Large Group Awareness Training (or LGAT) refers to the training methods used by some companies, in what has been referred to as the human potential movement. By using the LGAT techniques, these companies claim to increase self-awareness and manifest positive personal changes in individuals' lives.[1] These programs have been compared to group therapy [citation needed] and religious revival meetings[citation needed]. Langone referred to Large Group Awareness Training as new age trainings [2] and Philip Cushman referred to them as mass marathon trainings [3]
Most large group awareness training programs have psychiatrists and psychologists involved with them.[4] The training programs often involve more than two hundred people at a time. Though early definitions cited LGAT as being of unusually long duration, more recent texts cite the training as lasting from a few hours to a few days. About a million Americans have attended LGAT seminars.[5]
Definition
An unrelated conference hall filled with clapping people. Large Group Awareness Training often takes place in Conference halls or Hotels.
DuMerton described Large Group Awareness Training as "teaching simple, but often overlooked wisdom, which takes place over the period of a few days, in which individuals receive intense, emotionally-focused instruction." [5] Rubinstein compared Large Group Awareness Training to certain principles of cognitive therapy, such as the idea that people can change their lives by interpreting the way they view external circumstances[6]. And, in "Consumer Research: Postcards from the edge", when discussing behavioral and economic studies, the 'enclosed locations' used with Large Group Awareness Trainings were contrasted to the 'relatively open' environment of a 'variety store'.[7]
The Handbook of Group Psychotherapy described Large Group Awareness Training as focusing on "philosophical, psychological and ethical issues", as related to a desire to increase personal effectiveness in people's lives.[8]
Psychologist Dennis Coon's textbook, Psychology: A Journey, defined the term as referring to: "programs that claim to increase self-awareness and facilitate constructive personal change."[1] The textbook cites Lifespring, Actualizations, and the Forum as definitional examples of LGAT methods.[1] Coon further defines Large Group Awareness Training in his book Introduction to Psychology.[9]
[edit] Evolution
Lou Kilzer, in The Rocky Mountain News, claimed that Leadership Dynamics was the first of the genre of what psychologists termed "Large Group Awareness Training"[10].
Navarro described Mind Dynamics as the major forerunner of large group awareness trainings.[11] He went on to say that, although Mind Dynamics was itself only in existence for a short period of time, it was the impetus for the development of an industry of similar trainings.[11]
Lifespring, Erhard Seminars Training and The Forum have also been cited as examples of Large Group Awareness Training companies.[12] [13] [14]
[edit] Academic analysis, studies
"Large Group Awareness Training", a 1982 peer-reviewed article published in Annual Review of Psychology, sought to summarize literature on the subject and examine its efficacy and relationship to more standard psychology. This article was one of the first academic works to analyze and describe large group awareness training from a psychological perspective. Influenced by the work of humanistic psychologists such as Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May and often considered part of the human potential movement, LGAT's are commercial trainings that took many techniques from encounter groups. Existing alongside but "outside the domains of academic psychology or psychiatry. Their measure of performance was consumer satisfaction and formal research was seldom pursued." Finkelstein's article explicitly mentioned Lifespring and Actualizations, using the example of Erhard Seminars Training ("est") as a typical LGAT.
The article describes an est training, and discusses the literature on the testimony of est graduates. It notes minor changes on psychological tests after the training and mentions anecdotal reports of psychiatric casualties among est trainees. The article considers how est compares to more standard psychotherapy techniques such as behavior therapy, group and existential psychotherapy before concluding that "objective and rigorous research" was needed and that unknown variables might have accounted for some of the positive accounts. Borderline or psychotic patients were advised by psychologists not to participate.[15]
Among the psychological factors cited by academics are emotional "flooding," catharsis, universality (identification with others), the instillation of hope, identification and what Sartre called "uncontested authorship."[15]
In 1989 researchers from the University of Connecticut received the "National Consultants to Management Award" from the American Psychological Association, for their study: Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training.[16]
Psychologist Chris Mathe wrote that in the interests of consumer protection, potential attendees at LGAT's are encouraged to discuss such trainings with their current therapist or counselor, examine the principles upon which the program is based, determine pre-screening methods, the training of facilitators, the full cost of the training and any suggested follow-up care.[17]
[edit] Techniques
Yoga is a technique used in some LGATs.
