The role of network therapy in the treatment of relational disorders: Cults and folie a deux

This article discusses the successful outcome of a network intervention in a case of cult-involvement andfolie a deux. The intervention, specifically designed to help a family in which one member had become involved with an individual who claimed to be the Messiah—an involvement that entailed the exclusion and alienation of all other family members—used a team of network specialists and consisted of a pre-network planning meeting, the network meeting itself which included approximately 70 persons over four hours, and several follow-up meetings with network subgroups.