THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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maternal object plays no role in the intrapsychic life of pre-Satanists, but that its influence
appears subordinate to that of the explicitly hostile paternal introject. The interaction
between internal maternal and paternal objects is undoubtedly complex, and is not clearly
evident from the interview data. What is clear, however, is that the subjects believed
themselves to be failed by their mothers before coming to hate their fathers. In this light,
one may speculate that a negative maternal complex found intrapsychic expression in a
destructive maternal figure. Had these children turned in resentment, anger and frustration
to loving father figures, the negative qualities of the maternal introject could have been
somewhat mitigated by a good paternal introject. This might have led to a more benign
intrapsychic environment, and a different developmental outcome. Unfortunately, abusive
paternal figures not only appear to compound the maternal introject's negative qualities,
but also to provide a new object onto which aspects of the negative maternal figure may
be displaced. For this reason, Satanism appears to represent an expressly patriarchal
rebellion. For one subject (subject two), hatred towards his abusive father was so intense
that, while "possessed" by a destructive spirit, he literally enacted a patricidal fantasy by
stabbing his father in the chest: "This spirit, which J didn't even see at the time, was the
one that entered me andcaused me to get out ofbedand shove that knife into him".
However, in line with the inherent and opposed duality of archetypes, realised most
extremely in splitting defences, the experience of a hated father is accompanied by the
unconscious fantasy of an ideal, loving father. For this reason, Satanism cannot be seen
purely as a revolt against a paternal tyrant, but also as a search for a loving father. For all
ofthe subjects, Satan is undoubtedly experienced, at least initially, as an idealised paternal
surrogate. This important fact will be discussed more fully later on in the chapter.
A second predisposing factor is pre-Satanists' experience of the social world outside of
their dysfunctional families. It is here that we see the interplay between the interpersonal,
intrapsychic, and sociological factors noted in Chapter Four. In this regard, Meissner
(1987), discussing the concept of religious alienation, makes a valid observation, one
frequently overlooked by psychoanalytic theorists: