THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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form, happens prior to satanic involvement in order to counteract the pre-Satanists'
experience of vulnerability, inadequacy, and worthlessness in relation to hostile or
rejecting parental figures, around which the subpersonality nucleates. Satanism is
attractive to pre-Satanists because it presents them with a mythical, organisational, and
ritual structure that resonates unconsciously with their pre-existing defensive strategy of
siding with the destructive subpersonality. By becoming one with Satan, and thereby
consciously identifying with a mythical representation ofthe persecutory identity structure,
the enemy within is befiiended and supplicated. Furthermore, identification fantasies
create the narcissistic delusional belief that the demonic entities' powers are now one's
own. This creates psychic states of omnipotent inflation, in which Satanists believe that
they have supernatural powers and can magically control the actions of others.
Identification with destructive parts of the self is actively facilitated by satanic rituals, and
ceremonially expressed in sadistic cult activities such as sacrifices, Black Mass ceremonies,
etc.
15.3 Application of the archetypal object relations model to discussion of the
research findings
In Chapter Fourteen, following the analysis of subjects' individual interviews, general
answers to the five research questions were presented in terms of the object relations
model discussed in Chapter Ten. These general findings, under the research question
headings, will now be discussed from the perspective of the archetypal object relations
model summarised above. In addition, relevant aspects of the individual interview
analyses will be cited to both illustrate and qualify general observations.
15.3.1 Factors predisposing individuals to satanic cult involvement
Jung (1940) was struck by the extent to which modern people, under the sway of
archetypal experience, re-enact age-old collective mythical dramas in their personal lives.
This is strikingly evident in the research subjects who, without consciously realising it,
lived out the Biblical narrative of Satan's expulsion from heaven in their families of origin.
They all experienced themselves to be rejected sons or daughters, excluded from a sense