Abusers use MC to train victims to act in accordance with their will. Through a combination of torture and extreme conditioning, victims are indoctrinated with group beliefs. The beliefs associated with said indoctrination vary depending on the perpetrator group or network (i.e. cult-manufactured religious programs, trafficker-manufactured sexual programs, paramilitary-manufactured violence programs, etc.).
Conditioning is a psychological process where a subject learns behavior through associations. Other names for conditioning include behavior modification or learning. While conditioning is a normal part of everyday life, abusers often weaponize it against their victims, both intentionally and unintentionally.
Classical conditioning is the association between an neutral stimulus (such as a flashing light, a sound, a color, etc.) and an automatic response. Abusers may use neutral stimuli to communicate with their victims via inconspicuous signals, like hand signs or trigger words. Creative abusers may use these signals to intentionally trigger their victims into specific emotional or dissociative states.
Operant conditioning is the association between a behavior and its consequences. Using various forms of punishment and reinforcement, abusers will often discourage behaviors that imply resistance and encourage behaviors that indicate compliance.
For example, a frightened child who is abused anytime she asks her father for help will stop asking her father for help, as she now associates this behavior with being hurt. This is operant conditioning via additive punishment. A hungry child who is rewarded with food every time he is abused will learn to wait for abuse, as he now associates surviving the abuse with being fed. This is operant conditioning via positive reinforcement.
It is important to note that conditioning alone is not considered a form of MC under the RAMCOA umbrella. Most forms of abuse contain some level of conditioning. The conditioning characteristic of MC is often connected to the broader goal of indoctrination or training.
There are two definitions of programming in the context of OEA. First, there is the broad definition, used most often by adult cult survivors. Broadly, programming refers to the use of manipulation tactics and conditionding (i.e. MC) to discourage independent thinking and encourage loyalty to a specific group ideology. Adult survivors of high-control groups and insular communities may refer to the distorted beliefs they learned growing up as programming.
For survivors who experience complex dissociative disorders (i.e. DID, OSDD, UDD), programming refers more specifically to the intentional creation of dissociated parts via torture. Programmers abuse their victims until they reach a breaking point, causing the victims’ minds to split to cope. The abuse continues until the victim becomes compliant—or rather, until the victim splits a compliant part. Programmers may or may not be aware that they are creating parts; they simply understand that the child is now willing to do whatever they’re told. This form of programming has also been referred to as TBMC (torture-based mind control).
For a list of specific programs and their meanings, please click the button below.
It can be very difficult for MC survivors to unlearn programming, even with professional help. Abusers may put therapy-interference programs in place to prevent survivors from being able to talk about their abuse without reporting back to their group or somehow punishing themselves. Survivors may have to deal with dissociated parts of themselves who have been taught to “keep the system in line” and refuse to allow trauma memories to be processed.
Those who submitted under torture were often forced to do things they’re ashamed of, such as sexual or violent acts. Some may have been forced to perpetrate or participate in the abuse of another person. These survivors may show signs of moral injury or deep-seated guilt about what they had to do to survive.
Programmed dissociative parts are highly conditioned to behave as their torturers desired, and they may struggle to fight the thoughts and urges they were imbued with. People with programmed DID often take extra precautions to keep themselves safe, such as: