The term “crystal generation” has become prevalent in contemporary discourse to designate young people as emotionally fragile. Although it is used colloquially, in institutional contexts it can be transformed into a tool for emotional control, a mechanism described in depth by studies of social psychology and sectarian dynamics (Singer, 2003; Lalich & Tobias, 2006; Hassan, 2018).
At the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), this expression serves to exonerate the institution from responsibility for the psychological suffering of young members and to reinforce a system of vertical obedience, a dynamic widely documented in the literature on authoritarian organizations (Lifton, 1989; Barker, 1984).
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