322. Hargrove, Barbara. "Integrative and Transformative Religions." In Understanding the New Religions edited by Jacob Needleman and George Baker. New York: Seabury, 1978c.
"New" religions are those whose relations with established groups are problematic, while "religions" provide basic, primary models for the organization of, and give meaning to, life, and a sense of identity to followers. Their meaning systems must be made explicit in myth, and there must be regular social contact among adherents. Some members will say that est, for example is a religion. If significantly many of them agree, then it ought to be studied as such.
Hargrove suggests a functionalist typology. Following Loye (1977) she distinguishes alienation ("unhappiness with present norm constraints" (p. 261) and a desire to replace them) from anomie ("socially-induced dismayÊ·Êwith any situation that shatters the norms" (ibid.)). This leads to a Gilbert and Sullivanish ("Yeomen of the Guard") concept of two personality types, one leftish, the other conservative, which are respectively served by religious groups falling along a continuum which runs from the transformative pole to the integrative.
Integrative religions offer specific organization, an emphasis on boundary maintenance, specific myth and ritual, a stringent code of behavior, and a clearly identified community. The transformative type reverses most of these characteristics. It provides an open ritual and myth, loose organization, and flexible boundaries wherein community is a matter of idiosyncratic relations.
323. ÷÷÷. "Evil Eyes and Religious Choices." Society 17, 1980: 20-24.
Relates the accusations about "brainwashing" in new religious movements to evil eye beliefs cloaked in a pseudo-psychological framework, wherein the "technology" of psychology is employed to make and hold converts, and similar magic must be used to counter these forces. Although Hargrove is at some pains to debunk these notions, she yet implicitly accepts them in stating "given the [unspecified] evidence that deprogrammingÊ·Êcontains the possibility ofÊ·Êpsychological manipulation, former members who have undergone this process may scarcely be expected to be reliable witnesses" (p. 20). [While the conclusion is accurate÷it is a recognized phenomenon that converts will distort their experiences before conversion, in order to legitimize it÷her reasons for reaching it imply that brainwashing has been employed by the groups in question (there isn't much doubt that deprogrammers make use of these techniques, to varying degrees) and that it may work. Some deprogrammees do indeed deconvert, but it doesn't appear to be necessarily the case that this is because of the deprogramming.]
Conversion can be seen to be a quite ordinary process, and its marked increase during the sixties and seventies can be attributed to social disarray and the ignoring of religious values. Reductionist, demonizing brainwashing accusations protect the establishment from the necessity of viewing its own defects despite their implied negation of establishment values (independent free will, etc.)
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