02/07/2026 15:00 - 17:10

HALL: Pola - A102

Contact: Berdowicz E.

Chair: Berdowicz E.

This panel invites contributions that critically examine the dark side of contemporary spirituality, focusing on situations in which religious commitment, spiritual practices, and charismatic authority become sources of harm rather than meaning or ethical guidance. Challenging idealized representations of spirituality, the panel addresses pathological dynamics emerging within religious groups and movements.


We explore phenomena such as spiritual abuse, toxic leadership, coercive control, moral manipulation, symbolic violence, and high-demand religious environments, with particular attention to how authority is constructed and legitimized through religious language, ritual practices, and moral narratives. The panel is especially interested in cognitive, discursive, and embodied mechanisms that sustain dependency, guilt, fear, or silence.


Contributions may address charismatic and entrepreneurial leadership, the economization of faith, narratives of disillusionment and exit, post-membership identity reconstruction, and processes of healing and resistance after leaving harmful religious contexts. The panel also foregrounds comparative and cross-cultural perspectives, alongside methodological reflections on researching sensitive topics, insider-outsider dynamics, and ethical challenges in the study of religious mediated suffering. Contributions are expected to be empirically grounded, theoretically informed, and interdisciplinary.