Cult thinking is not something out there—a rare affliction that infects a few people on the margin of society—but a disturbing phenomenon that most of us have experienced in some degree. In Them and Us: Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat, author and psychiatrist Arthur Deikman shows the connection between classic cult manipulation and the milder forms of group pressure that can be found in even the most staid organizations—churches and schools, mainstream political movements and corporate boardrooms.

In her foreword, Doris Lessing discusses the implications and repercussions of cult thinking on contemporary society.

About the Author

Arthur J. Deikman, M.D. is clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of The Observing Self (Beacon)and Personal Freedom (Viking). His articles have appeared in numerous professional journals. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and Human Givens. See the author's website.

Reviews

“In this expansion of his 1990 book The Wrong Way Home, UCSF psychiatry professor Deikman persuasively links cult thinking to patterns of behavior and thought found in everyday life and, with no qualitative differences, to the terrorist groups that threaten that life. He argues that bizarre cults such as those of Jonestown and Waco are not utterly alien, but are extreme forms of behavior and thinking so common that ‘almost all of us might be seen as members of invisible cults.’”
—Publishers Weekly

“In a world of economic uncertainty, terrorist threat, and increasing political polarizations, the ideas presented in Them and Us are incisive, extremely useful, and ultimately forward-looking.”
—Janja Lalich, Assistant Professor of Sociology, California State University, Chico, and author of Bounded Choice

This book expands Arthur Deikman’s earlier work, The Wrong Way Home, a “CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book of 1991.” Critics responded:

“Cult behavior does not occur just in exotic organizations you don’t like: the warped feelings and perceptions that fuel such cults are actually widespread in everyday life and groups.… This is an excellent guide on how to recognize these tendencies in yourself and others, and do something about them.”
—Whole Earth Review

“A highly persuasive, ground-breaking analysis.”
—Booklist