News
Recaps, panels, and calls to action from past campaigns — a running record of what ICAM has covered since 2022. 2026 updates will post here as they happen throughout August.
This year’s campaign
A preview of this year’s blog posts, color-coded by week — each will get its own live post as it publishes throughout August.
Week 1 Kickoff: What Is Psychological Manipulation?
Defining the mechanics of psychological manipulation — the first, most invisible layer of coercive control.
Read the post →The Psychology of Belonging
How ordinary connection can curdle into control: welcome, trust, expectation, obedience, entrapment.
Read the post →Myth: Cult Members Can't Think for Themselves
Manipulation exploits situational pressure, not intelligence — susceptibility spans every level of education and cognitive ability.
Read the post →Week 2 Kickoff: What Isolation & Control Looks Like
How influence narrows a person's world until one voice is the only one left.
Publishing Aug 10Cutting Ties: How Isolation Escalates
The practical steps groups use to narrow a member's world, one small ask at a time.
Publishing Aug 14The Information Diet: Controlling What Members See and Hear
Restricted media, monitored communication, and discouraged outside reading as tools of isolation.
Publishing Aug 15Week 3 Kickoff: How Financial Control Takes Hold
How dependency gets built and enforced through money — and why it's so hard to walk away from.
Publishing Aug 17Tithing, Fees, and "Investments": How Money Becomes Control
Common financial mechanisms — mandatory tithing, escalating fees, group "investments" — that build dependency.
Publishing Aug 20Sexual Coercion: A Hidden Form of Control
Naming sexual coercion as a distinct but related dimension of coercive control — control disguised as consent.
Publishing Aug 22Week 4 Kickoff: When Groups Turn Members Against Family
How coercive groups reframe outside family as a threat to belonging.
Publishing Aug 24How to Reconnect with Estranged Family
Practical guidance for families trying to rebuild contact with a loved one who has distanced themselves.
Publishing Aug 27Building Safer Communities
Connecting family-level repair to community-level prevention.
Publishing Aug 29From past campaigns
Recaps, panels, and calls to action from ICAM’s past campaigns — now archived here on the site, going back to 2022.
Breaking the Stigma: Exploring Cults Across Cultures
Discussing and exploring the impact of cults across cultures, featuring insights on myths, recruitment tactics, and prevention.
Read the article →
#ICAM2024 Web Panel — Discuss Policy and Cults: A How-To Guide
The Freedom Train Project hosted a web panel, led by Dr. Tabitha Chapman, discussing public policy and cults and the need for tailored interventions to support survivors.
Read the article →
Writing Your Representatives
Writing your representatives helps get your voice heard — including requesting that August be formally declared International Cult Awareness Month.
Read the article →
2024 International Cult Awareness Month: How to Get Involved
The 2024 campaign theme, “Policy and Cults,” focused on the role of policymaking, legal precedent, and community advocacy in supporting survivors.
Read the article →
International Cult Awareness Month: The BIG Why
Like Odysseus, ensnared by the song of the Sirens, victims of cults are often entrapped by coercion. International Cult Awareness Month is here to help.
Read the article →
How Do I Support the Strong Survivors During Cult Awareness Month?
Welcome to the inaugural International Cult Awareness Month — the campaign’s very first week, covering the basics of what cults are and how they operate.
Read the article →Have news, a press mention, or an event ICAM should cover? Contact us and we’ll take a look.
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If you or someone you know is currently in a coercive relationship or group, you don’t have to figure this out alone.
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