Circle of Power, also known as Mystique, Brainwash and The Naked Weekend, is a 1981 drama thriller film, co-produced by Gary Mehlman, Anthony Quinn and Jeffrey White, and based on the nonfiction book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled.

[2] As an aspiring young junior executive who is up for a promotion to vice-president, Jack concludes he and Lyn must take the training or he won’t be considered for advancement.

These executives (all of whom are men) and their wives are required to spend a weekend with Bianca and her training staff at a luxury resort where they are put under increasing psychological pressure.

The next day the training begins when the white cane wielding Bianca, flanked by brawny assistants, explains the goal is “Designed to free them from themselves.

She compels him to strip naked, accept a harsh paddling, enter a cage and be force-fed discarded food from the trash.

The women’s group shows them being yelled at, slapped around (Lyn receives an especially heavy blow) and humiliated by trainer Jordan Carelli, who confronts and berates them for their failures as wives and mothers to “…relieve people of their hang-ups”.

Jack and Lyn decide to escape, but they are caught by Bianca and the other participants (many who sport bruises but are now enthusiastic acolytes) and taken to the room where Ted remains tied to a cross.

But Jack then grabs Bianca, chokingly restrains her with the cane and declares the whole thing as a fraud that doesn’t work because no one has changed: Buddy is still gorging on sneaked food and Ben is still secretly drinking.

Ebert compared it to events reported in Boston newspapers about a man who died during a seminar, commenting: "Art anticipates life."