Steven Hassan

===Deprogramming and exit counseling===
Hassan took part in a number of "[[deprogramming]]s" in the late 1970s, but has been critical of them since 1980 and has instead advocated exit counseling.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hassan |first=Steven Alan |title=Refuting the Disinformation Attacks Put Forth by Destructive Cults and their Agents |url=http://www.freedomofmind.com/stevehassan/refuting/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061212132017/http://www.freedomofmind.com/stevehassan/refuting/ |archive-date=December 12, 2006 |access-date=September 5, 2022 |work=Freedom of Mind Resource Center}}</ref> Deprogramming was a controversial form of coercive intervention in which a number of self-styled "deprogrammers" were hired (usually by families or parents) to separate someone from a religious or other movement; after being abducted and/or confined, the individual was subjected to a sustained verbal attack, which might continue for days or weeks, on the group to which they were connected.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Laycock |first=Douglas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bEiwxUad97IC |title=Religious Liberty |volume=2: ''The Free Exercise Clause'' |date=2011 |publisher=[[Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-8028-6522-9 |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |page=746}}</ref> Hassan claims that he never abducted, restrained, threatened or disrespected anyone in any deprogrammings in which he participated, although this is contradicted by affidavits from victims, and also by Hassan's own written description of a deprogramming he conducted.{{r|shupe2006|p=150-51}} However, according to Shupe and Darnell, Hassan represents "a maturation of the anti-cult movement toward professionalisation and away from coercive vigilantism".{{r|shupe2006|p=152}} Hassan's preferred approach, exit counseling, is also a form of family-initiated intervention, but distinguishes itself by allowing the subject to leave at any time and by adopting a non-violent, persuasive approach.{{r|langone|pages=166, 171–4}} In ''[[Combatting Cult Mind Control]]'' (1988), Hassan stated that although "the non-coercive approach will not work in every case, it has proved to be the option most families prefer. Forcible intervention can be kept as a last resort if all other attempts fail."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hassan |first=Steven |date=1988 |title=Combatting Cult Mind Control |publisher=Park Street Press |isbn=0-89281-243-5 |page=114}}</ref>