As I've mentioned on the board before, I am still inside (for now) hopefully until I can get my children to start thinking more on their own. One way I have been coping with all the ridiculous nonsense around me is to see and treat the cult personality as the child it is. Realizing that has helped me to understand how intelligent, articulate people remain as cult members. It is the child inside them (albeit maybe a Chucky-style child sometimes) that takes control over them.
When I am around JW's I speak their language much I like I change my style of speaking with children. I use terminology they understand. Also, realizing that children live in a fantasy world. I understand that children believe in fantasy characters, like Santa Claus, and cannot tell the difference between Mr. Rogers, a real live man, and Bert and Ernie, pretend men. Isn't that the way it is with JW's? To them Adam and Eve are as real as Brad and Angelina. As with children, the cult personality cannot discern the difference between reality and the stories they've been told.
And like children, the cult personality needs to be told what to do at every step. Young children look up to and idolize their parents. They do not yet see their faults and weaknesses. The sun rises and sets on their parents. So it is with the cult personality and the organization and it's GB. Have you ever smiled at a young child and they recoil in fear? It is because they have been told by mom and dad to fear strange people, so even though you mean no harm, they cannot discern that for themselves yet, and fear the unknown. Same with JW's. The child-like cult person has been told to fear apostates, worldly people, anything not approved by it's 'parents'.
Maybe we all have this childlike part of us; after all most people believe in God; they want some fantasies to hang onto. I think the difference with JW's is that the child overtakes them, becomes the dominant part of who they are. Every now and then the adult comes out and starts warring with the child, and that is the easiest way that I understand what cognitive dissonance is.
I know this is a simplified understanding of a very complex behavioral dysfunction. But sometimes it helps me cope with being in the WT world. I look around and see 'children' with bad parents, who are truly abused.