Isolation is promoted. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered. Communication is highly controlled. Disconfirming information and non-supporting opinions are prohibited in group communication.
Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders.
Frequent, intense attempts are made to cause a person to re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self and prior conduct in negative ways. Efforts are designed to destabilize and undermine the subject's basic consciousness, reality awareness, world view, and emotional control. Frequent, intense attempts are made to undermine one's confidence in one's judgment and oneself, to create a sense of powerlessness. Nonphysical punishments are used such as intense humiliation, loss of privilege, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, and anxiety, and creating strong aversive emotional arousal.