Undue Influence, Involuntary Servitude and Brainwashing: A More Consistent , Interests-Based Approach
![handle is hein.journals/lla25 and id is 523 raw text is: UNDUE INFLUENCE, INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE AND
BRAINWASHING: A MORE CONSISTENT,
INTERESTS-BASED APPROACH
I. INTRODUCTION
A psychotherapeutic community located in New York City's Up-
per West Side believes that parent-child bonds... are the root of all evil
and the mainspring of psychological maladjustment.' Accordingly,
parents who are excessively demonstrative towards their children may
have their babies taken from them for foster parenting or adoption by
other members of the group.2 Thereafter, parents' subsequent contact
with their children may be limited to closely supervised visits where the
parents may see the child but physical contact is forbidden.3 Would any
parent, absent the psychotherapeutic community's influence, ever con-
sent to such an arrangement?
Two mentally retarded men are found laboring on a farm in poor
health, in squalid conditions and isolated from the rest of society.4 At
trial, the evidence shows that the two men worked seven days a week,
often 17 hours a day, at first for 15 dollars per week and eventually for no
pay.5 One of the men had lived and worked on the farm for sixteen
years; the other victim had been there more than ten years.6
The use of coercion7 and persuasion8 to influence another for a spe-
cific purpose is prevalent in our society. Coercive persuasion occurs
when one is persuaded to do something that, but for the influence or
coercion, one would not have chosen to do.' In effect, when one is per-
1. Randy F. Kandel, Litigating the Cult-Related Child Custody Case, 5 CULTIC STUD. J.,
no. 1, at 122, 123 (1988).
2. Id.
3. Id.
4. United States v. Kozminski, 487 U.S. 931, 934 (1988).
5. Id. at 935.
6. Id.
7. Coercion is the act of compel[ling] by force, intimidation, or authority, especially
without regard for individual desire or volition, or the act of dominat[ing] or control[ling],
especially by exploiting fear [or] anxiety. RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE 286 (1979).
8. Persuasion is the act of prevail[ing] on (a person) to do something, as by advising [or]
urging. Id. at 1076.
9. Richard Delgado, Religious Totalism: Gentle and Ungentle Persuasion Under the First
Amendment, 51 S. CAL. L. REv. 1, 5-6 (1977) [hereinafter Delgado, Religious Totalism].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lla25&div=21&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Undue Influence, Involuntary Servitude and Brainwashing: A More Consistent , Interests-Based Approach
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