------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 and preservational electronic archive. 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Professional Profiles 1 Linda James, M.A. Linda James (M.A. Hollins College) is a clinical psychologist, a member of the faculty of the Department of Psychology at Montreal's Vanier College, an associate of the Corporation Professionelle des Psychologues du QuŽbec (C.P.P.Q.), and a founding member of Vanier College's Woman's Studies Department. She also serves on three American Family Foundation working committees: Victim Assistance, Psychology, and Educators. Ms. James's interest in cultism stems from the involvement of two friends in the Unification Church in 1977, which moved her to personal research about cults and their effects. She eventually decided to share the results of her research with her students, at a time when there was very little information available on the subject. She has taught "The Psychology of the Cult Experience" for ten years now. The demand among students for the course has often filled her entire academic schedule in a term: five sections and over 200 students. The greatest challenge of this course, she finds, is to successfully help students discover and understand their vulnerabilities to the lure of cults rather than simply assist them to an intellectual appreciation of how cults operate. In conjunction with the course, Ms. James has developed a reader including numerous articles that first appeared in AFF's Cultic Studies Journal by such AFF committee colleagues as Margaret Singer and Richard Ofshe, Steven Ash, Michael Langone, and Geri-Ann Galanti on such topics as cult socialization, coercive persuasion, children in cults, the nature of cultic realtionships, deprogramming, exit counseling, constructive family responses, and the like. While Ms. James reports no conflict at all with faculty colleagues or administration over her successful teaching about cults, she confesses that other professionals in her circle are essentially apathetic or disinterested in the issue of cultism. But like most of her AFF colleagues, she has found collaborators. She works closely with Info-Cult (successor to Montre‡l's Cult Project/Project Culte, still headed by AFF committee member Michael Kropveld), providing psychological assessment and therapy to former cultists and their families as well as community preventive education through seminars. She has also consulted on a bi-lingual video series on cult-related issues for a cable TV network and a made-for-TV film on the subject. Among her many talks to a variety of community groups over the years was a presentation at McGill University's observance of the 10th anniversary of the Jonestown disaster. Ms. James is also in close touch with the Cult Awareness Network: she moderated a panel on the psychological profile of the cult leader at the 1989 CAN national conference. In her private practice, finally, she offers psychotherapy to a wide range of clients as well as to former cult members. Professional Profiles 2 David Clark David Clark's abiding interest in matters of cultism springs from his 1972-74 involvement in The Walk - a noted shepherding group of that era. This was his first course in a curriculum that has led to national prominence as an exit counselor, expert witness, and educational resource. When a friend in The Walk committed suicide, Dave Clark himself walked, but without any real understanding of the cult experience, he says. After three years' study at an Episcopal seminary, events conspired to provide both the dawn of understanding and vocational direction. A local family asked him to help find their daughter, lost to a cult, and his success led to similar work with others. He began to discern the peculiarly cultic strains in each situation. His understanding grew and his efficacy improved. By 1979 he had become well-known enough to testify before Senator Dole's cult information hearings-which impressed upon him the need for interdisciplinary approaches to cult-related issues. He became recognized widely as especially helpful in cases involving Bible-based groups, and he forged close relationships with organizations such as the Spiritual Counterfeits Project and the Cult Awareness Network. During the 1980s, Dave Clark became a much-sought expert witness in cult-related child custody cases. He has spoken on the nature and effects of cultic behavior as a visiting instructor in college courses, to the Pennsylvania and Maryland legislative committees considering legal remedies to certain cultic situations, to the White House Conference on the Family during the Carter administration, and to various associations of helping professionals. His work in the case of Gregory Mull versus the Church Universal and Triumphant was central to publicizing the reality of cultic abuses and showing that both compensatory and punitive damages can be achieved in civil litigation. In 1985, Mr. Clark received a Hall of Fame Award from the Cult Awareness Network. More recently, he has joined the AFF's Victim Assistance Committee as chair of the exit counselors' group, for which he is coordinating papers on exit counseling methods and standards. Since early on, Mr. Clark has recorded on audio and video tape a great deal of what he terms once-in-a-lifetime events - testimonies of ex-cult members, talks by experienced therapists, and the like - which help to validate the issue to viewers while providing excellent tools for exit counseling and multiplying the unique materials' educational effects. When Dave Clark left the seminary one semester short of his degree, he thought he was taking a brief sabbatical to help someone involved in a cult. By now, fifteen years later, he has answered this call many, many times, and in the process he has nurtured to full flower a real calling. ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photo copies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. FACTNet reserves the right to refuse to accept an order for copying or other duplication, or delivery of copied or duplicated material if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0990AF.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer Sept/Oct 1990 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 Linda James, M.A. | 2 David Clark, cult expert. For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 8/10/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================