Steven Hassan

==Criticism==
Social scientists [[Anson D. Shupe]] and [[David G. Bromley]] wrote in 2007 that Hassan's work lacks academic rigor and is used to fuel hysteria. They argued that the word 'cult' itself has become loaded and derogatory, capable of being applied to any new religious movement in a prejudicial way. They criticize [[Anti-cult movement|anti-cultists]] for promoting a [[moral panic]], from which they benefit financially. Shupe and Bromley are skeptical of the use of hazy concepts like brainwashing and mind control, and of the notion of [[Intervention (counseling)|intervention]] as a form of therapy. According to Bromley:<blockquote>You get people who are caught up in trying to change themselves, become a new person or build a new world and they lose touch with who they are. It isn't to say some groups don’t take advantage of that process. But I don't think it's necessarily the case that they need someone like Hassan to come in with predetermined answers to their life problems.<ref name="bmag" /></blockquote>

Religious Studies Professor [[Eugene V. Gallagher]] argued in 2006 that theorists like Hassan take well-founded suspicion of some manipulative religious leaders and generalize it into a mind control ideology applicable to all "cult" leaders and "cult" members:<blockquote>Their explicit and implicit generalizations tend to foster, whether they intend it or not, a generalized suspicion of all leaders who stand outside of an implied "mainstream". Such generalized suspicion is a major analytical principle for anti-cult activists like Hassan and Singer. When raised to its highest level of generality, well founded criticism of a few leaders is extended to all leaders, with a corresponding loss of specificity, accuracy, and persuasiveness. Such overgeneralisation ignores the abundant diversity of leadership forms in new religions on the assumption that all "cults" must be the same.{{r|gallagher|p=37}}</blockquote>

In the book ''[[Misunderstanding Cults]]'' (2001, edited by [[Benjamin Zablocki]] and [[Thomas Robbins (sociologist)|Thomas Robbins]]), forensic psychologist [[Dick Anthony]] called brainwashing a pseudoscientific concept that has been disconfirmed by scientific research. He argues that "the term brainwashing has such sensationalist connotations that its use prejudices any scientific discussion of patterns of commitment in religious movements."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anthony |first=Dick |author-link=Dick Anthony |editor-last1=Zablocki |editor-first1=Benjamin |editor-link1=Benjamin Zablocki |editor-last2=Robbins |editor-first2=Thomas |editor-link2=Thomas Robbins (sociologist) |title=Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-8020-8188-9 |pages=21, 217}}</ref>

[[Michael Langone]], an advocate for exit counseling, questioned Hassan's [[Humanism|humanistic]] counseling approach in 1995. According to Langone, Hassan's "Strategic Intervention Therapy" operates on the assumption that, deep down, all members of "mind control groups" want to get out of the group. In the context of family intervention, the "counselor knows best what the cultist really wants" approach contains the risk of the counselor "manipulating the cultist from point A ("I'll talk to you because my family requested it") to point B ("I want to leave the cult") while mistakenly believing that he is helping the cultist "grow"." For Langone, the fact that the counselor's assistance has in no way been sought by the subject casts further doubt on the ethical propriety of such manipulation.{{r|langone|page=175}}

Although exit counseling models like Hassan's emphasise the voluntary nature of the procedure, Shupe questioned in 2011 how willing the NRM member can be when: (i) they are not actually the client of the counselor (who has been hired by others), and (ii) they are not aware that the counselor's primary, preconceived purpose is to convince them to abandon their faith.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shupe |first=Anson |author-link=Anson D. Shupe |editor1-last=Lewis |editor1-first=James R. |editor1-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |title=Violence and new religious movements |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=401 |chapter=Deprogramming Violence: The Logic, Perpetration, and Outcomes of Coercive Intervention |isbn=9780199735631 |date=2011}}</ref>