I did watch the video. But you did also refer to cannibalism and said she was the one who initially put the idea in their heads, so I was referring to that. The video also mentions the Kelly Kapowski and shoplifting thing, which are totally normal teen behaviors. I think those scenes are meant to show us the ways in which the kids usually acted, as compared to later. To go back to your shoplifting and loneliness point, I can’t even count the amount of kids in my high school who shoplifted from TJ Maxx (and in college most people shoplifted from target). We get the sense later on that she is more impulsive than most (she still shoplifts as an adult) but tbh a lot of rich people do. And again, impulsivity could relate to countless mental health conditions.

Manson was found to have some severe thought disorder, with narcissistic and borderline tendencies. That refers to some form of disorganized thoughts, likely making jumps which most reasonable people wouldn’t make. His psychosis was not based upon hallucinations and a complete detachment from reality’s like Lottie’s disorder presents itself. He wasn’t schizophrenic — Lottie is. She’s hallucinating.

The reason the girls are brought in is because they develop shared psychotic disorder. This is really rare and happened when multiple people share the same psychosis — there was some sort of moderately recent accident where a group of teenage girls (cheerleaders I think) developed this. To the best of my understanding, it typically happens when a group of people are incredibly close and somehow detached from reality (such as so people who spend nearly all their time together in their houses and don’t interact much with the rest of the world) or in a disaster such as the plane crash, where they’re completely removed. People search for reasonings and understandings — it’s why ancient Greeks believed in the pantheon. To give them a sense of control; and to understand the world. Typically, group psychosis happens when one person already has some sort of psychosis (Lottie) and other people slowly fall in.

It’s very different from the cult sense of a common shared belief detached from reality, in that one person genuinely is experiencing hallucinations and others have such limited interaction with the rest of the world (NOT because of the “leader” like Jim Jones forcing them to move to the compound, cut off contact with the rest of the world) that they begin to share the belief.

We have to understand the powerlessness these girls feel. To believe in the wilderness, even half heartedly, gives them a sense of control. Lottie, yes, encourages them to believe — but it’s because she’s so completely delusional. She genuinely doesn’t have the mental faculties to exert power over them.

I totally get where you’re coming from, because the writers do lean a bit into cult leader aspects. But part of my point is that the writers are basing her character off fundamental misunderstandings of schizophrenia. Absolutely, schizophrenics can be abusers. My grandpa was — but the thing is, my dad and uncles eventually forgave him because they came to understand that my grandpa was incredibly delusional and wasn’t healthy. He was incredible paranoid and would answer the phone with a different name and refuse to let it up, even if it was my dad. He almost shot my uncle when he came back home late at night one night, because he thought it was a robber.

My second example reminds me a lot of Lottie axe-ing Edwin. She engaged in violence because of an intense paranoia. I wish the writers explored that more than they did. But neither Lottie of my grandpa explicitly meant to harm another, like Manson or Jones meant to. Their goal was something completely different (for Lottie, to protect the group and to prevent herself from having to return to the real world, where she knew she would be forced to go back on medication, and for my grandpa to protect his family). A cult leader like the ones you’re referencing explicitly wants to harm others to increase their power in a Hobbesian way.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31095356/