Premium
SCIENTOLOGY “ETHICS”: DEVIANCE, IDENTITY AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN A CULT‐LIKE SOCIAL WORLD
Author(s) -
Straus Roger
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1986.9.1.67
Subject(s) - deviance (statistics) , symbolic interactionism , sociology , social control , social psychology , individualism , contradiction , criminology , social identity theory , social identity approach , social science , epistemology , gender studies , social group , psychology , law , political science , philosophy , statistics , mathematics
Qualitative research at the macrosocial level can be facilitated by examining the more fully articulated social worlds existing within advanced societies. Based on the author's field research, Scientology's structure, culture, and comparability to American capitalist society are discussed and “Ethics,” its institution of social control, is shown to involve a paradigm in which conduct flows from social identity and deviance is defined in terms of a progression of stages of identity loss through reference group confusion. A hypothetical case shows how each stage is treated through specific intervention formula designed to reverse the process. “Ethics” is shown to closely parallel symbolic interactionist theories of deviance. Its differences from symbolic interactionism are ascribed to the inherent contradiction between the individualistic and system‐centered orientations permeating American capitalist society.