Yes, Metatron, it's all about isolation...
When I was first researching cults, that was one thing that I noticed - though the Watchtower Corporation doesn't actually LOCK people away in compounds, they are VERY SUCCESSFUL at isolating them from the real world...
Many people that I spoke with, at the time, couldn't understand my recognition of the Jehovah's Witnesses as a cult - Jonestown had happened just a few years previously, and it was so horrific - and the members were so totally cut off - that "worldly" people couldn't understand what I was seeing as 'cultish' within the Watchtower Corporation's methods..
But they are EXTREMELY effective at isolating people, and I think you hit the nail on the head with your opening post, Metatron - it's all about ISOLATION, ISOLATION, ISOLATION - which then renders the recruit vulnerable to the subsequent CONTROL....
Zid