This is really four, not three, counting the post on sects and cults the other day. http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/04/cults-sects-denominations-church.html
I want to answer two questions today.
One, how is it that cults are so popular and that highly intelligent people join cults, which ruin their lives?
Two, how does one keep one's identity in a time of severe displacement, such as in a concentration camp?
I shall answer these two questions later today. I am teaching this morning and need to go. However, I repeat these questions for readers to consider.
For the second question, we have great examples of those who kept identities under extreme circumstances, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
I shall only mention one thing. When the tyrannical enemy is obviously evil, it is actually easier to keep one's identity, if one has such. The subtleties of tyrannical parents is much more insidious today than the evil of tyrannies. One only has to think of thwarted lives under the thumb of narcissistic parents.
To be continued...