Beyond Brainwashing: Self-Exploitation, Collective Effervescence, and the Achievement-Discipline Circuit in the Disposable Church

This conceptual working paper develops the achievement-discipline circuit, a framework introduced in Disposable Church (2026) for explaining how high-demand religious institutions can extract labor, time, money, and endurance without relying on a simple brainwashing model. Bringing Max Weber, Byung-Chul Han, Michel Foucault, and Émile Durkheim into conversation, the paper argues that religious organizations can mobilize existing achievement drives, sacralize self-exploitation, renew commitment through collective effervescence, and channel that energy through disciplinary systems. It also critiques Steven Hassan’s BITE Model for insufficiently distinguishing authoritarian control from ordinary social influence, collective enthusiasm, and willing overcommitment.