Breaking Sessions

Techniques > Conversion > Breaking Sessions

Bombard them with accusations | Keep going until they crack | Remake them | See also

Breaking sessions are one of the methods used by extreme groups as a way of identity destruction .

Bombard them with accusations

The basic scenario is to isolate the person and to start accusing them of various transgressions. It may start with small things that is easy for them to admit and then steadily escalate with admonishments of breaking important values and even being fundamentally bad and shameful.

This process may well be done by a number of people. The more people and the higher up in the group they are, the more effective this method becomes. Few people can ignore accusations flying at them from all angles and especially from people they have grown to love and respect.

Keep going until they crack

The point of this session is to push them past a cracking point, similar to when a person has a nervous breakdown and the session may continue well past the point where the person is huddled in a fetal position, rocking back and forth and weeping uncontrollably.

In doing this, the group wears down their sense of identity, in order to effectively destroy their personality and makes them flee from who they are. Thus this method is literally a way of character assassination.

Remake them

When the person has cracked, the next step is to approach them with kindness, to show that they are now forgiven and accepted again. They may be hugged and patted. This is done by a senior member of the group. This casts the group back into the kind and loving frame and offers a lifeline to the broken person, who of course grasps at this straw. Very gratefully, they now listen to and accept what this person has to say.

In this way, they are now remade in the shape of a conforming member of the group who is totally obedient to senior group members.