Cults are patronage networks. They distribute benefits. The benefits could be intangible, they don't have to be money. Belonging is a benefit, acceptance is a benefit, access to [partners] is a benefit, money is a benefit of course, but also power is a benefit; an internal hierarchy. It's a fantasy, it's what we call in psychology is a paracosm. A paracosm is an alternative cosmos; it's detached, it's a bubble. And so within this bubble you can create an entire universe with its own laws of physics of you wish, and then if you play by these rules, you're mightily rewarded, emotionally, materially, in other ways. And if you don't, of course, you're sanctioned, similarly. So it's what we call a reinforcement system. It's a reward-punishment system. Positive and negative. And it's fairly intermittently by the way, it's fairly intermittent in the sense that very often, the leader kind of punished you to remind you that you're still at his mercy. He demotes you, he criticizes you publicly, he does something to remind you that he is a source of the power, not you; that you are an annex, or an orbiter; he's the source of the power. It's a highly narcissistic structure. [They're] known as charismatic leaders, but actually these are narcissistic leaders."
-Sam Vaknin at 52:24, being interviewed by Max Karson in https://twitter.com/mrgirlreturns/status/1610955992216248322 (broadcast)
There was nothing you could have done [to fix him]. I think you also feel a bit guilty kind of asking yourself "could I have behaved differently? could I have done something?" I don't think there was anything you could have done. These people are beyond redemption. We have this Christian view, augmented by can-do capitalism: every problem has a solution, every issue can be resolved, every disease must have a cure. This is American bullshit, I'm sorry to say. In Europe we're much more realistic. The vast majority of problems don't have solutions. So these people are irredeemable. There's no redemption for them. They cannot be helped."
-Sam Vaknin at 1:10:44, being interviewed by Max Karson in https://twitter.com/mrgirlreturns/status/1610955992216248322 (broadcast)