Benjamin Zablocki

Benjamin David Zablocki (January 19, 1941 – April 6, 2020) was an American professor of sociology at Rutgers University where he taught sociology of religion and social psychology. He published widely on the subject of charismatic religious movements, cults, and brainwashing.

Early life and education Born in Brooklyn, New York on January 19, 1941, Zablocki received his B.A. in mathematics from Columbia University in 1962 and his Ph.D. in social relations from the Johns Hopkins University in 1967, where he studied with James S. Coleman.

Career Zablocki was the Sociology department chair at Rutgers University. He published widely on the sociology of religion.

Zablocki defined a cult as “an ideological organization held together by charismatic relationships and demanding total commitment” and advocated what he termed “the brainwashing hypothesis.” Other scholars, Zablocki noted, commonly mistake brainwashing for both a recruiting and a retaining process, when it is merely the latter. This misunderstanding enables critics of brainwashing to set up a straw-man, and thereby unfairly criticize the phenomenon of brainwashing. Zablocki further alleged that brainwashing has been unfairly "blacklisted" from the academic journals of sociology of religion, and such blacklisters receive funding from alleged cults and engage in corrupt practices.

Death Zablocki died April 6, 2020, at the age of 79, of cancer. His last words were "I love you, I love you, Ice Cream."

Selected works Books The Joyful Community: An Account of the Bruderhof: A Communal Movement Now in Its Third Generation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1971, reissued 1980) Alienation and Charisma: A Study of Contemporary American Communes. New York: The Free Press. (1980) Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2001. w/ Thomas Robbins (Eds.)

Articles

"The Birth and Death of New Religious Movements” (ca. 2005) “Ethics and the Modern Guru” (ca. 2016), an interview on brainwashing