THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SATANIC CULT INVOLVEMENT: AN ...

66
psychologically disturbed deviants. Even if this a priori assumption is true, it does mean
that social scientists are approaching the study of Satanism with the same moralistic bias
as the general public. This has obvious implications for the objectivity ofthe researchers,
who try to find - in the name of objective research - what they have already assumed all
along. It is noteworthy that Moody's (1974) article is frequently cited in the
psychological literature, and yet his conclusions, based on a two-year participant
observation study of a Satanic cult group, are usually omitted. Moody concluded that
Satanic cult involvement had a beneficial psychological effect on its members, and that
.the cult provided an informal - yet successful - form of behavioural psychotherapy.
Given that this contradicts most researchers' negative assumptions about Satanism, their
omissions in this regard are telling.
Notwithstanding the problem of implicit research assumptions, the social-psychological
factors identified above as making adolescents vulnerable to Satanic involvement explain,
to a certain extent, why adolescents who feel lonely, alienated from their families and
communities, and powerless to control their lives would be attracted'to Satanism.
Integrating these posited predisposing factors allows us to see what attractions Satanism
might have for certain individuals. At one level, the attraction of Satanism is similar to
that ofany fundamentalist religion, insofar as it provides the following:
1. Absolutely unambiguous and simple answers to the meaning of life. For those
people troubled by self-doubt, existential uncertainty and the desire for a totalistic
belief structure, religious fundamentalism is very attractive.
2. Instant community identity, and sense of communally derived self-worth
provides relief from alienation and loneliness. People who feel themselves to be
outsiders in their community of origin find the ready acceptance of a cult
emotionally gratifying.