Collateral Damage in Stockholm

Collateral Damage is the name of the poster that

Collateral Damage in a high control group

I've just presented at the  International Cultic Study Association 2015 in Stockholm. This year the title of the Conference was "Children in High Control Groups", and that's what is depicted in the poster, regarding an anonymised, but global education movement.

The poster has been amazingly well received with comments such as "it's a very strong image", "it's beautiful, really powerful", "Excellent idea",  "blown away", "incredible", "beautiful", and represenative of cults in general.

What's been gratifying to me as an artist is the way people have responded to the image emotionally. but sadly I've had to take my husband Steve's word for that, as I wasn't actually there. 

Because allthough I "got to" the Conference I did not manage to "get myself" to the conference, due to impairment, and was at home with the kids and so did not partake of the interesting discussions there in person.

Steve saw this!

We made this huge effort to participate in spite of the fact that I couldn't actually go because of what happened two years ago in 2013 when I gave a presentation at the ICSA conference in Trieste.  One day I'll write the full story of how Trieste  physically scarred me for life (it's a macabre comedy), but for now I just want to mention how we, Steve and I, were super careful not to talk about going to that conference on social media because of knowing for sure that we were being stalked by the very same people who were pretending not to want anything to do with us, even though we couldn't prove it then. 

In fact that's what the presentation was about, "Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire - confirmation bias in online groups", looked at how the same "cultic" tendencies found in high control groups could and were replicating themselves online even in groups claiming to be the opposite of that.  Being a bit of a niche subject, a conference full of other people with experience of high control groups seemed like a good place to be.

ICSA 2013 - manipulation & abuse

So although I was so excited to be in Italy, I didn't want to tweet about it but a couple of days before the conference, while we were in Venice on a day trip, Steve happened to tweet a picture. I didn't want him to do it, but he just couldn't resist because it was Venice. 

What happened next we only found out retrospectively through the necessity of taking legal action. I don't feel able to write about what exactly came to light at this time, but suffice it to say it confirmed our suspicions about the weird responses I was getting, especially comments about my mental health, suspicions about what my stalkers would be prepared to do, and so much more besides, and proved that I was very right to be wary about advertising that I was heading to the conference.

In spite of all that, the feedback from the presentation (which even had some comedy), was very good, and Steve asked the President of ICSA, Dr. Steve K. D. Eichel for a comment, and here it is:

"I enjoyed Angel’s presentation because she touched on a very, very difficult dynamic, one that I believe happens far more than we want to think, one that involves an ability to work hard to understand nuance. In the cult field—as I have found in any highly controversial field in which there are at least 2 positions passionately held and defended—I think “reality” often lies between the poles rather than within one or the other. Angel’s   presentation was a sad and real but very well explicated example of that."

I felt it showed that what I was trying to get at was definitely coming across, so that proved for me that it was the right place to take that very difficult material.

Trieste!

Not only that, but they've invited us back to participate more than once. So I'd like to say thank you to ICSA for genuinely being about exploring high control types of behaviour with the intention of not further promulgating them, instead of buying into cloak and dagger "cultish" mental health smearing.

And thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments about the poster. :)

Anonymising the actual group involved has been a very interesting journey towards becoming clearer about the mechanics of high control, and about the fundamental part collateral damage plays and I'm stoked that Diana Pletts, who runs the Phoenix Art Project at ICSA, commented about the image can apply to any so-termed cult.

And it's true that in any high control group, acolytes and adepts of all shapes and sizes shuffle and wriggle to belong, and continue to do this even if things happen that they know to be morally wrong, including when those who resist control are turned on and hurt by the group, and this compliance can only be achieved in a basically moral person by blanking that knowledge out. 

Once the blanking out of collateral damage is simply depicted, the impossibility of a dynas-tree truly living the ideals trumpeted in the leaves and branches becomes very clear, as it is a floating top, with no connection to the massive wodge of old roots below.

Michael Kropveld and Michael Langone of ICSA with the poster