|
In Reply to: this is a good online support forum! posted by goth88 on July 02, 2002 at 15:12:45:
You are absolutely right, there are no support groups for excult members. We basically have to make our own. I like your idea of "support groups" - there was an attempt at one time to have "fellowships" and that idea went over like a lead balloon. I don't think we need "fellowships" we need support groups. I have been reading a very interesting paper done by Miriam Williams (she also wrote Heaven's Harlots) - called Women after the Utopia. I wish she would put it on line but she said she has to check if she can. She talks about reintering mainstream society and how hard it was on the women in particular. She says, "Exiting members, and their friends and families, had little understanding of what they were experiencing after they left and did not comprehend resocialization as a natural process. The analysis of the identity issues reveals that many of the respondents "lived" in an inbetween place that was neither the cult environment nor mainstream society." I hope she doesn't mind me quoting from her paper. It's a good paper and brings up some very important issues. I think that inbetween place she talks about haunted me for many years until I finally came on line and found other exmembers to talk to. No one else can fully understand.