Finkelstein's 1982 article provides a detailed description of the structure and techniques of an Erhard Seminars Training, noting the unusual authoritarian demeanor of the trainer, the physical strains of a long schedule on the participants and the similary of many techniques to those used in some group therapy and encounter groups.[15] The academic textbook, Handbook of Group Psychotherapy notes that Large Group Awareness Training organizations are "less open to leader differences", because they follow a "detailed written plan", that does not vary from one training to the next.[8]
Specific techniques used in Large Group Awareness Trainings include meditation, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, relaxation techniques, mind control, body touching, yoga, trance induction, visualization, neuro-linguistic programming[18] and attack therapy[4]. These techniques are applied during long sessions, sometimes called a marathon session when lasting for eight hours or more.[19]
In his book Life 102, LGAT participant and former trainer Peter McWilliams describes the basic technique of marathon trainings as pressure/release and asserts that "pressure/release is used in advertising all the time," as well as in "good cop/bad cop" police interrogations and in revival meetings. By spending approximately half the time making a person feel bad and then suddenly reversing the feeling through effusive praise, participants experience a stress reaction and an "endorphin high." McWilliams gives examples of various LGAT activities called processes with names such as "love bomb," "lifeboat," "cocktail party" and "cradling" which take place over many hours and days, physically exhausting the participants to make them more susceptible to the trainer's message, whether it is in the participants best interests or not.[20]
Although extremely critical of some LGAT's, McWilliams found positive value in others, asserting that it was not the technique which was positive or negative, but the way in which it was used.[20]
[edit] Evaluations of LGATs
Finkelstein noted the many difficulties in evaluating LGAT's, from proponents' explicit rejection of certain study models to difficulty in establishing a rigorous control group.[15] Some studies have been partially funded by the organizations they studied.[21]
Not all professional researchers view LGAT favorably. Researchers such as psychologist Philip Cushman[22] for example, found that the program he studied "consists of a pre-meditated attack on the self". A 1983 study on Lifespring [23] found that "although participants often experience a heightened sense of well-being as a consequence of the training, the phenomenon is essentially pathological", meaning that, in the program they studied, "the training systematically undermines ego functioning and promotes regression to the extent that reality testing is significantly impaired". Lieberman's 1987 study,[21] funded partially by Lifespring, noted that 5 out of a sample of 289 participants experienced "stress reactions" including one "transitory psychotic episode". He commented: "Whether [these five] would have experienced such stress under other conditions cannot be answered. The clinical evidence, however, is that the reactions were directly attributable to the large group awareness training."
In the psychology textbook, Introduction to Psychology, the author references many other studies, which postulate that many of the "claimed benefits" of Large Group Awareness Training actually take the form of "a kind of therapy placebo effect"[9]. DuMerton writes that "..there is a lack of scientific evidence to quantify the longer-term positive outcomes and changes objectively.."[5] Jarvis described Large Group Awareness Training as "educationally dubious" in the 2002 book The Theory & Practice of Teaching.[24]
Controversial tactics sometimes used by these groups have included physical violence, isolation, entrapment, brainwashing, and sexual experiences.[25] Tapper mentions that "some [unspecified] large group-awareness training and psychotherapy groups" are examples of non-religious "cults".[26] Benjamin criticizes these groups for their high prices and spiritual subtleties.[27] In an academic research paper on "Choices", a type of LGAT, researchers cited LGAT programs with having perhaps a million American attendees, many of whom give positive testimonials of "healing effects" and "positive outcomes in their lives".[5]
[edit] Compared to cults
The American Psychological Association commissioned, subsequently rejected,[28],and strongly criticized [29], the report by the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control, in which anti-cult psychologist Margaret Singer included large group awareness trainings as one example of what she called "coercive persuasion." The APA claimed that Singer's hypotheses "were uninformed speculations based on skewed data"[29] and that the report "lacked scientific rigor and an evenhanded critical approach to carry the imprimatur of the APA." The APA also claimed that "the specific methods by which Drs. Singer and Benson have arrived at their conclusions have also been rejected by all serious scholars in the field."[30] Singer sued the APA, and lost on June 17, 1994[31] After the report was rejected, Singer reworked much of the rejected material into the book Cults in our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives, which she co-authored with Janja Lalich.
