As part of my degree in Theatre and Social Change, I started researching cultish behaviour and it's presence in the Musical Theatre industry. As part of this, I developed a diagnostic tool called the Cultish Behaviour Quotitent or the CBQ to be used for this study and beyond.

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ABSTRACT

This paper examines if cultish behaviour is present in the musical theatre industry, looking specifically at drama schools and industry settings. While both drama school and industry settings showed a high presence of cultish behaviour it affected demographics differently and was more harmful in drama school settings. Utilising the Cultish Behaviour Quotitent (CBQ), a diagnostic tool developed for this study, it was found that conditions for thought reform could exist within drama school settings.
Incorporating qualitative and quantitative data from the CBQ and other online sources, this study demonstrates that is possible to not only develop an initial diagnostic tool but to use it on a large scale to explore the effects of totalistic behaviour within industry cultures.

Keywords: cults, cultish, abuse, musical theatre, cultish behaviour, drama schools, diagnostic tool, CBQ.

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Triggers

This paper contains in-depth discussions of ableism, abuse, abuse of minors, cults, dissociation, eating disorders, mental health, racism, self-harm, sexism, the sexualisation of minors, and transphobia.