The Cult Phenomenon and its Impact on the American Culture

Abstract

This study investigates the proliferation of the cults phenomenon in the American society mainly after the Second World War. It provides a brief historical account on the genesis of the cults in the United States of America analysing the different cultic types according to different perspectives. The study was characterized by different groupings that altered from each other according to their main ideologies. The scope of the study emphasizes much on the mushrooming of the cultic groups associated with the ‘New Age’ culture which sought innovation within the American society. Therefore, the current study has a crucial importance to shed light on the way political, religious and psychotherapeutic cultic groups are nowadays functioning in the main parts of the US. The research approach followed in this dissertation is a political and a psychoanalytic one. The findings from the research provide evidence that the emergence of organized cultic entities in the 1950s lied behind several views. One of them is the liberal view guaranteed in the American Constitution. The second perspective is the ‘laissez faire’ policy and the third horizon of the ‘American Dream’ conception is the ‘melting pot’ doctrine.