ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the Group Attachment Interview, modeled on the well-validated Adult Attachment Interview, as a way to discern the presence of a disorganized bond to a group. The language usage of former members can reveal “psychological traces” that may remain following traumatic brainwashing processes experienced within totalist groups. This pilot study provides the basis for a scientific assessment of such processes in former members. I connect the concept of disorganized attachment to Lifton’s “doubling”, showing the two-fold nature of those subject to brainwashing and how it is possible for the “totalist self” to co-exist with the “autonomous self”.