Singer and Lalich claimed "large group awareness trainings" tend to last at least four days and usually five." The book mentions Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training and its "new age" derivatives such as the Forum, "Lifespring, Actualizations, MSIA/Insight, PSI World, and the many affiliates of Transformational Technologies" inspired by Erhard.[4]
In her book, Singer differentiated between the usage of the terms cult and Large Group Awareness Training.[4] Singer also writes that employees taking part in a company-wide Large Group Awareness Training program not only complained about attempted religious conversion, but also objected to the specific techniques used.[4]
An article in Cult Observer by Michael Langone Ph.D. analysed Large Group Awareness Training .[2] Langone wrote that Large Group Awareness Training has been compared to "brainwashing" and "cults", and posited that many of these groups have an implied or even explicit religious nature to them[2]. Langone concluded by stating that he knew of no specific academic research which showed that Large Group Awareness Trainings have positive behavioral effects.[2] Langone cited a study which showed no difference between the Large Group Awareness Training test subjects and the control group[2][32]. The International Cultic Studies Association has grouped some Large Group Awareness Training organizations together with research about them.[33] Lorne Dawson stated in his book on cults and new religious movements that similar thought reform techniques are used in both cults and Large Group Awareness Training.[34]
[edit] In popular culture
The character Red describes "large group awareness training", in Reichs' 1999 forensic thriller novel, Death Du Jour.[35] In Pressure Points, a 2001 novel by Larry Brooks, one of the book's protagonists asserts that the programs developed by Werner Erhard, William Penn Patrick, and Alexander Everett all came from the same source[36].
The Program, a 2004 novel by Hurwitz, described a fictional large group awareness training called "The Program", and characters also used the term "LGAT" to refer to the course.[37] In the novel, the seminar leader had "married two cult models", which one of the protagonists described as a blend of the "psychotherapeutic cult", and the "self-improvement cult".[37] The character then tells his friend that "The Program", is similar to a combination of the Sullivanians and Lifespring.[37] Werner Erhard is quoted, prior to the opening of the prologue.[37]
[edit] References
1. ^ a b c Coon, Dennis (2004). Psychology: A Journey. Thomson Wadsworth, 520, 528, 538. ISBN 0534632645.
2. ^ a b c d e Langone, Michael (1998). "Large Group Awareness Trainings". Cult Observer 15 (1). ISSN 1539-0152.
3. ^ Mass Marathon Trainings, excerpted, The Politics of Transformation: Recruitment - Indoctrination Processes in a Mass Marathon Psychology Organization, St. Martin's Press 1993, Philip Cushman, Ph.D.
4. ^ a b c d e Intruding into the Workplace, Dr. Margaret Singer, excerpted from Cults in our Midst (book), 1995
5. ^ a b c d DuMerton, M.A., C. (July 2004). "Tragic Optimism and Choices: The Life Attitudes Scale with a First Nations Sample". (Master's Thesis) (Master of Arts, Graduate Counseling Psychology Program). Retrieved on 2007-04-14.
6. ^ Rubinstein, Gidi (2005). "Characteristics of participants in the Forum, psychotherapy clients, and control participants: A comparative study". Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 78 (4): 481-492. DOI:10.1348/147608305X42721. ISSN 1476-0835.
7. ^ Brown, Stephen I.; Darach Turley (1997). Consumer Research: Postcards from the edge. Routledge, 279. ISBN 041515684X.
