Sectarian tendencies

• Michel MONROY
  Psychiatrist
  

Summary

Sects provoke personal experiences, give rise to investigations and arouse indignation. However, denouncing them is not enough to get rid of the evil within. Firstly, one has to understand the mechanisms of sectarian tendencies. Michel Monroy, who has studied sects for a long time, suggests identifying and interpreting the mechanisms of allegiance, the construction of an artificial world, borrowing elements from the therapeutic, religious and ethical worlds and the twisted applications of these elements. One can therefore understand from their speeches, structures and visions of humanity how totalitarian groups come into existence. One can also ask oneself what our society has become if it requires the creation of such groups where people temporarily feel better here than elsewhere.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

• The entire article was written by Lucien CLAES.

To obtain this article, you can :

• download it for free in French (PDF help) or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference VC270599).

The entire article appears in French in the Journal de l'École de Paris du management N° 21.