THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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perversion of the Holy Mass, it increases personal power through the incorporation of
another being's life-force, it establishes a covenant with Satan, and promotes an
identification based on the fantasy of internalising the spirit of Satan with which the
blood is suffused. The fantasy of introjectively identifying with Satan is, of course, a
ritual extension of the universal infantile oral-incorporative fantasy of securely
establishing the good maternal breast-mother within by eating it along with the milk it
produces. Thus, by virtue of the fluid nature of identity processes and structures, the
satanic initiate is not only a child of Satan, but also identifies with this figure by means of
incorporative fantasy. This gives rise to a state of consciousness which lung
appropriately labelled inflation, resulting from the submergence of the ego in
identification with some aspect of the collective unconscious, in this case, a god
archetype. "In his religious ecstacy", says Jung of the pagan mystery cult initiate, "the
neophyte makes himself the equal of the stars" (Jung, 1952, p. 87). The same may be
said of the satanic initiate, but with destructive psychic consequences. The result is that
the pre-existing destructive subpersonality or autonomous complex becomes the
dominant part of the psyche, leading to a state of hypomania and ego-syntonic sadistic
behaviour. Subject two gave conscious expression to this identification fantasy: "It's like
allowing him (Satan) to be reincarnate inside me. Let me pull his nature into me, let me
become like him, and think like him. fr I can take on the mentality, his way of doing
things, then I've got that power". The combination of arrogance, hatred and contempt for
others that characterises this narcissistic state is captured by subject six: "As a Satanist, I
absolutely loved myself, and looked down on others with absolute disdain. I developed a
deep hatredfor my fellow man. andfelt I was above everyone else".
Satanists, upon being initiated into a coven, do not merely gain a surrogate father, but
also a surrogate family into which they feel accepted and welcomed. Subject four
conveys this: "I felt good ... important, like I now officially belonged to something
important. I felt needed, like I belonged. I was now a member, people cared for me".
Given the above aspects of the initiation ritual, it is not surprising that Satanists initially