["Lump them all together?" Critical remarks on the psychoanalysis of so-called "destructive cults"]

Contributions to the psychoanalysis of so-called "destructive cults" are reviewed and criticized for several overgeneralizations. In order to gain a full understanding of religious feelings and commitments it is necessary to distinguish between different qualities of regression in a religious context. Religious groups differ in their "psychological offers" and therefore tendencywise in their members' personality structures, too. With regard to destructive developments of religious groups we must consider that collective projective identification with these groups can encourage such trends. Empirical results concerning commitments to so-called "destructive cults" are highly dependent on paradigms and research methods. In their entirety they rather contradict the assumption that the majority of these groups' members has severe personality disorders. As a consequence of the current status of research and discussion, religiosity should be respected as a complex domain of human experience that, despite the possibility of mixing with psychopathological tendencies, should not necessarily lose its creative potential.