THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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14.5.4. Experience of demonic possession
S's experience of possession preceded his satanic involvement, and indicates the intrusive
re-introjection of a projected destructive part of himself, identified with a bad internal
object. The demonic object, personified in the hallucination of an oriental male figure (3),
suggests a bad paternal part-object, shaped by alien and exotic visual images that the four
year-old S may have been exposed to. By means of splitting defences, this hostile,
persecutory object became its opposite, an idealised paternal part-object, and its original
destructive aspects were unconsciously attributed to other possessing demons, which
hated, attacked and inflicted pain on S (21,22,26). Introjective identification with the
possessing bad object created a highly autonomous psychic structure, an omnipotent
subpersonality comprising projected destructive self representations, and aspects of the
split paternal part-objects. S's identification with this subpersonality created grandiose
fantasies of supernatural power, and aggressive control over others, which provided
defensive compensation for his historical experience of being an inferior, rejected, and
unlovable child.
Once he encountered occult mythology, S associated his possessing presence with the
figure of Satan, an awesome and exalted father figure, who loved and admired S's
grandiose and destructive qualities. S's narcissistic identification with the destructive
subpersonality, personified as Satan, remained gratifying as long as he remained slavishly
subservient to this personified psychic structure. However, entertaining libidinal parts of
himself, and failing to strictly observe Satan's wishes, instantly activated the persecutory
aspects ofthe bad object, thereby prompting S's experience ofmalevolent internal attacks,
with their associated dramatic physical manifestations (68,182,183). These possession
symptoms were most extreme when S allowed himself to undergo Christian exorcism
ceremonies, as indicated in the following section.
14.5.5. Motives for leaving Satanism and the experience of this process.
A number of events played a part in S's gradual inability to remain in the cult. Firstly, S
believed that his beloved "real" mother was abducted and sacrificed by Satanists. His
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