My name is Mark Vissente. I'm a director, producer, writer, and troublemaker. I'm most known as the director of the film What the Gleap Do We Know, and as one of the next-in whistleblowers featured in the HBO series, The Vow. Let's just say, I know a thing or two about cults. I don't consider myself a cult expert, but I'm definitely an expert in being screwed over, waking up, and

knowing how to spot them.

And let me tell you, they're everywhere.

My mission is to help people see patterns of abuse across multiple contexts.

From personal to family, to group to societal, it's all the same pattern at every scale.

As you'll hear, I have a pretty salty approach to most things.

So there might be some blasphemy.

One or two sacred cows might get knocked over, and there'll likely be some foul language.

You never quite know what you're going to get, because it really does depend on what the

fuck is on my mind.

Hello, everybody.

Welcome back. Today on WTF is on my mind. Hello, everybody. Welcome back.

Today on WTF is on my mind.

I'm talking to Dr. Peter Salerno, a retired licensed psychotherapist with a doctorate

in clinical psychology who spent decades studying personality disorders,

pathological abuse, and complex trauma.

He's trained in administering the hair psychopathy checklist,

has worked extensively with survivors of coercive relationships, and coined the term traumatic

cognitive dissonance to describe the paralyzing confusion so many victims experience under the

gaslighting and control. You may also have seen him in the Hulu series, Ted Bundy, falling for a killer,

where he shared insights into psychopathy and the psychology of predators. Dr. Salerno is an

author of multiple books and is known for challenging mainstream ideas about narcissism and

...