‘Just as attention was fixed . . . on cult deprogramming, now it’s fixed on drug abuse.’

Only three people in the United States do what Del Cerro resident Marvin Galper, 54, does. As a clinical psychologist specializing in the deprogramming of cult members, Galper has counseled 300 to 400 such people in the last eight years. After earning his doctorate from Boston University in 1966, Galper established a clinical psychology general practice in San Diego. In 1979, a couple going through marital counseling asked him for some help with their son, who had become involved with the Unification Church. When he first started helping those who had been or were still in these religious organizations, Galper felt his life was in danger. But that fear has decreased over the years, and he points to the fact that he has never been physically threatened. He has written several articles on cult-brainwashing problems for professional texts, and, at the request of the West German government, has spoken to the West German Parliament about methods of deprogramming. Recently, Galper has become interested in another problem affecting society, teen-age drug abuse. Times staff writer Kathie Bozanich interviewed him in his Del Cerro home; David B. Loveall photographed him.

This middle-aged couple was very concerned about the dramatic changes in their son’s personality. He had been a very warm person, but recently had become very cold and indifferent. He was kind of flat in his expressions, kind of robot-like. I had never seen anything quite like that, and I did a little research. I read some things on prisoner-of-war brainwashing and hypnosis, and I came to the conclusion that what this man had been through was something quite similar. I asked them to invite him to come in.

When he did, I kind of winged it, playing it by ear. I had some magazine articles, exposes on the deceptive practices used by these churches. I discussed this and other things with him and over the course of several sessions he came out of it.

I soon began seeing other people with the same type of problem and helping them in a similar way. Exit counseling is usually a marathon process, where you work with people for sustained periods of time, whole days sometimes, and then a series of days.

In general, I feel these churches are very exploitative organizations and the cult leaders are very much motivated by their hunger for power and wealth. They’re really manipulating a lot of good, somewhat naive people, as well as manipulating their own idealistic feelings and spiritualistic needs for their own advantage.

I don’t claim that it is possible to conduct successful exit counseling with everyone. It’s Russian roulette because you never know if all the planning is going to work or not. Since I don’t hold them against their will, all I have to work with is the good will I can establish and maintain.

Just as attention was fixed in the late 1970s on cult deprogramming, now it’s fixed on drug abuse. And just like the cult victims, drug abusers have difficulty acknowledging they have a problem.

There are so many aspects of the culture that are pro-drug use. This is a “plop-plop, fizz-fizz” generation, the whole idea that if you don’t feel good you take an aspirin, if you’re tense you take a tranquilizer, if you’ve had a hard day at work you come home and have a cocktail. Kids see that, they get plenty of examples in the world around them that that’s the way to handle problems.

I’ve got two children, a son who is 21 and a daughter who is almost 19, both at UCLA. They’re great. I say that because that’s what I feel when I see them. I’ve been really lucky. It’s pretty scary with what you see out there, but in my own family I’ve been very fortunate.

I believe the family is like a mobile. If you take a mobile and touch one part of it, then the whole thing moves. If there’s a problem within a family, then it spills over and affects everyone connected to that problem.