Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
Why do some groups — from religious sects to fitness studios to multilevel-marketing schemes — inspire such fervent, sometimes dangerous devotion? In Cultish, the linguist Amanda Montell argues that the answer lies less in brainwashing or charisma than in language: the specialised words, loaded jargon, chants, mantras, and thought-terminating clichés that cults and cultish communities use to build belonging and shut down doubt.
Ranging from notorious groups like Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, and Scientology to the everyday "cultish" language of SoulCycle, CrossFit, start-up culture, and Instagram wellness influencers, Montell shows how the same linguistic techniques operate on a spectrum. She examines how "us versus them" vocabulary, euphemism, and repetition can bind people together and quietly reshape how they think — for better as well as for worse.
Written in a brisk, witty, pop-culture-literate voice, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism is an accessible work of linguistics and cultural criticism. It leaves readers newly alert to the persuasive power of the words used all around them, and better equipped to notice when belonging tips over into manipulation.
Cultish was a finalist for the 2021 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Nonfiction (the award went to John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed that year) and was named among several outlets' best books of 2021. It has not won a major literary prize.
Cultish is primarily a work of linguistic and cultural analysis, not a memoir, though Amanda Montell weaves in some personal material — her father was once part of Synanon, one of the groups she examines. The bulk of the book draws on reporting and research into groups ranging from Jonestown and Heaven's Gate to SoulCycle and multilevel-marketing companies.