ABSTRACT
Milestone 12 is designed to help the reader reflect on the nature and type of the leadership of their coercive, cultic and/or spiritually abusive group or relationship. The former member is likely to have been told, and believed, that the leader/ship was/were either a God, a chosen channel of a god, or otherwise superhuman, unique or special, and more important than other people. This Milestone provides an opportunity to expose the hypocrisy, personality disorders and ordinariness of cultic leaders, and help break their remaining psychological hold by humanising and unmasking them. There are brief sections on the human need for authority figures, and on non-abusive leaders. Different categories of leaders are explored, including both traumatising and subtle narcissists, those with and without profile and status in wider society, historical founders and those who dominate individuals and families. There are discussions of former members’ experiences of abusive leaders and of the structure of the cultic group or relationship. Worksheets throughout this Milestone help the reader reflect on and chew over their experiences. These include attributes of abusive leaders; humanising them; reflecting on personal experience of the leader/ship; over-identification with the leader/ship; and whether the leader/ship was ‘evil’.
