THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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The final column contains the number of the central theme/s identified in the descriptive
phase from which this information derived, thereby allowing the reader to trace the
interpretations back to the original natural meaning units. The tabulation of this
information into six columns provides a schematic historical overview of each subject's
representational world in relation to pre-satanic and satanic experiences, together with
the interpersonal contexts and fantasy-based perception ofthese experiences.
2. Interpretation of subjects' satanic involvement in terms of internal object relations
structures
In this stage, the tabulated information from the previous stage was integrated and used to
formulate a comprehensive object relations interpretation of each subject's satanic
involvement in terms of the inferred personality suborganisations structuring the
identified self and object representations. This was done by identifying the behavioural
and experiential indications that the self and object representations identified in the
previous stage were components ofbroader, dissociated, "subdivisions of the ego that are
heavily identified with an object representation while maintaining the capacities of the
whole ego for thought, perception, and feeling" (Ogden, 1990, p. 150). Identifying these
personality suborganisations and their specific qualities, together with the developmental
life events constituting the interactional foundation for these personality structures,
should demonstrate that satanic behaviour and its associated "supernatural" experiences
can readily be understood in terms of internal object relations, deriving from pathogenic
early childhood experiences with parental figures. The comprehensive interpretation
generated for each research subject is organised under subheadings addressing the five
research questions indicated earlier. For reference purposes, the numbers ofthe essential
themes emerging from the descriptive-phenomenological phase are included in brackets
after each important interpretive observation. This allows readers to check the
researcher's interpretations by tracing them back to the original (pre-interpretive) natural
meaning units.