deprogram
Deprogramming is a term that was much in the news in the US in the 1970s; it referred to a strategy for wresting people from the grasp of certain suspect religious groups. Deprogramming often involved kidnapping the subject, and it usually involved forced detention. The idea was to “deprogram” the subject of the religious faith believed to have been “programmed” into the individual via alleged “brainwashing.” Deprogramming ceased in the 1990s when Jason Scott, a member of a Pentecostal church, sued Rick Ross and the Cult Awareness Network for his abduction to “deprogram” him and won the case. Now the anticult movement relies on “exit counseling,” which involves voluntary participation.