Margaret Singer

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Margaret Singer : biography

1921 – November 23, 2003

Expert witness

She testified, with variable success, as an expert witness on mind control in numerous trials in the 1980s. She gave evidence at the 1976 trial of Patty Hearst, who had previously been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Singer interviewed more than 3,000 cult members, and assisted in over 200 court cases. She testified at the 1977 hearing for five young members of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church when their parents requested external help for them., San Francisco Chronicle, November 25, 2003.

An article by J. Gordon Melton examines her court testimonies, noting ways these build on and differ from her professional publications and expands from general assertions of social influence within "cults" to a more robust "Singer hypothesis" which leads directly to a "robot theory" of brainwashing. on CESNUR web page. Retrieved April 1, 2001.

At one point, Singer interviewed Charles Manson., The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice, Spring/Summer 2004 Volume 3., Number 1., by Scott O. Lilienfield, Emory University Singer played a role in the trial of Kenneth Bianchi, in the "Hillside Strangler" case. Singer concluded that Bianchi had faked symptoms of multiple personality disorder, in order to escape responsibility for the murders of several women in Los Angeles. Later, she guested on PBS Frontline, speaking about the trial, in a special show entitled: "The Mind of a Murderer." Singer asserted that Bianchi was a psychopath, and stated: "He may simply be evil."

Her expert testimony was no longer accepted after the report of the APA taskforce on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control, of which she was chair, was rejected by the Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP) of the American Psychological Association. Thereafter, courts shifted to accepting the position held by the great majority of scholars studying new religious movements, moving away from the perspective of Singer and others sympathetic to her brainwashing thesis. This had significant consequences later on, since it meant that brainwashing could no longer be used a defence for the practice of deprogramming.

Professional associations

Margaret Singer was a leading researcher in the field of psychosomatic medicine, and was made President of the American Psychosomatic Society in 1974. She was the first female and first psychologist president of the Society Singer, ‘Psychosomatic Medicine’, Vol. 36, No. 1

She also served as a board member of the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute Review Board and the American Family Foundation., San Francisco Chronicle, November 25, 2003

Singer served on President Gerald Ford’s Biomedical Research Panel.

Singer was very active in the fields of communication and family therapy and for eight years; a member of the Board of Directors of Family Process.

She was also co-creator of FACTNet and served on their advisory board., Descriptive page, FACTnet.

In 2001, Singer appeared on a panel on pseudoscientific therapies organized by Scott O. Lilienfeld of Emory University. The panel discussion was held in San Francisco, California, at the 2001 Conference of the American Psychological Association.

DIMPAC task force

In the early 1980s, some U.S. mental health professionals became well-known figures due to their involvement as expert witnesses in court cases against groups they considered to be cults. In their testimony they presented theories of brainwashing, mind control, or coercive persuasion to support the legal positions of former group members against their former groups.

The American Psychological Association (APA) in 1983 asked Singer, who was one of the leading proponents of coercive persuasion theories, to chair a taskforce to investigate whether brainwashing or "coercive persuasion" did indeed play a role in recruitment by such groups. The task force was titled APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control (DIMPAC).