Commenting on Synanon, Max Lerner identified the seed of tragedy as lying in the “surrender of individual choice both to the leader’s decision and to the group’s pressures”. If an individual allows himself to be stripped naked within such a setting, then he inevitably becomes dependent on the leader and the group for psychological support. Concluding, Lerner states: “We have still to resolve the mixture of authority and self help that is best for therapy and religion. But until we do, the Buddha’s remark on his deathbed may be worth recalling: Work out your own salvation with diligence”.
In hearing of the deaths in Guyana, Rabbi Maurice Davis, who had sold Jones an synagogue within which was housed the first People’s Temple in Indianapolis, said: “I keep thinking what happens when the power of love is twisted into the love of power”.
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