The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control
Review of The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking and the Law. Hassan, Steven Alan. Fielding Graduate University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2020. 28263630.
This is a thorough look at authoritarian control by someone who has themselves been a ‘Moonie’ . AS a cult leaver, he describes the group as a ‘right wing, fascist, cult’.
He takes an interesting dive into US laws, and point out how “undue influence” often applies to things like wills and testaments when refered to in law - in sum, financial matters. Yet we all know that undur¡e influence doesn’t only happen for money.
His breakdown of ‘types of cult’ is shorter than ours, but he does include the ‘Cult of Trump’ in his theories and works. (We’ll add it to our ‘to do’ list.)
There is a lot of codification in the thesis - the three step model of change, (relating to control), the eight criteria of thought reform, and more.
He clearly lays out some of the ways that language is used to manipulate, the creation of guilt and shame to ensure adherence to rules, the ‘confession’ culture (an openness that allows a leader to know where a person lies in their sphere of influence and how much they are adhering to ‘rules’.
And I was shocked to learn that coercive control, which was introduced into UK law as an offence in the past decade (and is still finding its way through the justice system to a large extent) was described as ‘coercive persuasion’ by an academic called Schein in 1961 !
The wheels of justice have always turned slowly, but that’s well over half a century!
This paper is a rich start point for anyone looking at cults, with many concepts and theories summarised into relatively digestable forms. (It’s an academin paper, so not to everyone’s taste.)
The BITE Model mentioned?
B - Behavioural Control
I - Information Control
T - Thought control
E - Emotional control
As a theory, it definitely works for authoritarian control. It doesn’t totally ‘codify’ cults, but does sum up the authoritarian control that cult leaders develop and rely upon to maintain their positions.
