Unlock Minds. Empower Lives.
People who have been subjected to brainwashing or
undue influence often encounter:
Cognitive Dissonance: People may experience conflicting thoughts and beliefs due to the disparity between their pre-indoctrination selves and the beliefs and behaviors they were coerced into accepting.
Identity Confusion: Individuals might struggle with understanding who they truly are, as their self-concept has been heavily influenced or even replaced by the manipulator's imposed identity.
Emotional Manipulation: Emotional triggers and manipulation techniques used by the coercive group can make it challenging for individuals to trust their own emotions and make independent decisions.
Isolation and Loss of Support: Brainwashing often involves isolating individuals from friends, family, and social support networks, leaving them emotionally vulnerable and without reliable sources of outside perspective.
Fear and Paranoia: Fear tactics employed by manipulative groups can create a constant state of anxiety and paranoia, making individuals fearful of leaving or questioning the group's teachings.
But there's hope...
Imagine if you had the information and tools you need to help them toward:
✓ Increased Self-Awareness ✓ Restored Autonomy
✓ Reestablished Relationships ✓ Emotional Healing
✓ Rediscovered Identity Increased ✓ Increased Empathy and Compassion
✓ Improved Critical Thinking ✓ Enhanced Resilience ✓ Expanded World View
Featured Courses
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General Interest Courses
Understanding Cults: A Foundational Course
Course • 67 lessonsA foundational course to understanding cults, brainwashing, thought reform, mind control, and undue influence.
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General Interest Courses
Recovery After Mormonism Workshop
Course • 12 lessonsJoin Dr. Steven Hassan and Dr. John Dehlin in a powerful online recorded workshop on recovering after leaving high demand religions/cults. Learn about healthy identity development, relationships with believers, and helping loved ones break free.
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General Interest Courses
Understanding Authoritarian Control: The Essentials
Course • 9 lessonsLearn how to use the BITE Model within the Influence Continuum.
Testimonials
“Steven Hassan’s writings and life work fill a critical need in our health and our lives. Health care professionals have long ignored the essential role that social psychology and influence play in our efforts to be healing. Beyond the skills of therapeutic persuasion in our own clinical effectiveness, too many sources of undue influence pervade our culture to ignore its significance in health and illness. Our work must include investing in the resiliency of those for whom we care by teaching them to test their realities, to value their intuitions, to know their own minds. This is Hassan’s mission. He succeeds largely because of his intelligence, passion and dedication. Those are contagious characteristics and just cause for due influence.”
Laurence I. Sugarman, M.D. F.A.A.P., A.B.M.H., Director and Research Professor, Center for Applied Psychophysiology and Self-regulation, Rochester Institute of Technology“Steven Hassan is a compelling spokesman on the topic of cult mind control, which encompasses issues of human identity and our innate psychological vulnerability to dissociate. In addition, he educates and challenges us to think about the groups using mind control techniques in our culture, and how to help those affected reclaim their lives. His commitment to this neglected area of human experience is exemplary. At my invitation, Steven has taught psychiatry residents at Brigham and Women’s Hospital about these issues for the last 14 years. Knowledge of these issues is crucial for all mental health professionals.”
Mary K. McCarthy, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School“Dr. Hassan's online course was personally and professionally life-changing for me, and revealed a major blind spot in my clinical training. The course fundamentally changed what I often see and diagnose. I already knew that traditional psychiatry, medicine, and spirituality are by-and-large not trauma-informed, but I had never considered the degree to which narcissistic and authoritarian individuals and groups are in fact the source for much of the trauma that patients experience. Not helping patients recognize this and boundary against such relationships is akin to treating symptoms but not causes. This oversight is causing many patients to languish for years in insufficient treatment. It is of utmost importance that clinicians undergo this kind of training so that this is no longer the case. ”
Jeffrey D. Rediger, MD, MDiv Medical Director, McLean Southeast Adult Psychiatry and Community Affairs McLean Hospital / Mass General Brigham