Why do we get a buzz from being in large groups at festivals, jubilees and other public events? According to the social brain hypothesis, it’s because the human brain specifically evolved to support social interactions. Studies have shown that belonging to a group can lead to improved wellbeing and increased satisfaction with life.
ICSA Annual Conference – Virtual
ICSA Annual Conference – Virtual
June 24-26, 2022, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm EST
70 Speakers, 60+ Talks/sessions, 5 Workshops, 4 Tracks
Talks are available on the Whova platform for 30-days after the conference – you may also continue to interact with speakers and attendees.
The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) is conducting its 2022 Annual International Conference jointly with Info-Secte/Info-Cult of Montreal – Speakers
The International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) is conducting its 2022 Annual International Conference jointly with Info-Secte/Info-Cult of Montreal.
ICSA Annual Conference Workshops: Working with Born and Raised-in Former Cult Members (for mental health professionals)
recovery work when compared to former members who joined cults as independent and autonomous adults.
ICSA Annual Conference: Cultic behaviour in the Church of England. A case Study
The Church of England like many churches around the world has been facing an avalanche of sexual abuse stories in recent years. My paper is not to focus on the sensationalist side of these stories but rather to look at the way that some of these accounts have distinctive cultic elements.
Trigger warnings might prolong the aversive aspects of negative memories
A study published in Memory suggests that trigger warnings could actually be counterproductive and prolong effects of recalling a negative memory.
ICSA Annual Conference: My Father Leader: A Parent Cult from Inside Out
My Father Leader: A Parent Cult from Inside Out
ICSA Annual Conference: Visioning the Invisible: The Traumatized Bodies of Racialized Cult Members and Survivors.
This talk is an opening, a crack to let light into considerations of racialized survivor experience with hopes to expand this conversation, and invitations to research the lives, challenges, healing journeys, and to visibilize the living bodies of cult survivors of color.
ICSA Annual Conference: Former members’ process of recognizing and coping with experience of coercive control in religious cultic groups
The aim of this presentation is to analyze the process by which former members recognized and named forms of control, experiences of abuse and experiences of violence during her or his life within a religious cultic group after leaving the group.
ICSA Annual Conference: Unpacking Belief Systems
How do people get trapped in cults? One tool cults use is emotional and mental coercion to exercise undue influence keeping people stuck in the group. Even without physically holding people prisoner, it is possible to hold them by building a closed system of beliefs and isolating them from other ideas.