Margaret Singer

Margaret Thaler Singer is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She was educated at the University of Denver. Her stated field of expertise is cults, mind control ("psychological coercion") and similar areas, in which she has published prolifically and received a number of honors (Leo J. Ryan Memorial Award, Research Scientist Award, president of the American Psychosomatic Society).

She dominates anti-cult theory (such as her Theory of Systematic Manipulation of Social and Psychological Influence) and is on the board of the American Family Foundation, the major anti-cult group in the United States. She headed the Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control (DIMPAC) in 1987 for the APA, when her findings were rejected by the Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP) for "[lacking] the scientific rigor and evenhanded critical approach necessary" she sued the APA and lost in 1993. She testified, with variable success, on mind control in numerous trials in the 1980s and 1990s.

CESNUR - DIMPAC Report