Personality in a Religious Commune: CPIs in Rajneeshpuram

Religious Conversion and Personality Change

“…Similar conclusions come from the extensive research program of Sundberg, Latkin, and others on the Rajneesh group that was located in eastern Oregon for several years (Latkin, 1987(Latkin, , 1989(Latkin, , 1990(Latkin, , 1991(Latkin, , 1992(Latkin, , 1993Latkin, Hagan, Littman, & Sundberg, 1987;Latkin, Littman, Sundberg, & Hagan, 1993;Sundberg, Goldman, Rotter, & Smyth, 1992;Sundberg, Latkin, Littman, & Hagan, 1990; see Richardson, 1995, for a summary of this research). Over 1,000 members of the group were administered various instruments during the course of this research.…”

“…Instead, they brought their well-formed personalities with them into the group, and enacted new values through them while there. Sundberg et al (1990) and Richardson (1995) reach the same conclusion-that certain personalities were attracted to the group rather than formed by it.…”

Clinical and Personality Assessment of Participants in New Religions

“…Latkin (1987), in his dissertation, reported another set of responses of 232 participants to a number of personality inventories, some of which are also discussed in Latkin (1989Latkin ( , 1990. Sundberg et al (1990) reported results of administering the California Psychological Inventory to 67 members; Sundberg et al (1992) reported on administrations of the Thematic Apperception Test to Rajneesh members who had been high achievers prior to participating, as well as to a matched sample of nonparticipants in new religions. Follow-up work has been done, as well, on former Rajneeshpuram residents after that site disbanded (Latkin, 1993;., in press) that will be briefly d i s c~s s e d .~ Participants in this group differed somewhat from typical participants in the new religions reviewed earlier (Richardson, 1985b).…”

“…Included in this article are the follow-up done on the Jesus Movement group studied in the 1970s research (Taslimi, Hood, & Watson, 1991), as well as research done on the Rajneesh group while located in Oregon (Latkin, 1987(Latkin, , 1989(Latkin, , 1990(Latkin, , 1991(Latkin, , 1992(Latkin, , 1993Latkin, Hagan, Littman, & Sundberg, 1987;Latkin, Littman, Sundberg, & Hagan, 1993;Latkin, Sundberg, Littman, Katsikis, & Hagan, in press;Palmer & Bird, 1992;Sundberg, Goldman, Rotter, & Smyth, 1992;~alanter recently updated his position on the relief effect (1978) in a provocative but well-received book (1989b), as well as editing a collection for the American Psychiatric Association on the topic of new religions and cults (1989a). Hagan, 1990), and the much-publicized Hare Krishna (Poling & Kenny, 1986;Ross, 1983aRoss, , 1983bRoss, , 1985aRoss, , 1985bWeiss, 1985Weiss, , 1987Weiss & Comprey, 1987a, 1987b, 1987cWeiss & Mendoza, 1990). The Rajneesh and Hare Krishna groups have been involved in considerable controversy (Richardson, 1990(Richardson, ,1991, making that research especially relevant.…”

Pitfalls and pratfalls in research on an experimental community: Lessons in integrating theory and practice from the Rajneeshpuram research project

“…The findings of the study have been reported in more detail in Latkin, 1989, Sundberg, 1987, andHagan, 1990. The data presented here were from standard psychological inventories, and although this paper emphasizes qualitative methodology, the quantitative results were an integral dimension of the research.…”