8. ^ a b Burlingame, Gary M. (1994). Handbook of Group Psychotherapy: An Empirical and Clinical Synthesis. John Wiley and Sons, 528, 532, 535, 539, 549, 550, 555, 556, 581, 583.. ISBN 0471555924.
9. ^ a b Coon, Dennis (2003). Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior. Thomson Wadsworth, Pp. 648, 649, 655.. ISBN 053461227X.
10. ^ Kilzer, Lou. "Desperate Measures Network of Behavior Modification Compounds Known as Teen Help Has Straightened Out Hundreds of Defiant Adolescents, But Its Methods Aren't For the Faint-hearted.", Rocky Mountain News, E. W. Scripps Company, July 18, 1999.
"The first of the genre psychologists call "large group awareness training" was the Leadership Dynamics Institute..."
11. ^ a b Navarro,, Espy M.; Robert Navarro (2002). Self Realization: The Est and Forum Phenomena in American Society. Xlibris Corporation, 54. ISBN 1401042201.
Page. 54. :
"Mind Dynamics, founded by Alexander Everett, was the major forerunner of large group awareness trainings. Although Mind Dynamics was only in existence for a few years, it sparked an entire industry of similar trainings."
12. ^ Brewer, Maryilyn B.; Miles Hewstone (2004). Applied Social Psychology. Blackwell Publishing, Pp. 81.. ISBN 1405110678.
13. ^ Tindale, R. Scott (2001). Group Processes: Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology. Blackwell Publishing, 630. ISBN 1405106530.
"EST, FORUM and LIFESPRING are all examples of LGATs, for members seek to improve their overall level of satisfaction and interpersonal relations by carrying out such experiential exercises as role-playing, group singing and chanting, and guided group interaction."
14. ^ Zeig, Jeffrey K. (1997). The Evolution of Psychotherapy: The Third Conference. Psychology Press, Pp. 352, 357.. ISBN 0876308132.
"Training or T-groups, sensitivity training, and encounter groups spread and were followed by commercially sold large group awareness training programs, such as est, Lifespring and other programs."
15. ^ a b c d Finkelstein, P.; Wenegrat, B.; Yalom, I. (1982). "Large Group Awareness Training". Annual Review of Psychology 33: 515-539. ISSN 0066-4308.
16. ^ Fisher, Jeffrey D.; Silver, Chinsky, Goff, Klar (1990). Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training. Springer-Verlag, 142. ISBN 0387973206 , ISBN 978-0387973203.
Page. vii. -- "The research reported in this volume was awarded the American Psychological Association, Division 13, National Consultants to Management Award, August 13, 1989."
17. ^ Choosing a Personal Growth Program: Ten questions to help you make an informed decision, Chris Mathe, Ph. D., 1999
18. ^ Partridge, C. (2004). New Religions: A Guide; New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities. Oxford University Press, 407. ISBN 0-19-522042-0.
19. ^ Paglia, Carmen (Winter 2003). "Cults and Cosmic Consciousness: Religious Vision in the American 1960s". Arion 10 (3).
20. ^ a b Peter McWilliams, Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You (Prelude Press: Los Angeles, 1994). ISBN 0-931580-34-X., pp 6-7.
21. ^ a b Lieberman, "Effects of Large Group Awareness Training on Participants' Psychiatric Status", American Journal of Psychiatry v 144 p 460-464, April 1987.
22. ^ Cushman, "Iron Fists/Velvet Gloves: A Study of A Mass Marathon Psychology Training", Psychotherapy vol 26, Spring 1989.
23. ^ Haaken, J. and Adams, R., "Pathology as 'Personal Growth': A Participant-Observation Study of Lifespring Training", Psychiatry, vol 46, August 1983.
24. ^ Jarvis, Peter (2002). The Theory & Practice of Teaching. Routledge, 97. ISBN 0749434090.
25. ^ Weir, D., An Odyssey of Sexual/Gender Evolution: An Autoethnographical Study of the United States from the 1950s to the Present, April 2002, (available online)
26. ^ Tapper, A (September 2002). "The Impact of Cults on Health". Nursing Spectrum.
