Margaret Singer

Margaret Thaler Singer (July 29, 1921 – November 23, 2003) was an American clinical psychologist and researcher with her colleague Lyman Wynne on family communication. She was a prominent figure in the study of undue influence in social and religious contexts, and a proponent of the brainwashing theory of cults.

Singer's main areas of research included schizophrenia, family therapy, brainwashing and coercive persuasion. In the 1960s, she began to study the nature of social and religious group influence and brainwashing, and sat as a board member of the American Family Foundation and as an advisory board member of the Cult Awareness Network. She was the co-author of the book Cults in Our Midst.

Singer was born in Denver, Colorado, to Margaret McDonough Thaler and Raymond Willard Thaler. Her mother was a secretary to a federal judge and her father was chief operating engineer at the US Mint. While attending the University of Denver, she played cello in the Denver Civic Symphony. She received her Bachelor of Arts in speech and a Master of Science in speech pathology and special education from the University of Denver. Singer received her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in clinical psychology from the University of Denver in 1943.

After obtaining her PhD in clinical psychology, Singer worked at the University of Colorado's School of Medicine's department of psychiatry for eight years. In 1953, she started working at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she specialized in studying the returned prisoners of war who had been brainwashed by their captors into denouncing the United States and supporting North Korea and China.

In the scientific community, Singer was best known and respected for her studies in schizophrenia and family therapy. She conducted research with the National Institute of Mental Health, the United States Air Force, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Singer was a guest lecturer of psychology at University of California, Berkeley, from 1964 to 1991, and she served as a faculty member and lecturer at other University of California campuses as well as the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the University of Rochester, and other institutions.

Singer's work on family communication won her a place as one of the pioneers in the developing field of family therapy. As noted in one obituary, her collaboration with Lyman Wynne was particularly important.

Singer began to study brainwashing in the 1950s at Walter Reed in Washington, DC, where she interviewed United States soldiers who had been taken prisoner during the Korean War. Beginning in the late 1960s, she expanded her studies in the field of cults and published a number of articles on mind control ("psychological coercion") and similar areas. She developed theories about how cults recruit and retain members (such as her Theory of Systematic Manipulation of Social and Psychological Influence) and was on the board of many of the major anti-cult groups and organizations in the United States. At one point, Singer interviewed Charles Manson.

By the 1970s, Singer was a leading researcher in the field of psychosomatic medicine, and became the first female and first psychologist President of the American Psychosomatic Society in 1974. She also served as a member of the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute review board and the American Family Foundation board.