ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some of the situations–the beliefs, practices, organisations and processes–that might be of relevance to mental health practitioners as they try to unravel the influences affecting any particular individual or group of individuals with whom they are concerned. Investigations of cases in which ex-members are found to be suffering from mental illness are often those in which there was a history of mental disturbance before the person joined. The tendency that non-members have to blame new religious movements (NRM) for a whole range of problems is understandable: it absolves everyone else from blame, and, at least in the short term, it provides a useful scapegoat as a way of resolving–or hiding–more serious underlying causes of mental breakdown. In NRMs, one can frequently observe both subtle and not-so-subtle interpretations of experiences being offered in order to justify and/or reinforce a group’s position.
