Prosecution to call famed psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner as expert witness to prove NXIVM is ‘cult-like’!
The prosecution in the case against Keith Raniere Et Al plans to call psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner as an expert witness to help establish that Nxivm compares closely to other “cult-like operations.”
Dr. Welner, a clinical and forensic psychiatrist and Chairman of The Forensic Panel, has acted as lead forensic psychiatric examiner in numerous prominent criminal proceedings.
According to the prosecution’s filing, Dr. Welner is going to testify about how the actions of Raniere and the other Nxivm/DOS co-defendants compare to practices of other cult-like groups and how such actions – including abuse of the teacher-student dynamic – facilitate financial and sexual exploitation.
These practices include:
Using aggressive recruiting tactics to lure recruits and foster their dependence.
Grooming the moral and value systems of members to conform with the objectives of the organization.
Undermining their senses of self in order to submit to control and exploitation.
Cultivating total deference and grooming towards a charismatic leader who has no accountability;
Leveraging emotional vulnerability and intimate trust to control follower.
Creating extreme power imbalances.
Not tolerating dissent – and emotionally manipulating followers to remain absolutely obedient through an accusatory atmosphere in which betrayal is suspected and charged; withholding their connection to a group on which they are dependent; and shunning.
Isolating members from friends and family.
Demonizing critics as “suppressives”.
Shunning defectors.
Limiting the beliefs, behaviors and emotions that members are allowed to exhibit.
Creating financial dependence.
Gathering compromising material on members and exploiting it to create compliance out of fear.
Controlling the emotional attachments of members.
Controlling the sex lives of members.
Among the notable cases that Dr. Welner has been prominently involved in are:
State of New York vs. Pedro Hernandez – Etan Patz disappearance and murder
U.S. vs. Brian David Mitchell – Elizabeth Smart kidnappers
State vs. Byran Uyesugi – Mass murder
State of Alabama vs. Harvey Updyke – Sports and culture
State of Texas vs. Andrea Yates – Insanity and child killing
State of Louisiana vs. Damon Thibodeaux – Disputed confessions
State of Kansas vs. Cheever – Death penalty
U.S. vs. Omar Khadr – Terrorism and War
Dr. Welner has also consulted to courts or examined perpetrators on numerous mass shooting and attempted mass shooting cases, including Colorado’s James Holmes, NBC gunman William Tager, corrections officer George Banks, who killed 13, Tavares Calloway, and bias-hatred mass shooters Richard Baumhammers, Ronald Taylor, and Ronald Crumpley.
Dr. Welner has been featured in network television news coverage of forensic psychiatry issues and authored numerous publications for professional and public audiences.
https://frankreport.com/2019/02/26/prosecution-to-call-psychiatrist-dr-michel-welner-as-expert-witness-to-prove-nxivm-is-cult-like/