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Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2007
Fear and Pride in Ideographic Identification
Amy Osmond
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to
construct a critical rhetorical paradigm from which to analyze the persuasive
strategies of destructive cults. First, I attempt to create more of a space for
the use of the discipline of communication in the interdisciplinary project of
understanding cult processes; I do this by reframing coercive persuasion
(Schein, 1961) as a process of rhetorical identification (Burke, 1950). Second,
I attempt to expand the work of McGee (1980) and Cloud (2004), arguing that
ideographic identification can be used to explain social identification in
destructive cults. Third, using the personal journal of one original member of
the Davis County Cooperative Society as a case study, I argue that destructive
cults use discourses of fear and pride to persuade people to become committed to
exploitive ideologies.
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