Interview with Dr. Alexandra Stein

Dr. Alexandra Stein

Interview with Dr. Alexandra Stein

I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Alexandra Stein, a noted expert on cults and author of Terror, Love and Brainwashing. She was drawn into a cult herself at one point, and has studied the defining features of high-control groups, systems and relationships.

The following is an excerpt of our conversation.

Christine Axsmith

Hi everyone, we are welcoming Dr. Alexandra Stein. Doctor Stein is an expert on how cults work. And she herself was in a political cult.

It was my observation when I worked at the terrorism center that the people who used violence to get what they wanted were most likely to be killed by their friends. And second most likely to be killed by the government they were fighting, or whoever it was that they were fighting.

Hannah Arendt talks about the fictions of political cults, the imagined glories that are used to motivate members. Is there something you feel you could speak to?

Dr. Alexandra Stein

I think her point, and it relates very closely to my work as inspired by her, is that the belief systems of these groups are based on fiction, So they don't reflect or represent reality. And there's many reasons for that, and many and different effects of that.