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Steven Hassan
Steven Hassan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Hassan in 2019 | |
| Occupation | Mental health counselor (specializing in destructive cults),[1] author, lecturer |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Subject | Psychology, mind control, cults |
| Website | |
| freedomofmind | |
Steven Alan Hassan (pronounced /hɑːsɪn/) is an American mental health counselor who has written on the subject of mind control and how to help people who have been harmed by the experience. He has been helping people exit destructive cults since 1976. Hassan has appeared on the TV news programs 60 Minutes, Nightline, and Dateline, and is a published author and lecturer.
Hassan is a former member of the Unification Church, and he founded Ex-Moon Inc. in 1979.[2][3] In 1999 Hassan developed what he describes as non-coercive methods to help members of cults to quit their groups. In 2012, Hassan introduced the BITE model which describes the methods that cults use to recruit and maintain control.
Background[edit]
Hassan became a member of the Unification Church in the 1970s, at the age of 19, while studying at Queens College. In 1985, he received his Master's degree in counseling psychology from Cambridge College. He went on to become a licensed mental health counselor in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1991. In his first book, Combatting Cult Mind Control (1988), he described his recruitment as the result of the unethical use of powerful psychological influence techniques by members of the Church.[4] He spent over two years recruiting and indoctrinating new members, as well as fundraising and campaigning.[5] In 2020, Hassan received his PhD in Organizational Change and Development from Fielding Graduate University.
Career[edit]
Hassan has studied hypnosis and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis[6] and the International Society of Hypnosis.[7]
In 1979, following the Jonestown mass suicide and murders, Hassan founded a non-profit organization called "Ex-Moon Inc.". The organization consisted of over four hundred former members of the Unification Church.[5] Hassan studied the thought reform theories of Robert Jay Lifton, and concluded that he was "able to see clearly that the Moon organization uses all eight" characteristics of thought reform as described by Lifton.[8] Hassan also studied the work of Richard Bandler and John Grinder who developed neuro-linguistic programming, the works of Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, and Gregory Bateson.[citation needed] Hassan's study of such sources helped him to develop his theories on mind control, counseling and intervention.[9]
Hassan has spoken out against involuntary deprogramming since 1980.[7][10] In Combatting Cult Mind Control, he stated that "the non-coercive approach will not work in every case, it has proved to be the option most families prefer. Forcible intervention can be kept as a last resort if all other attempts fail."[11]
In 1995, Michael Langone questioned Hassan's "humanistic counseling approach." Langone suggested that Hassan's intervention method "runs the risk of imposing clarity, however subtly" and "thereby manipulating the client." [12] More recently, President Steve Eichel noted that the ICSA Board of Directors has been supportive of Hassan's current (21st century) client-centered approach to counseling.[13]
In 1999, Hassan founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center.[14] The center is registered as a domestic profit corporation in the state of Massachusetts, and Hassan is president and treasurer.[15]
In his third book, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs (2012), Hassan presents Lifton's and Singer's models alongside his own BITE model.[16] Based on research and theory by those who studied brainwashing in Maoist China, as well as cognitive dissonance theory, Steven Hassan developed the BITE Model (Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control) to describe the specific methods that cults use to recruit and maintain control over people.[17]
After the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Hassan was interviewed by some reporters to explain his view of the bombers' state of mind and how he believed mind control was involved.[18][19][20]
In August 2018, Hassan delivered a TEDx talk on technology and mind control at TEDxBeaconStreet Salon.[21]
Personal life[edit]
Hassan is married and is a practicing Jew, having returned to the faith tradition of his childhood.[17]
See also[edit]
Books[edit]
- Combatting Cult Mind Control, 1988. ISBN 0-89281-243-5 — reissued 1990 (ISBN 978-0-89281-311-7) and 2015 (Combating ..., ISBN 978-0967068824).
- Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, 2000. ISBN 0-9670688-0-0.
- Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9670688-1-7.
- The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control, October 2019. ISBN 9781982127336.
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