THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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Meltzer (1979) employs the concept of sadistic perversity to describe an essentially manic
state ofmind in which the self has become identified with, or captured by, this destructive
psychic component. This perversity, based on destructiveness rather than sensuality,
combines two sadistic strategies. Firstly, as it is essentially envious, its wish is not to
have what is contained in good objects (love, creativity, compassion, etc.), but to actively
destroy these qualities. Secondly, because destruction does not alone suffice, perverse
sadism must create and embrace that which is the essential antithesis ofgoodness:
"Evil, be thou my good!" is its motto, and under this aegis it wills to create a
world which is the negative of everything in nature, in the realm of good
objects. The impulses are therefore fundamentally anti-nature and the world it
seeks to build is the world of the life-less, for whom the great anxieties of the
living ... cannot exist (p. 92).
Envy plays a central role in this regard. Klein (1957) defines envy as a destructive and
self-destructive manifestation of the death instinct whereby individuals, experiencing
themselves as deprived of good internal objects by their own destructiveness, attempt to
spoil and destroy any goodness perceived in others. Interestingly, in the ancient
Apocrypha, a link between the Devil and envy is made: "by the envy of the devil death
entered into the world" (Cited in Davies, 1969, p. 102). Envy attempts to destroy that
good which seems unattainable. By despising and devaluing traditional Christian
manifestations of 'goodness', and reversing good and bad values, Satanists unconsciously
defend themselves against acknowledging the painful reality of the absence of good
objects, and consequently self-esteem, in themselves.
A similar line of thought is pursued by Brenman (1988) in his consideration of
characterological cruelty. For Brenman, cruelty reflects a narcissistic organisation which
arises in infancy as compensation for a sense of envy and inferiority, stemming from an
awareness of separateness from the maternal object. The good internal object, and all
awareness of the human mother, is attacked and obliterated, leaving the infant at the
mercy of a cruel superego. He therefore lives in a "cruel, exacting, narrow world, which
feeds his fear and hatred, and he is forced to worship this system, subordinate himself and