Escaping Utopia

<p>We think of cults as bizarre inexplicable or otherworldly places that only strange people inhabit but cults and other abusive and high-demand groups (and relationships) are actually quite commonplace. In fact the behaviors social pressures and authoritarian structures that create cults exist to a greater or lesser extent in every human relationship and every human group. </p><p>In the first in-depth research of its kind the author interviewed sixty-five people who were born in or grew up in thirty-nine different cultic groups spanning more than a dozen countries. What’s especially interesting about these individuals is that they each left the cult on their own without outside help or internal support. In <i>Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult Getting Out and Starting Over</i> the authors craft Lalich’s original and groundbreaking research into an accessible and engaging book the first of its kind focusing on this particular population. </p>