They are reactionary because they revive premodern structures of authority and sometimes establish fascist patterns of internal organization. Furthermore, in their assault on autonomy and self-definition, some cults reject a liberating historical process that has evolved with great struggle and pain in the West since the Renaissance. This involves a continuous psychological experimentation with the self, a capacity for endorsing contradictory ideas at the same time, and a tendency to change one's ideas, companions, and way of life with relative ease. For some people, experimentation with a cult is part of the protean search. The imagery of extinction derived from the contemporary threat of nuclear war influences patterns of totalism and fundamentalism throughout the world.
Nuclear war threatens human continuity itself and impairs the symbols of immortality.
Cults seize upon this threat to provide immortalizing principles of their own. The cult environment supplies a continuous opportunity for the experience of transcendence - a mode of symbolic immortality generally suppressed in advanced industrial society. Role of Psychology Cults raise serious psychological concerns, and there is a place for psychologists and psychiatrists in understanding and treating cult members. When helping a young person confused about a cult situation, it is important to maintain a personal therapeutic contract so that one is not working for the cult or for the parents. Totalism begets totalism.