Hassan calls his outline the "BITE Model," which stands for behavior, information, thought, and emotional control. Let's review a few of the traits of each category and see if any of them sound familiar.
- Behavior control: "major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals"; "need to ask permission for major decisions"; "need to report thoughts, feelings, and activities to superiors."
- Information control: "access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged (keep members so busy they don't have time to think)" and "extensive use of cult-generated information (newsletters, magazines, journals, audio tapes, videotapes, etc.)."
- Thought control: "need to internalize the group's doctrine as 'Truth' (black and white thinking; good vs. evil; us vs. them, inside vs. outside)" and "no critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate."
- Emotional control: "excessive use of guilt (identity guilt: not living up to your potential; social guilt; historical guilt)"; "phobia indoctrination (irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader's authority; cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group; shunning of leave takers; never a legitimate reason to leave"; and "from the group's perspective, people who leave are 'weak,' 'undisciplined.'
The author, whose name is, well let's leave his name aside for now. The thing is he immediately goes on to make it clear he doesn't really mean graduate school is like a cult.
But we get to the bottom of the piece and we learn that our author is:
Thomas H. Benton is the pseudonym of an assistant professor of English at a Midwestern liberal-arts college.
Okay, that was back in 2004. Nowadays he discloses his name—it's William Pannapacker—but back in 2004 he didn't. What's changed in the meanwhile? I suspect he has tenure now. But doesn't all of this make you think maybe graduate school is a cult after all?
No comments:
Post a Comment