------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Mark Sirkin, Ph.D. Mark Sirkin (Ph.D., University of Connecticut), a clinical psychologist, recently became Director of the Robert M. Beren Center of the Ferkaus Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY, where he works with individuals, couples, and families on issues of interreligious marriage. His cult-related research and clinical activities of the previous decade prepared him well to work with individuals whose families strongly objected to choices that, from the individual's viewpoint, were simply an exercise of religious freedom. Just as he completed a clinical internship in 1981, Dr. Sirkin came to the attention of AFF committee member Arnold Markowitz, then as now Director of the Cult Clinic of the New York Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, who wanted to understand better the nature of cult involvement in order to help an increasing number of clients. Dr. Sirkin became the cult research project director, designing, developing, and supervising the data collection and analysis (see Cultic Studies Journal, 5, 2-22). He also worked clinically with a variety of individuals and families. He became convinced that while the cult may exert great influence, at the same time individual and family factors rendered people vulnerable to recruitment. Successful interventions required attention to individual and family factors. The work with Arnold Markowitz, whom Dr. Sirkin credits as a great influence on his development, gave him a deep appreciation of the ways in which families can affect people both positively and negatively. He determined to do advanced training in family therapy and, following his doctoral work, took a position on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Rochester Medical Center, where he worked with Professor Lyman Wynn, the well-known family therapist. Beginning now to view cultic involvement as an aberrant form of group behavior, Dr. Sirkin studied group psycho-therapy-he eventually became the Director of Group Training and Research at the Department of Psychiatry-and discussed some of these new ideas in a Psychiatric Annals article with Dr. Wynne ("Cult involvenment as relational disorder," 20, 199-203). He proposed to treat cult involvement as a problem that is apparent primarily in the destructive relationship the involved individual has with the cult group and not simply as a disso-ciative disorder or a mental illness within the individual, as it is seen by more traditional psychiatrists and psychologists. This view, which represents a family/systems approach, is a matter of some debate among clinicians. As Chairman of the AFF Psychology Committee and member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Cultic Studies Journal, Dr. Sirkin exemplifies the kind of highly professional volunteer work that helps make AFF respected and effective. 2 Gary Eisenberg, M.A. Gary Eisenberg (M.A., San Francisco State/Lone Mountain College), a Florida native with degrees in philosophy of religion and clinical psychology, has studied and taught about cults and missionary movements since the mid-1970s. His academic research, supported by personal field investigation into a variety of cults, resulted in his editing the anthology Smashing the Idols: A Jewish Inquiry into the Cult Phenomenon (Jason Aronson, 1988), in which the disproportionate number of Jews in cults is noted, and deplored, by the editor, and in which numerous experts-many affiliated with the AFF-offer insight and counsel for professionals and a wider public. Over 14,000 copies have been sold to date-an impressive figure for any book in this field. For more than a dozen years he was a full-time educator, before beginning a second career in commercial real estate, and he still teaches every week in a South Dade synagogue, as well as at local schools and Jewish communities across the country, dealing with philosophy, religion, and psychology as they relate to cults. He finds that the young people he teaches, including even fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, are surprisingly attentive and perceptive. When given his basic overview of cults and shown videotapes of charlatans exposed by The Amazing Randi, for example, they easily pick up on Mr. Eisenberg's warning to be wary, not only of candy, but also of "sweet words from strangers." His message is aimed, too, at Jewish college students, and at senior citizens who in growing numbers are tragically victimized by deceptive cultic techniques into giving away large amounts of retirement money. As a member of AFF's Education Committee, he was chairman on children's issues for the 1991 Project Recovery Conference. His concern for children has inspired Mr. Eisenberg to write several children's stories in the past three years. With his artist wife, Cynthia, as illustrator, he is preparing for publication an environmental awareness book, Good Planets Are Hard to Come By, for 4 to 12-year-olds. A magazine article on children and cults is nearing completion, too. Mr. Eisenberg also serves on the Cult Task Force of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, and has been an activist for Soviet Jews; his photographs and writings appeared in A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union (Collins, 1989), and have been exhibited in Israel's Diaspora Museum and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. Mr. Eisenberg's approach to a solution to the cult problem lies, not in any form of coercion, but in "educating . . . potential converts to the full implications of their choice." Because he understands, and is accepted by, the young people he teaches, he continues to reach a crucial audience, both in person and in his written words. ================================================================= DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0392AF.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer March 1993 SORT TO: AFF CONTRIBUTOR: American Family Foundation (AFF) LOCATION OF ORIGINAL: American Family Foundation (AFF) NOTES: Back issues and selected reprints of the Cultic Studies Journal are available from the American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265. PROFESSIONAL PROFILES: | 1 Mark Sirkin, Ph.D. | 2 Gary Eisenberg, M.A. For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 8/25/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================