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In Reply to: Re: True Story about Mind Control posted by CB on January 18, 2007 at 09:00:20:
I've been thinking a lot recently about this issue of infantilization (without knowing it was called that) as it applies to my story. After I left TF, I pretty much had to start my life over, and so in my mid to late 30s and into my 40s, I was doing what most people do in their teens or young adult lives. I went to university, I explored my inner and outer worlds, I partied, etc. Looking back at that those times, it was as if I had never really matured after I joined the cult when I was 16, but did all my real maturing, and learning, after I left it in my mid-30s.
When I read the stories of minors abused in TF, or news articles on kidnapped children, or watch documentaries like the very powerful Hand of God (see OT2's post below) I find myself really relating to those stories, even though I was never physically or sexually abused myself. I know that may offend some of those who did suffer in those ways, but my empathy is real nonetheless.
It has occurred to me that one of the reasons I identify with survivors of such abuse is that I was psychologically abused. I was mind-raped by Family indoctrination, which was the natural progression from the love-bombing so common to cults like TF. Love-bombing soon progressed to fear-mongering. It did not take very long, just a matter of weeks, before they had successfully indoctrinated me and separated me from the world, because I did not have the maturity and intellectual capacity to withstand the onslaught of dogmatism. Of course, using the Bible as their source of authority only made it that much harder for me to resist their cunning. And after indoctrination, it was largely fear that kept me controlled.
I think you're right in identifying fear as the common factor that connects all these stories.
