Steven Alan Hassan (pronounced /hæsən/; born 1954) is an American mental health professional and author who specializes in the area of cults.

[3] At age 19, while pursuing a poetry degree at Queens College, Hassan was recruited into the Unification Church,[4] and spent 27 months as a member.

[8] He said that he believed Richard Nixon was an archangel and that, during the Watergate scandal, he and other members of the church engaged in prayer and fasting to "prove their loyalty to the president".

[4] In 1976, after working for two full days without sleep, Hassan fell asleep while driving, resulting in a serious automobile accident that required medical care.

Feeling shame at his gullibility and guilt for his recruitment of others, he decided to "dedicate his life to studying cults and developing strategies to help their members escape.

[14]: 166, 171–4  In Combatting Cult Mind Control (1988), Hassan writes that although "the non-coercive approach will not work in every case, it has proved to be the option most families prefer.

[6] In Combatting Cult Mind Control he describes his own recruitment as the result of the unethical use of powerful psychological influence techniques by members of the church.

[20] Hassan's view of the dangers of charismatic leadership is echoed by some scholars with backgrounds in psychology and psychiatry, such as Robert Jay Lifton and Anthony Storr, who raise serious questions about the potential for harm in groups controlled by leaders with pathological personality traits.

[21] While acknowledging the validity of the concern, Religious Studies Professor Eugene V. Gallagher is critical of the lack of specificity as to when such questions might appropriately be raised.

According to Gallagher, such generalization cultivates mistrust of all non-conventional religious leaders and groups, and disregards the great variety of leadership forms found in new religions.

[22] The author compares Donald Trump's behaviour to that of Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, and Sun Myung Moon, and expresses the hope that the book will lessen political division.

[23] Its loose usage of the word "cult" led to initial dismissal and criticism, but following January 6 United States Capitol attack interest in Hassan's work in this field increased.

[27][28] Hassan's definition of "cult-like behavior" was described by the magazine Slate as "particularly wide ranging"; on a blog posting he once compared the British royal family's treatment of Meghan Markle to a cult, saying that "any organization willing to maintain its public image by sacrificing the well-being of its members relies on many of the same psychological theories and tactics used by authoritarian cults."