Informed Consent: The Work of an Early "Anti-Cult" Program

In the 1970s and 80s, there were academic, organizational, and personal fights around the issue of "cults," distilled into the phrase "the cult wars." Books and papers were written; lawsuits were filed and defended; parents hired "deprogrammers" to remove their children from groups; and ex-member's stories were sometimes dismissed as "axes to grind." The participants in these wars seemed to talk over one another in a high stakes need to define their position as the right one. In the midst of this maelstrom, Unbound, Inc., started serving clients. It was a place for people leaving "cults" to reflect on their experiences in the group and discern next steps. Unbound was a personalized, non-coercive program that emphasized education, self determination, personal discernment, and goal setting.

In this session Tammy McKanan will reflect on the work she and her colleagues did at this little known, open-door rehabilitation facility for people leaving totalist organizations.

Bio: Tammy McKanan spent five years working at Unbound, Inc., as a counselor serving people leaving high control, charismatic authoritarian groups. She is a former social worker and nonprofit manager. She has recently graduated from homeschooling her daughter, and has been in a decades-long conversation about NRM groups, coercive persuasion, and power and abuse with the organizer of this conference.