Remembering Cathy Cariotaki and the Stanford Prison Experiment

Cathy Cariotaki, someone I knew more than 30 years ago in Scientology’s Sea Organization and wrote about in “My Nine Lives in Scientology” has died of cancer at age 66. Cathy left the Sea Org 30 years ago and went on to living a successful life as a compassionate, caring person in the eyes of her many friends. However, one of the first things that comes up on a Google search of her name is my Scientology account which unfortunately portrays her as a harsh, rigid disciplinarian and cultist, so I wanted to write a few words to let people know who finds her name through such an internet search, that there was another side to Cathy, one that I never had the chance to know. Others who I greatly care for got to see this much more positive side to Cathy outside of her Scientology identity and although this is widely known among her many friends, an internet search bringing up my account of her could give people a different impression, so I feel the need to explain further.

About a year and a half ago, Cathy wrote to me and was furious with me for what I had written and embarrassed that her name was coming up on search engines (and in retrospect I can’t really blame her for being upset). She went straight into her Scientology personality and began hurling accusations at me replete with Scientology jargon that I was a “PC butcher” and other terminology that I hadn’t heard in years. I reacted very negatively to this and sent her an equally insulting e-mail back. Given that we can both be strong-willed, stubborn individuals at times, I regret not having taken the trouble to get beneath the surface of what was really going on and get to know the Cathy that so many people cared for, an opportunity I’ll now never have. I did want to let people know about that side to her, though. Many people knew Cathy to be a very caring and passionate individual who was a loyal and good friend to people who were also good friends of mine. As an example of this, towards the end of her life, she set up a fund to help people who had left Scientology’s Sea Organization and needed assistance to get back on her feet.

Reading Philip Zimbardo’s book The Lucifer Effect which describes in detail his Stanford Prison experiment (the “SPE”) has offered me some additional insight into what was going on between Cathy and I [I have some disagreements with parts of this book, but I’ll leave that for another time]. Cathy and I were both involved in what I consider Scientology Sea Org’s “prison” and the role she had there was the equivalent of a guard in Zimbardo’s SPE and my role was that of a “prisoner” – I especially identified with the “prisoner” known as Doug, #8612 – as I indicate in “My Nine Lives in Scientology”, like #8612, I was highly rebellious and broke down during the time I served in Scientology’s prison in a similar manner to Doug. [As an aside, like Doug, once I got out I was resilient and reading Doug’s debriefing account makes me wonder if I didn’t construct the situation surrounding my “break down” in much the same way he did where what was initially a construction became a reality.] In Zimbardo’s experiment, participants were randomly assigned to the roles of prisoners and guards whereas in Scientology it was not so random. Still, Cathy and I probably had more personality traits in common than either of us would have cared to admit and we ended up in our different Scientology “roles” largely due to context and circumstance. She got involved years earlier than I did and was with the “in” group in the Sea Org whereas I was always the rebellious person who walked in on the scene much later than she did and never quite fit in and never quite got with the program.

There was a passage in The Lucifer Effect where a young psychologist who visited the scene of the experiment, Christina Maslach (the woman who ultimately convinced Zimbardo to call a halt to the experiment), describes an encounter she had with one of the “guards” while he was not playing the role and was out of uniform. She describes him as a very pleasant and likeable person. However, once he got into his uniform and assumed the role of “guard” he assumed a persona of one of the most notorious and abusive, sadistic guards in the experiment who was given the title “John Wayne”, yet Christina had seen no trace of these traits in her previous conversation with him when he was not in the role. Once “John Wayne” left the experiment, he lived his life as a very decent, normal person who showed no sign of his aggressive sadistic behavior as a “guard”. In fact, both “John Wayne” and “Prisoner 8612” left their roles behind and went on to become good people who have made valuable contributions to society.

The SPE took place in August, 1971, two and a half years before L. Ron Hubbard created Scientology’s prison, known as the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) in January 1974. Like Stanford’s “prison”, people in Scientology’s RPF (and also people who were on Hubbard’s ship, the Apollo) were technically free to leave at any time, but as was the case with the SPE, it didn’t seem that way to many of us at the time we were involved in it because we would have to go through a lengthy process with Sea Org authorities to be given our passports (which they had) and released. In any case, it has occurred to me that just as the “John Wayne” SPE guard left the experiment and his guard personality behind, Cathy left the Sea Org and left much of the related persona I encountered behind and went on to life the life of a productive, caring person and good friend to many. For a brief and eerie instant, we were both taken back to our roles in the 70s when we clashed once again in our e-mail exchange 29 years later, but I want anyone who goes on line and finds her name in connection with mine in “My Nine Lives” to know that there was much more to Cathy than the way I portrayed her and through the accounts of those who knew and cared about her I am now convinced that the good far outweighed the bad and in the end, won out over her cult persona. I’m just sorry I never had the chance to know her.

Comments

[Tom Bartlett]

Hello;
During the late '50s and early '60s I attended the University of North Alabama (then Florence State College) with a student named Cathy Cariotaki. She was (I believe) an exchange student, majoring in English. She was fluent in several languages and spoke English without an accent. I attended several courses with her and found her to be extremely bright and interesting. We lost track of her soon after graduation, but her picture occurs several times in my college annual. Is there any chance we could be speaking of the same person? She also played guitar. We (her former classmates) would love to hear more details if possible.
Many Thanks,
Tom Bartlett

[Noah]

Hi Monica, I've searched your website for a contact email, but I'm unable to find one. I would like to send you and email. Could you please email me at noah at feelingbettercenter.com I changed the @ to at so that spammers will not be able to collect my email. If you could email me a message I will be able to email you back. I'm a mental health professional and want to talk to you outside of this public forum. Thanks, Noah :)