A Cult Member Turned Expert Explains How Anyone Can Be Brainwashed

Kate Leaver's article for Broadly profiles Dr. Alexandra Stein and her cult experience:

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/9k9bwy/a-cult-member-turned-expert-explains-how-anyone-can-be-brainwashed

The following passage seems to describe how Psychology of Vision operates--

It's like being absorbed into a group of false, sometimes cruel friends. Cults have the illusion of solidarity, but Stein describes them as a perverse group of deeply lonely individuals who have lost the will and the capacity to make decisions on their own. "You can't confide in anyone in a cult," she says. "If you say, 'There seems to be a problem here,' you will be likely to be punished, so there's nowhere to go. You're scared but you've got nobody else left in your life, so you cling to the very people who are causing you that fear."

That's how cults operate: on a cycle of fear and attachment. It's Stockholm Syndrome, only more insidious and confusing because you feel like you made the choice to join when you started out.