice’. They fear reprisal by their partner. They fear that they will be performing an act of betrayal or desertion of someone they may still be in love with.

If a man tells his wife ‘You are free to leave, dear, but I will bash your head in if you do. Oh, and you can’t take any money or clothing,’ she is obviously not being given a free choice. She is operating within ‘bounded choice’. No one would blame the obvious victim in this situation, which is the woman. It is just as insensitive to blame cult members for staying, when they were under psychological control by the cult.

It takes some people longer than others to undo the psychological damage done by cultism. I have found that my recovery has been remarkably swift but I still have a long way to go. Thus far, the worst I have suffered is nightmares and a feeling of constant anxiety that IMT cult members will try and slander me publicly and maybe even destroy my career as time goes on, as revenge for my speaking out. Of course, this is not enough to intimidate me into being silent. I thank Janja Lalich and other courageous people who have spoken out about their experiences and written about the evils of cults. They help to inspire me further in this great work.