Episode 58 - Let's talk about cults: exploring the psychology of cults (Episode 1)

Tallinn University Student Podcast

Welcome to the new season of the TLU student podcast. In the first episode we discuss the topic of cults. We are joined by two experts - Tõnu Lehtsaar, a professor from TU who focuses on psychology of religion, and Polina Tšerkassova, who focuses on cultural anthropology. Come on a journey with us to understand what a cult is.

References:

Galanter, M. (1990). Cults and zealous self-help movements. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145(4), 543-551.

https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=ef30e8b8b30412ff0a1266011b8dc8db9b3862a5

Barker, E. (1986). Religious movements: Cult and anticult since Jonestown. Annual review of Sociology, 12(1), 329-346.

http://www.brahmakumaris.info/download/Cult%20related/Cults%20since%20Jonestown.pdf

Wilson, L. S., & Kwileck, S. (2003). Are these people crazy, or what? A rational choice interpretation of cults and charisma. Humanomics, 19(1), 29-44.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susan-Kwilecki/publication/235270858_Are_these_people_crazy_or_what_A_rational_choice_interpretation_of_cults_and_charisma/links/5b52a570aca27217ffaaf1e9/Are-these-people-crazy-or-what-A-rational-choice-interpretation-of-cults-and-charisma.pdf

Tretyakov, I. (2021). Destructive nature of manipulative content, created by leaders of totalitarian pseudo-religious cults. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 244, p. 11036). EDP Sciences.

https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/pdf/2021/20/e3sconf_emmft2020_11036.pdf