27. ^ Benjamin, Ph.D., Elliot (June 2005). "Spirituality and Cults". Integral Science.
28. ^ http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/cultsect/mdtaskforce/bserp_loomis.htm
29. ^ a b http://www.cesnur.org/testi/APA.htm
30. ^ http://www.cesnur.org/testi/molko_brief.htm
31. ^ http://www.cesnur.org/testi/singer.htm
32. ^ Hosford, Ray, E., Moss, C. Scott, Cavior, Helene, & Kerish, Burton. Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 1982, Manuscript #2419, American Psychological Association
33. ^ Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGAT). Cultic Studies Journal, International Cultic Studies Association. Archived from the original on 2006-01-28. Retrieved on 2006-01-18.
34. ^ Dawson, Lorne L. (2003). Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader. Blackwell Publishing, 149. ISBN 1405101814.
35. ^ Reichs, Kathy (1999). Death Du Jour. Scribner, 311. ISBN 0684841185.
36. ^ Brooks, Larry (November 29, 2001). Pressure Points. Onyx, Page 77. ISBN 0451410017 , ISBN 978-0451410016.
37. ^ a b c d Hurwitz, Gregg Andrew (2004). The Program. HarperCollins, 176. ISBN 0060530405.
[edit] Further reading
Books
• Singer, Margaret, Ph. D. (1996). "Intruding into the Workplace", Cults in our Midst. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-0266-7.
• McWilliams, Peter (1994). Life 102: What To Do When Your Guru Sues You. Mary Book / Prelude Pr. ISBN 0931580345.
• Fisher et al (1990). Evaluating a Large Group Awareness Training: A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Effects. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0387973203.
• Carroll, Robert Todd (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN ISBN 0471272427.
Articles
• Finkelstein, Peter; Brant Wenegrat; Irvin Yalom (January 1982). "Large Group Awareness Training"". Annual Review of Psychology 33: 515-539. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
• Lieberman, MA (1987). "Effects of large group awareness training on participants' psychiatric status". American Journal of Psychiatry (144): 460-464. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
• Fisher, Jeffrey (December 1989). "Psychological Effects of Participation in a Large Group Awareness Training". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 57 (6): 747-755. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
• Klar, Yechiel (February 1990). "Characteristics of Participants in a Large Group Awareness Training". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 58 (1): 99-108. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
• Lieberman, MA (1992). "Perceptions of changes in the self, the impact of life events and large group awareness training". Self change.
• Joyce, N (1992). "Self system factors as an index of change in large group awareness training". San Francisco State University.
• Philip Cushman, Ph. D. (1993). "Mass Marathon Trainings, excerpted, The Politics of Transformation: Recruitment - Indoctrination Processes in a Mass Marathon Psychology Organization". St. Martin's Press.
• Denison, Charles Wayne, Ph. D. (1994). "The Children of est: A study of the Experience and Perceived Effects of a Large Group Awareness Training (The Forum)"". University of Denver.
• Langone, Michael, Ph. D. (1998). "Large Group Awareness Trainings". Cult Observer 15 (1). Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
• Hughes, S (1999). "Developmental effects of participation in a large group awareness training". Dissertation Abstracts International.
• Odell, Susan (2001). "Large Group Awareness Training in the 1990s: The Participants' Perspective". University of Leeds (School of Medicine).
• Rubinstein, Gidi (December 2005). "Characteristics of participants in the Forum, psychotherapy clients, and control participants: A comparative study" (PDF). Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 78 (4): 481-492. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
• Cushman, Philip, Ph. D.. "Description of the Behavioral Structure of the Training". The Politics of Transformation.
• Neiman, K. "Negotiating the Self in Society: A Large Group Awareness Training Program as a Cultural Scene".
• Polaski, Mary. "The Mary Polaski "L" Series"
Media/Press
• Tennis, Cary (August 2, 2005). My therapist is hawking awareness training. Salon. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
• Human Potential: The Revolution in Feeling. Time Magazine (November 9, 1970). Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
Large Group Awareness Training
