THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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led to a dramatic reversal of her striving to win parental approval by becoming the perfect
child. Instead, S attempted to become the worst child she could be, thereby adopting a
negative identity in defensive reaction to an overwhelming sense ofhurt and rejection.
The role enactment of this negative identity meant the immediate cessation of her
scholastic efforts, and the active embrace of the deviant behaviour of an older female peer
clique (18). S's parents' decision to send her to boarding school intensified her experience
of rejection, and her desire for revenge (20). S was initially relieved to be away from her
parents, who she associated with abuse and exploitation (21), but also felt the need for
parental support, and was hurt by their failure to contact her (22). S's initial loneliness
and desire to return home ceased once she became accepted into a school peer group (23).
S enjoyed the company of older peers, and experienced a sense of belonging (25). On the
instructions of prefects, S willingly physically aggressed other helpless junior students
(26). This signifies another significant shift in S's identification processes, namely
identification with the abusive paternal object, rather than with the abused self component
of this object relation. She treated other children in the same aggressive manner that she
felt her father had treated her, thereby allowing a defensive distancing from her vulnerable
self representation. This allowed her to feel powerful and controlling, as well as providing
gratification from the respect and fear her aggressive behaviour elicited (27). The
recognition of others, which S had never received from her parents, now derived from her
aggressive arrogance (28). Having been the victim of domination, S now relished the
ability to dominate others (29).
14.1.2. Process of satanic involvement and initiation
S's adoption of a negative identity, based on her identification with an abusive paternal
object, set the stage for the satanic elaboration of her destructive personality
suborganisation. Satanic involvement, for S, clearly represented the acquisition of
additional power (30,38). The gradual process of her full satanic involvement began with
her introduction to occult games, an activity which impressed her with a perception of
supernatural forces (32).
These forces may be understood as projective manifestations of
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