The Cult Withdrawal Syndrome: A Case of Misattribution of Cause?*

The central contention of opponents of new religious groups has been that adherents are subjected to coercive mind control. One important type of evidence marshalled to support this argument has been that former members of these groups show a distinctive psychological syndrome which is attributable to psychologically deleterious practices in "cults." One version of that syndrome is Conway and Siegelman's "information disease." Alternatively, a sociological role theory based explanation would suggest that the primary source of any emotional turbulence in former members of new religious groups would result from the dynamics of the exit process. Survey data on 154 members of controversial religious groups were used to explore these two alternative explanations. No relationship was found between Conway and Siegelman's predictors of information disease and the symptoms they identified. By contrast, a strong relationship was found between mode of exit and these symptoms. The data suggest, therefore, that the exit process rather than group experiences is the source of the kinds of emotional turbulence putatively labeled information disease.