A psychoanalytical approach of the cult discourse
This research is about contemporary cults and the singular psychological involvement of the cult follower. After having deconstructed the notion of mind manipulation and the idea of a transitive control of the guru toward his/her follower, the author examines the psychological issue of the cult social link, by means of clinical encounters (with current or former followers) and within the paradigm of transference. The author shows that the notion of “cult follower”, which is borrowed from the sociology of religions, is inappropriate to indicate accurately the psychological specificity of the cult experience. In response to the victimological approaches, the conditions of possibility of a non-traumatic discourse are investigated within the relations between the individual subject and the collective subject. In fine, the thesis aims at the writing of the inherent logic of the cult discursivity(ies).