Janja Lalich's New Research Project: Seeking People to Interview

I received an email with the following request:

Janja Lalich’s New Research Project

Seeking People to Interview

I have embarked on a new research project, which I have entitled “On Our Own: How Children of Cults Manage to Survive in the ‘Outside’ World.” This project has been approved by the Human Subjects in Research Committee at California State University, Chico, where I am on the faculty in the Sociology Department.

The purpose of the project is to explore the attitudes, experiences, coping mechanisms, and issues related to societal integration of young people leaving a cultic group to enter mainstream society. I will be doing in-depth interviews, focus groups, and handing out a brief questionnaire to gather basic data.

I am particularly interested in individuals who were born and/or raised in a group and who left the group during adolescence or young adulthood on their own – that is, without their parents.

I am looking for individuals who would be willing to be interviewed – either in person or on the telephone. I prefer in-person interviews, but depending on the location, I may not have the funds to travel. In such cases, I would do a phone interview. Each interview would take approximately 1 to 2 hours. There is also a brief questionnaire to fill out providing me with basic demographic data (age, education, etc.) Participation is voluntary. Interviews will be confidential, and the identity of interviewees will be protected in any writing or presentations based on research material. My ultimate goal is to write a book on this topic.

If you are interested in being interviewed or discussing this project with me, please contact me at or call my office at 530-898-5542. This is a private phone line and no one else would hear any message left at that number. If sending an e-mail, please put “Research Project” in the subject line so that your e-mail message will stand out.

Thanks for your interest, and I hope to hear from you,
Janja Lalich, Ph.D.

See my Web site at or Janja Lalich is author of the following books:

Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships (with Madeleine Tobias) (Bay Tree, 2006)

Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults (University of California Press, 2004)

“Crazy” Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? (with Margaret Singer) (Jossey-Bass, 1996)

Cults in Our Midst (with Margaret Singer) (Jossey-Bass, 1995)

Captive Hearts, Captive Minds (with Madeleine Tobias) (Hunter House, 1994, now out of print)

And editor of Women Under the Influence: A Study of Women’s Lives in Totalist Groups (a special issue of the Cultic Studies Journal, 1997)