Steven Hassan's BITE Model
Updated: Oct 18, 2019
For the past many months, I have spent a lot of time processing the difficult experiences I have faced the past ten years. After studying Hassan's BITE model thoroughly, I have come to a strong understanding of the manipulation I faced and ultimately escaped from.
Steven Hassan, an American mental-health counselor, developed the BITE model back in 1988 to help combat cult-like mindsets, and it has helped hundreds of thousands of people to become alert of the systemic use of these manipulative tactics.
BITE stands for Behavior Control, Information Control, Thought Control, and Emotional Control. These are the four major areas that manipulative leaders use to control their constituents, and each of them are incredibly damaging for a wild number of reasons.
Since June 2019, I have been diving deeply into Hassan's research and discovering a lot about these tactics that have existed in my own life in various areas, since my childhood until as recent as today. I have written extended articles on all four parts of the BITE model, and this post will serve as a hub to access all of them. Please enjoy, and I hope that it informs and educates you as much as did for me.
THE DANGER OF BEHAVIOR CONTROL
THE DANGER OF INFORMATION CONTROL
THE DANGER OF THOUGHT CONTROL
THE DANGER OF EMOTIONAL CONTROL
For further study and information, you can go to this Steven Hassan post from 2016 that is incredibly helpful, or you can even check out his book titled Combating Cult Mind Control which is where Hassan goes into detail about the BITE model for the first time.
We live in a world today where lots of powerful people will do whatever it takes to control and manipulate you however they can. Let us stay educated and alert to these real dangers that exist, so we can better combat them in future scenarios.