There is not just symbolic love, but indoctrination as well. The person is infantilized, his daily life is completely regimented, his feelings of humility and guilt are reinforced and manipulated, his sleep is deprived, his nutrition inadequate. Time for use of the bathroom is restricted. He chants constantly, plays childish games and participates in group singing. Thus his unfulfilled need and hope are brought close to the surface by the offer of apparent fulfillment, and then are cashed in by the cult in the form of regimens, rules and leaders which must be obeyed without question.
Infantile obedience is then the new defense and the condition for continued infantile fulfillment.
As in the neurotic parent-child relationship, the follower is kept dependent because he will endure deprivations imposed by omnipotent authorities in order to receive what passes for love. Crazy for God is filled with examples of how the member is once again made to feel as a dependent child. I sucked my thumb, curled up in the corner. . . . Even the titles of Unification Church members convey the idea of a happy family. Thus we have True Mother, True Father, Heavenly Father, The Family, Spiritual Father, Children of God, Brothers, Sisters, Heavenly Child.