RAMCOA is an acronym which stands for Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, and Organized Abuse. It is a term that survivors and some professional literature uses to categorize and explain experiences that are in a specific grouping away from other commonly recognized forms of trauma. This can be for a variety of reasons, one of which being the historical callousness people have held to the very existence of these kinds of experiences. This definition can be better broken down into it's three specific categories. 

The following breakdown may be triggering to some survivors- if this causes you to become triggered it may be best to look at other pages or go back to google.

Ritual Abuse
Ritual abuse is defined by a variety of characteristics. It is abuse that is done in accordance with (justified in the minds of the abusers by or done because of) or in order to force conformity to a belief or ideology. The ideology is typically supernatural, religious, or spiritual as well. However it can come in the form of conformity to specific secular thought. This can be preformed by one or multiple abusers- when it is multiple abusers that is when you may see overlap with Organized Abuse. More typically it is done by multiple abusers, however that is again- not required. Additionally this cannot just be a one off event. Abuse in the name of or in order to enforce an ideology must be repetitive to classify as RA.

Mind Control
Mind control typically is done in combination with RA. Not all cases of RA lead to MC but (according to our understanding) almost all cases of MC include RA. Mind control is also known as trauma/torture based mind control (TBMC). It can be done by one person or by a group. More commonly it is by a group or that one person has ties to a group that does this more systematically to a group of people. Here you can see our list of programs. Programs, in individuals with DID or OSDD type 1, can be system wide or in individual alters. As true with all RAMCOA this can also happen without a system. Another well known disorder that can develop due to this is OSDD-2. 

Organized Abuse
Organized abuse is abuse done by two or more people in a pre-meditated nature. The most well known forms of OA are things such as trafficking, gangs, cults, and human experimentation. However this can also happen in other situations. If someone has parents who have conspired purposefully together in order to do excessive harm to them- that can count as OA, if it is carried out in a purposeful pre-meditated nature. The abuse must be repeated (more than a few incidents) and sadistic/cruel- often going far enough to be considered torture. It does not need to be done in the name of any ideology and may just be done for personal gratification or sadism. This is almost always tied to sexual abuse- however sometimes this term is also used in reference to various experiences of sadistic premeditated abuse that does not ever become sexual in nature.