The Research of Sect Leaders from the Psychoanalysis Perspective

At present, the number of religious sects in the Russian Federation is steadily growing. Despite the destructive influence that some sects have on their adherents, the personality of the leaders of such cults in psychological science has largely bypassed. In this work, this gap is eliminated as far as possible: from the theoretical positions of psychoanalytic thought, the personality of the leader of the sect will be investigated, it will be shown how the traumatic experience of childhood can influence the nature of the created sect, how the leader of the cult in the sect tries to “respond” to his childhood traumas, and how the psychoanalytic interpretation of such behavior can help psychologists in their work not only with cult leaders, but also with their adherents. For this, several leaders of religious sects were chosen, about which we have the most information: Kondraty Malevanny, David Lazaretti, and David Koresh. An empirical analysis of their biographies made it possible to reveal a discrepancy in the types of personalities of sect leaders, based on the psychoanalytic stages of psychosexual development. These types directly affect which sect will be created and what manipulations the sect leader will carry out over his supporters. It was found that the more traumatic childhood was, the more primitive were the mental defenses that an individual uses to level out anxiety and fears, the more aggressive, tougher he will behave with adherents, and the stronger his influence on the psyche of people who trusted him . An empirical study of biographies and a theoretical analysis of psychoanalytic theory also made it possible to single out the trauma from the primal scene fantasy as one of the most important components in the creation of a religious sect.