ABSTRACT
All survivors of trauma have post-traumatic responses, commonly called being “triggered”. For example, you walk past a man in the street who wears the same aftershave as the stepfather who sexually abused you, and you have a flashback of your abuser. That is a post-traumatic response, but not a programmed one. However, if you walk across the street in response to a deliberate signal from a cult member, that is a programmed response. It is still post-traumatic, as it is based on trauma, since some insiders fear being severely punished if they do not go to the cult person, but it is also deliberately trained.
