THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

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newly acquired power typically changes subjects' perception of themselves and, as a
consequence, others' perceptions of them as well. This is powerfully gratifying, as
subject four indicates: "Through using black magic, there was a change in my self-image.
1 was confident. felt in control... This change in my self-image got me a lot offriends.
People wanted to be in my company".
The Satanist's magical beliefs indicate the regressive resurrection of infantile
omnipotence, where thought and action are equated, and the adaptive tension between the
symbolic world of fantasy and reality is collapsed. This form of psychotic thinking in
which no distinction is made between symbol and symbolised, is vividly illustrated in
subjects' conviction that a conscious murderous fantasy would automatically result in the
death ofthe target individual. Subject two stated: "There were people 1 actually cursed ...
and they died ... 1 could sit here and say to you, '1 command you to die ... and you'd die,
physically die". This magical thinking, which Freud (1912) referred to as omnipotence of
thought, is the product of projective identification, where the fantasy of locating
destructive parts of the self in the object and attacking it in this manner, is naturally
assumed to result in the death of the object. Satanic rituals assume the reality of magical
powers, and so facilitate the conscious elaboration of destructive projective
identifications, which usually remain unconscious in non-Satanists in order to protect
them from depressive anxiety and guilt. In the environment of the satanic cult, however,
guilt has no place, and free reign is given to both the expression and realisation of the
most sadistic fantasies. These fantasies are gratifying, not merely because they defend
individuals against underlying feelings of impotence and inferiority, but also because they
are the means by which Satanists take revenge on the hated internal parental figures,
projected into others. It is thus hardly surprising that so much time and energy is
expended in rituals devoted to using malevolent magic to punish and kill those perceived
to have in any way harmed cult members. Subject two recalls, "1felt a powerful sense of
control and pride. exhilaration andpower over life and death, confidence and assurance
that 1had no fear ofpeople, and that 1 could kill anyone and get away with it".