Understanding Coercive Control
What is coercive control?
Coercive control is a repeated pattern of behavior where a person or group uses things like manipulation, fear, isolation, or threats to take away someone’s freedom and sense of self. It often happens slowly and out of sight, making it hard to recognize—even for the person being controlled. Over time, it creates emotional dependence, confusion about identity, and a loss of personal power.
Why do people fall victim to coercive control?
Dr. Janja Lalich is a globally recognized expert on cult dynamics, coercive influence, and extremist movements. In her book Take Back Your Life, she explains that there is no single personality type that falls victim to coercive control or joins a cult. Instead, it often comes down to individual circumstances and vulnerabilities. She shares a list of predisposing factors that many experts agree can increase a person’s susceptibility to involvement in a coercive control dynamic. These include:
1. Idealism or a longing to help — A sincere desire to improve the world or contribute to something meaningful.
2. Yearning for connection — A strong need to feel accepted, included, or part of a like-minded community.
3. Difficulty asserting boundaries — Struggling to say no, speak up, or express doubt—especially in the face of authority.
4. A tendency to trust too easily — An openness to believing others without questioning motives or credibility.
5. Discomfort with uncertainty — A preference for clear, absolute answers and a sense of urgency to find them.
6. Disillusionment with mainstream culture — Feeling alienated or disappointed by societal institutions or traditional belief systems.
7. Ease of entering altered states — Being especially receptive to group rituals, repetitive music, intense emotions, or trance-like experiences.
8. Low self-esteem or inner doubt — A fragile sense of self, or belief that one’s own perceptions are unreliable.
9. Spiritual seeking — An earnest search for deeper meaning, purpose, or transcendence.
10. Lack of awareness about manipulation — Not knowing how coercive groups operate—or how influence and control can be disguised as love or truth.1
How to recognize coercive control tactics
Dr. Robert Jay Lifton is a pioneering psychiatrist whose early research explored how authoritarian systems use psychological pressure to reshape thought and behavior. In his landmark 1961 book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Dr. Lifton outlined eight key markers of thought reform—a framework that continues to shape how we understand coercive control in cults, extremist groups, and abusive systems today.
1. Milieu Control – The group controls all communication, including what members read, say, and even think.
2. Mystical Manipulation – The group engineers experiences to appear spiritually or supernaturally meaningful.
3. Demand for Purity – The world is divided into pure vs. impure, right vs. wrong—and members are expected to strive for total moral conformity.
4. Confession – Members are pressured to reveal personal faults, doubts, or past sins, often in public or group settings.
5. Sacred Science – The group’s doctrine is considered absolute, unquestionable, and beyond debate.
6. Loading the Language – Specialized jargon or slogans are used to compress ideas, restrict thinking, and enforce group norms.
7. Doctrine Over Person – Personal experiences or needs are dismissed if they conflict with group teachings.
8. Dispensing of Existence – The group determines who is worthy of inclusion, salvation, or even existence—often framing outsiders or defectors as spiritually dead or dangerous.2
1. Adapted from Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias, Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships, 2nd ed. (Bay Tree Publishing, 2006), Chapter 1. Original source cited: Michael D. Langone, “Cults: Questions and Answers,” International Cultic Studies Association, p. 5.
2. Adapted from Robert Jay Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing” in China (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1961).
